presented to the 
 
 LIBRARY 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SAN DIF.GO 
 
 by 
 FRIENDS OF THE LIBRARY 
 
 Mrs. Marcela Cornish 
 
 donor
 
 WORKS OF FREDERICK SCHILLER. 
 
 CAMBRIDGE EDITION. -VOL. I. 
 
 THE 
 
 HISTORY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 THIRTY YEARS- WAR IN GERMANY. 
 
 TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN. 
 
 ILLUSTRATED. 
 
 Boston: 
 
 S. E. CASSINO AND COMPANY. 
 
 1884.
 
 PREFACE TO THE EDITION. 
 
 THE present is the best collected edition of the important 
 works of Schiller which is accessible to readers in the 
 English language. Detached poems or dramas have been 
 translated at various times since the first publication of 
 the original works ; and in several instances these versions 
 have been incorporated into this collection. 
 
 Schiller was not less efficiently qualified by nature for 
 an historian than for a dramatist. He was formed to 
 excel in all departments of literature, and the admirable 
 lucidity of style and soundness and impartiality of judg- 
 ment displayed in his historical writings will not easily 
 be surpassed, and will always recommend them as popular 
 expositions of the periods of which they treat. 
 
 Since the publication of the first English edition many 
 corrections and improvements have been made, with a 
 view to rendering it as acceptable as possible to English 
 readers ; and, notwithstanding the disadvantages of a 
 translation, the publishers feel sure that Schiller will be 
 heartily acceptable to English readers, and that the 
 influence of his writings will continue to increase. 
 
 THE HISTORY OF THE REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS 
 was translated by Lieut. E. B. Eastwick, and originally 
 published abroad for students' use. But this translation 
 was too strictly literal for general readers. It has been 
 carefully revised, and some portions have been entirely 
 rewritten by the Rev. A. J. W. Morrison, who also has so 
 ably translated the HISTORY OF THE THIRTY YEARS' 
 
 WAB. 
 
 iii
 
 IV PREFACE TO THE EDITION. 
 
 THE CAMP OF WALLENSTEIN was translated by Mr. 
 James Churchill, and first appeared in " Frazer's Maga- 
 zine." It is an exceedingly happy version of what has 
 always been deemed the most untranslatable of Schiller's 
 works. 
 
 THE PICCOLOMINI and DEATEI OF WALLENSTEIN are 
 the admirable version of S. T. Coleridge, completed by the 
 addition of all those passages which he has omitted, and 
 by a restoration of Schiller's own arrangement of the acts 
 and scenes. It is said, in defence of the variations which 
 exist between the German original and the version given 
 by Coleridge, that he translated from a prompter's copy 
 in manuscript, before the drama had been printed, and 
 that Schiller himself subsequently altered it, by omitting 
 some passages, adding others, and even engrafting several 
 of Coleridge's adaptations. 
 
 WILHELM TELL is translated by Theodore Martin, 
 Esq., whose well-known position as a writer, and whose 
 special acquaintance with German literature make any 
 recommendation superfluous. 
 
 DON CARLOS is translated by R. D. Boylan, Esq., and, in 
 the opinion of competent judges, the version is eminently 
 successful. Mr. Theodore Martin kindly gave some assist- 
 ance, and, it is but justice to state, has enhanced the value 
 of the work by his judicious suggestions. 
 
 The translation of MARY STUART is that by the late 
 Joseph Mellish, who appears to have been on terms of 
 intimate friendship with Schiller. His version was made 
 from the prompter's copy, before the play was published, 
 and, like Coleridge's Wallenstein, contains many passages 
 not found in the printed edition. These are distinguished 
 by brackets. On the other hand, Mr. Mellish omitted 
 many passages which now form part of the printed drama, 
 all of which are now added. The translation, as a whole,
 
 PREFACE TO THE EDITION. V 
 
 stands out from similar works of the time (1800) in almost 
 as marked a degree as Coleridge's Wallenstein, and some 
 passages exhibit powers of a high order; a few, however, 
 especially in the earlier scenes, seemed capable'of improve- 
 ment, and these have been revised, but, in deference to the 
 translator, with a sparing hand. 
 
 THE MAID OF ORLEANS is contributed by Miss Anna 
 Swanwick, whose translation of Faust has since become 
 well known. It has been cai-efully revised, and is now, 
 for the first time, published complete. 
 
 THE BRIDE OF MESSINA, which has been regarded as 
 the poetical masterpiece of Schiller, and, perhaps of all his 
 works, presents the greatest difficulties to the translator, 
 is rendered by A. Lodge, Esq., M. A. This version, on its 
 first publication in England, a few years ago, was received 
 with deserved eulogy by distinguished critics. To the 
 present edition has been prefixed Schiller's Essay on the 
 Use of the Chorus in Tragedy, in which the author's 
 favorite theory of the " Ideal of Art " is enforced with 
 great ingenuity and eloquence.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 BOOK I 5 
 
 II "... 85 
 
 177 
 
 . . . .271 
 
 . 319
 
 HISTORY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 THIRTY TEARS' WAR IN GERMANY. 
 
 BOOK I. 
 
 FROM the beginning of the religious wars in Germany to 
 the peace of Munster scarcely anything great or remark- 
 able occurred in the political world of Europe in which the 
 Reformation had not an important share. All the events 
 of this period, if they did not originate in, soon became 
 mixed up with, the question of religion, and no state was 
 either too great or too little, to feel, directly or indirectly, 
 more or less of its influence. 
 
 Against the reformed doctrine and its adherents the 
 House of Austria directed, almost exclusively, the whole 
 of its immense political power. In France the Reforma- 
 tion had enkindled a civil war which, under four stormy 
 reigns, shook the kingdom to its foundations, brought 
 foreign armies into the heart of the country, and for half 
 a century rendered it the scene of the most mournful dis- 
 orders. It was the Reformation, too, that rendered the 
 Spanish yoke intolerable to the Flemings, and awakened 
 in them both the desire and the courage to throw off its 
 fetters, while it also principally furnished them with the 
 means of their emancipation. And as to England, all the 
 evils with which Philip II. threatened Elizabeth were 
 mainly intended in revenge for her having taken his 
 Protestant subjects under her protection, and placing 
 herself at the head of a religious party which it was his 
 aim and endeavor to extirpate. In Germany the schisms 
 in the church produced also a lasting political schism, 
 which made that country for more than a century the 
 theati'e of confusion, but at the same time threw up a
 
 b THE THIRTY YEARS WAR. 
 
 firm barrier against political oppression. It was, too, the 
 Reformation principally that first drew the northern 
 powers, Denmark and Sweden, into the political system 
 of Europe ; and while, on the one hand, the Protestant 
 League was strengthened by their adhesion, it, on the 
 other, was indispensable to their interests. States which 
 hitherto scarcely concerned themselves with one another's 
 existence, acquired through the Reformation an attractive 
 centre of interest, and began to be united by new political 
 sympathies. And as through its influence new relations 
 sprang up between citizen and citizen, and between rulers 
 and subjects, so also entire states were forced by it into 
 new relative positions. Thus, by a strange course of 
 events, religious disputes were the means of cementing a 
 closer union among the nations of Europe. 
 
 Fearful, indeed, and destructive was the first move- 
 ment in which this general political sympathy announced 
 itself ; a desolating war of thirty years, which, from the 
 interior of Bohemia to the mouth of the Scheldt, and 
 from the banks of the Po to the coasts of the Baltic, devas- 
 tated whole countries, destroyed harvests, and reduced 
 towns and villages to ashes ; which opened a grave for 
 many thousand combatants, and for half a century smoth- 
 ered the glimmering sparks of civilization in Germany, 
 and threw back the improving manners of the country 
 into their pristine barbarity and wildness. Yet out of 
 this fearful war Europe came forth free and independent. 
 In it she first learned to recognize herself as a community 
 of nations ; and this intercommunion of states, which origi- 
 nated in the thirty years' war, may alone be sufficient to 
 reconcile the philosopher to its horrors. The hand of 
 industry has slowly but gradually effaced the traces of 
 its ravages, while its beneficent influence still survives ; 
 and this general sympathy among the states of Europe, 
 which grew out of the troubles in Bohemia, is our guaran- 
 tee for the continuance of that peace which was the result 
 of the war. As the sparks of destruction found their way 
 from the interior of Bohemia, Moravia, and Austria, to 
 kindle Germany, France, and the half of Europe, so also 
 will the torch of civilization make a path for itself from 
 the latter to enlighten the former countries.
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 7 
 
 All this was effected by religion. Religion alone could 
 have rendered possible all that was accomplished, but it 
 was far from being the sole motive of the war. Had not 
 private advantages and state interests been closely con- 
 nected with it, vain and powerless would have been the 
 arguments of theologians ; and the cry of the people would 
 never have met with princes so willing to espouse their 
 cause, nor the new doctrines have found such numerous, 
 brave, and persevering champions. The Reformation is 
 undoubtedly owing in a great measure to the invincible 
 power of truth, or of opinions which were held as such. 
 The abuses in the old church, the absurdity of many of 
 its dogmas, the extravagance of its requisitions, necessa- 
 rily revolted the tempers of men, already half-won with 
 the promise of a better light, and favorably disposed them 
 towards the new doctrines. The charm of independence, 
 the rich plunder of monastic institutions, made the Re- 
 formation attractive in the eyes of princes, and tended 
 not a little to strengthen their inward convictions. 
 Nothing, however, but political considerations could have 
 driven them to espouse it. Had not Charles V., in the 
 intoxication of success, made an attempt on the inde- 
 pendence of the German States, a Protestant league 
 would scarcely have rushed to arms in defence of freedom 
 of belief; but for the ambition of the Guises the Calvin- 
 ists in France would never have beheld a Conde or a 
 Coligny at their head. Without the exaction of the 
 tenth and the twentieth penny, the See of Rome had 
 never lost the United Netherlands. Princes fought in 
 self-defence or for aggrandizement, while religious en- 
 thusiasm recruited their armies and opened to them the 
 treasures of their subjects. Of the multitude who flocked 
 to their standards, such as were not lured by the hope of 
 plunder imagined they were fighting for the truth, while 
 in fact they were shedding their blood for the personal 
 objects of their princes. 
 
 And well was it for the people that, on this occasion, their 
 interests coincided with those of their princes. To this 
 coincidence alone were they indebted for their deliverance 
 from popery. Well was it also for the rulers that the 
 subject contended too for his own cause, while he was fight-
 
 8 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 
 
 ing their battles. Fortunately at this date no European 
 sovereign was so absolute as to be able, in the pursuit of 
 his political designs, to dispense with the good-will of his 
 subjects. Yet how difficult was it to gain and to set to 
 work this good-will ! The most impressive arguments 
 drawn from reasons of state fall powerless on the ear of 
 the subject, who seldom understands, and still more rarely 
 is interested in them. In such circumstances, the only 
 course open to a prudent prince is to connect the interests 
 of the cabinet with some one that sits nearer to the 
 people's heart, if such exists, or if not, to create it. 
 
 In such a position stood a greater part of those princes 
 who embraced the cause of the Reformation . By a strange 
 concatenation of events the divisions of the Church were 
 associated with two circumstances, without which, in all 
 probability, they would have had a very different conclu- 
 sion. These were the increasing power of the House of 
 Austria, which threatened the liberties of Europe, and its 
 active zeal for the old religion. The first aroused the 
 princes, while the second armed the people. 
 
 The abolition of a foreign jurisdiction within their 
 own territories, the supremacy in ecclesiastical matters, 
 the stopping of the treasure which had so long flowed to 
 Rome, the rich plunder of religious foundations, were 
 tempting advantages to every sovereign. Why, then, 
 it may be asked, did they not operate with equal force 
 upon the princes of the House of Austria? What pre- 
 vented this house, particularly in its German branch, from 
 yielding to the pressing demands of so many of its sub- 
 jects, and, after the example of other princes, enriching 
 itself at the expense of a defenceless clergy ? It is dif- 
 ficult to credit that a belief in the infallibility of the 
 Romish Church had any greater influence on the pious 
 adherence of this house than the opposite conviction had 
 on the revolt of the Protestant princes. In fact, several 
 circumstances combined to make the Austrian princes 
 zealous supporters of popery. Spain and Italy, from 
 which Austria derived its principal strength, were still 
 devoted to the See of Rome with that blind obedience 
 which, ever since the days of the Gothic dynasty, had 
 been the peculiar characteristic of the Spaniard. The
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS WAR. 9 
 
 slightest approximation in a Spanish prince to the ob- 
 noxious tenets of Luther and Calvin would have alienated 
 forever the affections of his subjects, and a defection 
 from the Pope would have cost him the kingdom. A 
 Spanish prince had no alternative but orthodoxy or abdi- 
 cation. The same restraint was imposed upon Austria 
 by her Italian dominions, which she was obliged to treat, 
 if possible, with even greater indulgence ; impatient as 
 they naturally were of a foreign yoke, and possessing also 
 ready means of shaking it off. In regard to the latter 
 provinces, moreover, the rival pretensions of France, and 
 the neighborhood of the Pope, were motives sufficient to 
 prevent the Emperor from declaring in favor of a party 
 which strove to annihilate the papal see, and also to in- 
 duce him to show the most active zeal in behalf of the 
 old religion. These general considerations, which must 
 have been equally weighty with every Spanish monarch, 
 were, in the particular case of Charles V., still further 
 enforced by peculiar and personal motives. In Italy this 
 monarch had a formidable rival in the King of France, 
 under whose protection that country might throw itself 
 the instant that Charles should incur the slightest sus- 
 picion of heresy. Distrust on the pai-t of the Roman 
 Catholics, and a rupture with the church, would have 
 been fatal also to many of his most cherished designs. 
 Moreover, when Charles was first called upon to make 
 his election between the two parties, the new doctrine had 
 not yet attained to a full and commanding influence, and 
 there still subsisted a prospect of its reconciliation with 
 the old. In his son and successor, Philip II., a monastic 
 education combined with a gloomy and despotic 
 disposition to generate an unmitigated hostility to all in- 
 novations in religion; a feeling which the thought that his 
 most formidable political opponents were also the ene- 
 mies of his faith was not calculated to weaken. As his 
 European possessions, scattered as they were over so 
 many countries, were on all sides exposed to the seduc- 
 tions of foreign opinions, the progress of the Reformation 
 in other quarters could not well be a matter of indiffer- 
 ence to him. His immediate interests, therefore, urged 
 him to attach himself devotedly to the old church, in
 
 10 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 
 
 order to close up the sources of the heretical contagion. 
 Thus circumstances naturally placed this prince at the 
 head of the league which the Roman Catholics formed 
 against the Reformers. The principles which had actu- 
 ated the long and active reigns of Charles V. and Philip 
 II. remained a law for their successors ; and the more 
 the breach in the church widened the firmer became 
 the attachment of the Spaniards to Roman Catholicism. 
 
 The German line of the House of Austria was appar- 
 ently more unfettered; but in reality, though free from 
 many of these restraints, it was yet confined by others. 
 The possession of the imperial throne a dignity it was 
 impossible for a Protestant to hold (for with what con- 
 sistency could an apostate from the Romish Church wear 
 the crown of a Roman Emperor?) bound the successors 
 of Ferdinand I. to the See of Rome. Ferdinand himself 
 was, from conscientious motives, heartily attached to it. 
 Besides, the German princes of the House of Austria were 
 not powerful enough to dispense with the support of Spain, 
 which, however, they would have forfeited by the least 
 show of leaning towards the new doctrines. The impe- 
 rial dignity, also, required them to j (reserve the existing 
 political system of Germany, with which the maintenance 
 of their ow r n authority was closely bound up, but which 
 it was the aim of the Protestant League to destroy. If 
 to these grounds we add the indifference of the Protes- 
 tants to the Emperor's necessities and to the common 
 dangers of the empire, their encroachments on the tem- 
 poralities of the church, and their aggressive violence 
 when they became conscious of their own power, we can 
 easily conceive how so many concurring motives must 
 have determined the emperors to the side of popery, and 
 how their own interests came to be intimately inter- 
 woven with those of the Romish Church. As its fate 
 seemed to depend altogether on the part taken by Austria, 
 the princes of this house came to be regarded by all Eu- 
 rope as the pillars of popery. The hatred, therefore, 
 which the Protestants bore against the latter was turned 
 exclusively upon Austria; and the cause became grad- 
 ually confounded with its protector. 
 
 But this irreconcilable enemy of the Reformation
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 11 
 
 the House of Austria by its ambitious projects and 
 the overwhelming force which it could bring to their sup- 
 port, endangered, in no small degree, the freedom of Eu- 
 rope, and more especially of the German States. This 
 circumstance could not fail to rouse the latter from their 
 security, and to render them vigilant in self-defence. 
 Their ordinary resources were quite insufficient to resist 
 so formidable a power. Extraordinary exertions were 
 required from their subjects ; and when even these proved 
 far from adequate, they had recourse to foreign assist- 
 ance ; and, by means of a common league, they endeav- 
 ored to oppose a power which, singly, they were unable 
 to withstand. 
 
 But the strong political inducements which the German 
 princes had to resist the pretensions of the House of 
 Austria, naturally, did not extend to their subjects. It is 
 only immediate advantages or immediate evils that set 
 the people in action, and for these a sound policy cannot 
 wait. Ill then would it have fared with these princes if 
 by good fortune another effectual motive had not offered 
 itself, which roused the passions of the people, and kindled 
 in them an enthusiasm which might be directed against the 
 political danger, as having with it a common cause of alarm. 
 
 This motive was their avowed hatred of the religion 
 which Austria protected, and their enthusiastic attachment 
 to a doctrine which that house was endeavoring to extir- 
 pate by fire and sword. Their attachment was ardent, 
 their hatred invincible. Religious fanaticism anticipates 
 even the remotest dangers. Enthusiasm never calculates 
 its sacrifices. What the most pressing danger of the state 
 could not gain from the citizens was effected by religious 
 zeal. For the state, or for the prince, few would have 
 drawn the sword ; but for religion the merchant, the 
 artist, the peasant, all cheerfully flew to arms. For the 
 state or for the" prince even the smallest additional impost 
 would have been avoided ; but for religion the people 
 readily staked at once life, fortune, and all earthly hopes. 
 It trebled the contributions which flowed into the ex- 
 chequer of the princes, and the armies which marched to 
 the field ; and, in the ardent excitement produced in all 
 minds by the peril to which their faith was exposed, the
 
 12 THE THIRTY TEAKS* WAR. 
 
 subject felt not the pressure of those burdens and priva- 
 tions under which, in cooler moments, he would have sunk 
 exhausted. The terrors of the Spanish Inquisition, and 
 the massacre of St. Bartholomew's, procured for the 
 Prince of Orange, the Admiral Coligny, the British Queen 
 Elizabeth, and the Protestant princes of Germany, sup- 
 plies of men and money from their subjects to a degree 
 which at present is inconceivable. 
 
 But, with all their exertions, they would have effected 
 little against a power which was an overmatch for any 
 single adversary, however powerful. At this period of 
 imperfect policy accidental circumstances alone could 
 determine distant states to afford one another a mutual 
 support. The differences of government, of laws, of 
 language, of manners, and of character, which hitherto 
 had kept whole nations and countries as it were insulated, 
 and raised a lasting barrier between them, rendered one 
 state insensible to the distresses of another, save where 
 national jealousy could indulge a malicious joy at the 
 reverses of a rival. This barrier the Reformation de- 
 stroyed. An interest more intense and more immediate 
 than national aggrandizement or patriotism, and entirely 
 independent of private utility, began to animate whole 
 states and individual citizens; an interest capable of uniting 
 numerous and distant nations, even while it frequently 
 lost its force among the subjects of the same government. 
 With the inhabitants of Geneva, for instance, of England, 
 of Germany, or of Holland, the French Calvinist possessed 
 a common point of union which he had not with his own 
 countrymen. Thus, in one important particular, he ceased 
 to be the citizen of a single state, and to confine his views 
 and sympathies to his own country alone. The 
 sphere of his views became enlarged. He began to 
 calculate his own fate from that of other nations of the 
 same religious profession, and to make their cause his 
 own. Now for the first time did princes venture to 
 bring the affairs of other countries before their own 
 councils ; for the first time could they hope for a willing 
 ear to their own necessities, and prompt assistance from 
 others. Foreign affairs had now become a matter of 
 domestic policy, and that aid was readily granted to the
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 13 
 
 religious confederate which would have been denied to 
 the mere neighbor, and still more to the distant stranger. 
 The inhabitant of the Palatinate leaves his native fields to 
 fight side by side with his religious associate of France, 
 against the common enemy of their faith. The Huguenot 
 draws his sword against the country which persecutes 
 him, and sheds his blood in defence of the liberties of 
 Holland. Swiss is arrayed against Swiss; German 
 against German, to determine, on the banks of the Loire 
 and the Seine, the succession of the French crown. The 
 Dane crosses the Eider, and the Swede the Baltic, to 
 break the chains which are forged for Germany. 
 
 It is difficult to say what would have been the fate of 
 the Reformation, and the liberties of the empire, had not 
 the formidable power of Austria declared against them. 
 This, however, appears certain, that nothing so com- 
 pletely damped the Austrian hopes of universal monarchy 
 as the obstinate war which they had to wage against the 
 new religious opinions. Under no other circumstances 
 could the weaker princes have roused their subjects to 
 such extraordinary exertions against the ambition of 
 Austria, or the states themselves have united so closely 
 against the common enemy. 
 
 The power of Austria never stood higher than after 
 the victory which Charles V. gained over the Germans at 
 Muhlberg. With the treaty of Smalcalde the freedom of 
 Germany lay, as it seemed, prostrate forever; but it 
 revived under Maurice of Saxony, once its most formid- 
 able enemy. All the fruits of the victory of Muhlberg 
 were lost again in the Congress of Passau and the Diet of 
 Augsburg ; and every scheme of civil and religious oppres- 
 sion terminated in the concessions of an equitable peace. 
 
 The Diet of Augsburg divided Germany into two 
 religious and two political parties, by recognizing the 
 independent rights and existence of both. Hitherto the 
 Protestants had been looked on as rebels ; they were 
 henceforth to be regarded as brethren not, indeed, 
 through affection, but necessity. By the Interim,* the 
 
 * A system of Theology, so called, prepared by order of the Emperor 
 Charles V. for the use of Germany, to reconcile the differences between the 
 Roman Catholics and the Lutherans, which, however, was rejected by both 
 parties. ED.
 
 14 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 
 
 Confession of Augsburg was allowed temporarily to take 
 a si'sterly place alongside of the olden religion, though 
 only as a tolerated neighbor. To every secular state was 
 conceded the right of establishing the religion it acknowl- 
 edged as supreme and exclusive within its own territories, 
 and of forbidding the open profession of its rival. Subjects 
 were to be free to quit a country where their own religion 
 was not tolerated. The doctrines of Luther for the first 
 time received a positive sanction ; and if they were 
 trampled under foot in Bavaria and Austria they pre- 
 dominated in Saxony and Thur.ingia. But the sovereigns 
 alone were to determine what form of religion should 
 prevail within their territories; the feelings of subjects 
 who had "no representatives in the Diet were little at- 
 tended to in the pacification. In the ecclesiastical 
 territories, indeed, where the unreformed religion enjoyed 
 an undisputed supremacy, the free exercise of their 
 religion \vas obtained for all who had previously em- 
 braced the Protestant doctrines; but this indulgence 
 rested only on the personal guarantee of Ferdinand, King 
 of the Romans, by whose endeavors chiefly this peace 
 was effected ; a guarantee, which, being rejected by the 
 Roman Catholic members of the Diet, and only inserted 
 in the treaty under their protest, could not of course have 
 the force of law. 
 
 If it had been opinions only that thus divided the 
 minds of men, with what indifference would all have 
 regarded the division ! But on these opinions depended 
 riches, dignities, and rights; and it was this which so 
 deeply aggravated the evils of division. Of two brothers, 
 as it were, who had hitherto enjoyed a paternal inherit- 
 ance in common, one now remained, while the other wr.s 
 compelled to leave his father's house, and hence arose the 
 necessity of dividing the patrimony. For this separa- 
 tion, which he could not have foreseen, the father 
 had made no provision. By the beneficent donations of 
 pious ancestors the riches of the church had been 
 accumulating through a thousand years, and these 
 benefactors were as much the progenitors of the 
 departing brother as of him who remained. Was the 
 right of inheritance then to be limited to the paternal
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 15 
 
 house, or to be extended to blood ? The gifts had been 
 made to the church in communion with Rome, because at 
 that time no other existed, to the first born, as it were, 
 because he was as yet the only son. Was then a right 
 of primogeniture to be admitted in the church, as in 
 noble families? Were the pretensions of one party to be 
 favored by a prescription from times when the claims of 
 the other could not have come into existence. Could the 
 Lutherans be justly excluded from these possessions, to 
 which the benevolence of their forefathers had con- 
 tributed, merely on the ground that, at the date of their 
 foundation, the differences between Lutheranism and 
 Romanism were unknown ? Both parties have disputed, 
 and still dispute, with equal plausibility, on these points. 
 Both alike have found it difficult to prove their right. 
 Law can be applied only to conceivable cases, and per- 
 haps spiritual foundations are not among the number of 
 these, and still less where the conditions of the founders 
 generally extended to a system of doctrines ; for how is 
 it conceivable that a permanent endowment should be 
 made of opinions left open to change? 
 
 What law cannot decide is usually determined by 
 might, and such was the case here. The one party held 
 firmly all that could no longer be wrested from it the 
 other defended what it still possessed. All the bishoprics 
 and abbeys which had been secularized before the peace 
 remained witli the Protestants ; but, by an express clause, 
 the unreformed Catholics provided that none should 
 thereafter be secularized. Every impropriator of an ec- 
 clesiastical foundation, who held immediately of the Em- 
 pire, whether elector, bishop, or abbot, forfeited his ben- 
 efice and dignity the moment he embraced the Protestant 
 belief ; he was obliged in that event instantly to resign 
 its emoluments, and the chapter was to proceed to a new 
 election, exactly as if his place had been vacated by death. 
 By this sacred anchor of the Ecclesiastical Reservation 
 (Reservatum JZcdesiasticimi), which makes the temporal 
 existence of a spiritual prince entirely depend on his fidel- 
 ity to the olden religion, the Roman Catholic Church 
 in Germany is still held fast ; and precarious, indeed, 
 would be its situation were this anchor to give way.
 
 16 THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 
 
 The principle of the Ecclesiastical Reservation was 
 strongly opposed by the Protestants ; and though it was 
 at last adopted into the treaty of peace, its insertion was 
 qualified with the declaration, that parties had come to 
 no final determination on the point. Could it then be 
 more binding on the Protestants than Ferdinand's guar- 
 antee in favor of Protestant subjects of ecclesiastic al 
 states was upon the Roman Catholics ? Thus were two 
 important subjects of dispute left unsettled in the treaty 
 of peace, and by them the war was rekindled. 
 
 Such was the position of things with regard to relig- 
 ious toleration and ecclesiastical property; it was the 
 game with regard to rights and dignities. The existing 
 German system provided only for one church, because 
 one only was in existence when that system was framed. 
 The church had now divided ; the Diet had broken into 
 two religious parties; was the whole system of the Em- 
 pire still exclusively to follow the one? The emperors 
 had hitherto been members of the Romish Church, be- 
 cause till now that religion had no rival. But was it his 
 connection with Rome which constituted a German em- 
 peror, or was it not rather Germany which was to be rep- 
 resented in its head ? The Protestants were now spread 
 over the whole Empire, and how could they justly still 
 be represented by an unbroken line of Roman Catholic 
 emperors? In the Imperial Chamber the German States 
 judge themselves, for they elect the judges; it was the 
 very end of its institution that they should do so, in 
 order that equal justice should be dispensed to all ; but 
 would this be still possible if the representatives of both 
 professions were not equally admissible to a seat in the 
 Chamber? That one religion only existed in Germany at 
 the time of its establishment was accidental ; that no one 
 estate should have the means of legally oppressing another, 
 was the essential purpose of the institution. Now this 
 object would be entirely frustrated if one religious party 
 were to have the exclusive power of deciding for the 
 other. Must, then, the design be sacrificed because that 
 which was merely accidental had changed? With great 
 difficulty the Protestants, at last, obtained for the repre- 
 rentatives of their religion a place in the Supreme Council,
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 17 
 
 but still there was far from being a perfect equality 
 of voices. To this dny no Protestant prince has been 
 raised to the imperial throne. 
 
 Whatever may be said of the equality which the peace 
 of Augsburg was to have established between the two 
 German churches, the Roman Catholic had unquestionably 
 still the advantage. All that the Lutheran Church gained 
 by it was toleration; all that the Romish Church con- 
 ceded was a sacrifice to necessity, not an offering to 
 justice. Very far was it from being a peace between two 
 equal powers, but a truce between a sovereign and 
 unconquered rebels. From this principle all the proceed- 
 ings of the Roman Catholics against the Protestants seemed 
 to flow, and still continue to do so. To join the reformed 
 faith was still a crime, since it was to be visited with so 
 severe a penalty as that which the Ecclesiastical Reserva- 
 tion held suspended over the apostacy of the spiritual 
 princes. Even to the last the Romish Church preferred 
 to risk the loss of everything by force than voluntarily 
 to yield the smallest matter to justice. The loss was 
 accidental and might be repaired ; but the abandonment 
 of its pretensions, the concession of a single point to the 
 Protestants, would shake the foundations of the church 
 itself. Even in the treaty of peace this principle was not 
 lost sight of. Whatever in this peace was yielded to the 
 Protestants was always under condition. It was ex- 
 pressly declared that affairs were to remain on the 
 stipulated footing only till the next general council, 
 which was to be called with the view of effecting a 
 union between the two confessions. Then only, when 
 this last attempt should have failed, was the religious 
 treaty to become valid and conclusive. However little 
 hope there might be of such a reconciliation, however little 
 perhaps the Romanists themselves were in earnest with it, 
 still it was something to have clogged the peace with 
 these stipulations. 
 
 Thus this religious treaty, which was to extinguish for- 
 ever the flames of civil war, was, in fact, but a temporary 
 truce, extorted by force and necessity ; not dictated by 
 justice, nor emanating from just notions either of religion 
 or toleration. A religious treaty of this kind the Roman
 
 18 THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 
 
 Catholics were as incapable of granting, to be candid, as in 
 truth the Lutherans were unqualified to receive. Far from 
 evincing a tolerant spirit towards ^the Roman Catholics, 
 when it was in their power, they even oppressed the Cal- 
 vinists; who indeed just as little deserved toleration, since 
 they were unwilling to practise it. For such a peace the 
 times were not yet ripe the minds of men not yet 
 sufficiently enlightened. How could one party expect 
 from another what itself was incapable of performing? 
 What each side saved or gained by the treaty of 
 Augsburg it owed to the imposing attitude of strength 
 which it maintained at the time of its negotiation. 
 What was won by force was to be maintained also by 
 force ; if the peace was to be permanent, the two parties 
 to it must preserve the same relative positions. The 
 boundaries of the two churches had been marked out 
 with the sword ; with the sword they must be preserved, 
 or woe to that party which should be first disarmed ! A 
 sad and fearful prospect for the tranquillity of Germany 
 when peace itself bore so threatening an aspect. 
 
 A momentary lull now pervaded the empire ; a tran- 
 sitory bond of concord appeared to unite its scattered 
 limbs into one body, so that for a time a feeling also for 
 the common weal returned. But the division had pene- 
 trated its inmost being, and to restore its original harmony 
 was impossible. Carefully as the treaty of peace appeared 
 to have defined the rights of both parties, its interpreta- 
 tion was nevertheless the subject of many disputes. In 
 the heat of conflict it had produced a cessation of hostili- 
 ties; it covered, not extinguished, the fire, and unsatisfied 
 claims remained on either side. The Romanists imagined 
 they had lost too much, the Protestants that they had 
 gained too littte ; and the treaty which neither party 
 could venture to violate was interpreted by each in its 
 own favor. 
 
 The seizure of the ecclesiastical benefices, the motive 
 which had so strongly tempted the majority of the 
 Protestant princes to embrace the doctrines of Luther, 
 was not less powerful after than before the peace ; of 
 those whose founders had not held their fiefs imme- 
 diately of the empire, such as were not already in their
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 19 
 
 possession would it was evident soon be so. The whole 
 of Lower Germany was already secularized ; and if it were 
 otherwise in Upper Germany, it was owing to the vehe- 
 ment resistance of the Catholics, who had there the pre- 
 ponderance. Each party, where it was the most powerful, 
 oppressed the adherents of the other ; the ecclesiastical 
 princes in particular, as the most defenceless members of 
 the empire, were incessantly tormented by the ambition 
 of their Protestant neighbors. Those who were too 
 weak to repel force by force took refuge under the wings 
 of justice; and the complaints of spoliation were heaped 
 up against the Protestants in the Imperial Chamber, 
 which was ready enough to pursue the accused with 
 judgments, but found too little support to carry them 
 into effect. The peace which stipulated for complete 
 religious toleration for the dignitaries of the Empire, had 
 provided also for the subject, by enabling him, without 
 interruption, to leave the country in which the exercise 
 of his religion was prohibited. But from the wrongs 
 which the violence of a sovereign might inflict on an 
 obnoxious subject; from the nameless oppressions by 
 which he might harass and annoy the emigrant; from 
 the artful snares in which subtilty combined with power 
 might enmesh him from these the dead letter of the 
 treaty could afford him no protection. The Catholic 
 subject of Protestant princes complained loudly of 
 violations of the religious peace the Lutherans still 
 more loudly of the oppression they experienced under 
 their Romanist suzerains. The rancor and animosities of 
 theologians infused a poison into every occurrence, how- 
 ever inconsiderable, and inflamed the minds of the people. 
 Happy would it have been had this theological hatred 
 exhausted its zeal upon the common enemy, instead of 
 venting its virus on the adherents of a kindred faith ! 
 
 Unanimity amongst the Protestants might, by preserving 
 the balance between the contending parties, have pro- 
 longed the peace ; but, as if to complete the confusion, 
 all concord was quickly broken. The doctrines which 
 had been propagated by Zuingli in Zurich, and by Calvin 
 in Geneva, soon spread to Germany, and divided the 
 Protestants among theinselves, with little in unison save
 
 20 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 
 
 their common hatred to popery. The Protestants of this 
 date bore but slight resemblance to those who, fifty years 
 before, drew up the Confession of Augsburg; and the 
 cause of the change is to be sought in that Confession 
 itself. It had prescribed a positive boundary to the 
 Protestant faith, before the newly-awakened spirit of- 
 inquiry had satisfied itself as to the limits it ought to set ; 
 and the Protestants seemed unwittingly to have thrown 
 away much of the advantage acquired by their rejection 
 of popery. Common complaints of the Romish hierarchy 
 and of ecclesiastical abuses, and a common disapprobation 
 of its dogmas, formed a sufficient centre of union for the 
 Protestants ; but not content with this, they sought a 
 rallying point in the promulgation of a new and positive 
 creed, in which they sought to embody the distinctions, 
 the privileges, and the essence of the church, and to this 
 they referred the convention entered into with their 
 opponents. It was as professors of this creed that they 
 had acceded to the treaty; and in the benefits of this 
 peace the advocates of the Confession were alone entitled 
 to participate. In any case, therefore, the situation of 
 its adherents was embarrassing. If a blind obedience 
 were yielded to the dicta of the Confession, a lasting 
 bound would be set to the spirit of inquiry ; if, on the 
 other hand, they dissented from the formulae agreed 
 upon, the point of union would be lost. Unfortunately 
 both incidents occurred, and the evil results of both 
 were quickly felt. One party rigorously adhered to the 
 original symbol of faith, and the other abandoned it, only 
 to adopt another with equal exclusiveness. 
 
 Nothing could have furnished the common enemy a 
 more plausible defence of his cause than this dissension ; 
 no spectacle could have been more gratifying to him than 
 the rancor with which the Protestants alternately per- 
 secuted each other. Who could condemn the Roman 
 Catholics if they laughed at the audacity with which the 
 Reformers had presumed to announce the only true 
 belief ? if from Protestants they borrowed the weapons 
 against Protestants ? if, in the midst of this clashing of 
 opinions, they held fast to the authority of their own 
 church, for which, in part, there spoke an honorable
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 21 
 
 antiquity, and a yet more honorable plurality of voices. 
 But this division placed the Protestants in still more 
 serious embarrassments. As the covenants of the treaty 
 applied only to the partisans of the Confession, their 
 opponents, with some reason, called upon them to explain 
 who were to be recognized as the adherents of that 
 creed. The Lutherans could not, without offending 
 conscience, include the Calvinists in their communion ; 
 except at the risk of converting a useful friend into a 
 dangerous enemy, could they exclude them. This un- 
 fortunate difference opened a way for the machinations 
 of the Jesuits to sow distrust between both parties, and 
 to destroy the unity of their measures. Fettered by the 
 double fear of their direct adversaries, and of their 
 opponents among themselves, the Protestants lost for- 
 ever the opportunity of placing their church on a perfect 
 equality with the Catholic. All these difficulties would 
 have been avoided, and the defection of the Calvinists 
 would not have prejudiced the common cause, if the point 
 of union had been placed simply in the abandonment of 
 Romanism, instead of in the Confession of Augsburg. 
 
 But however divided on other points, they concurred 
 in this that the security which had resulted from 
 equality of power could only be maintained by the 
 preservation of that balance. In the meanwhile, the con- 
 tinual reforms of one party, and the opposing measures 
 of the other, kept both upon the watch, while the inter- 
 pretation of the religious treaty was a never-ending 
 subject of dispute. Each party maintained that every 
 step taken by its opponent was an infraction of the peace, 
 while of every movement of its own it was asserted that 
 it was essential to its maintenance. Yet all the measures 
 of the Catholics did not, as their opponents alleged, 
 proceed from a spirit of encroachment many of them 
 were the necessary precautions of self-defence. The 
 Protestants had shown unequivocally enough what the 
 Romanists might expect if they were unfortunate enough 
 to become the weaker party. The greediness of the 
 former for the property of the church, gave no reason to 
 expect indulgence; their bitter hatred left no hope of 
 magnanimity or forbearance.
 
 22 THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 
 
 But the Protestants, likewise, were excusable if they, 
 too, placed little confidence in the sincerity of the Roman 
 Catholics. By the treacherous and inhuman 'treatment 
 which their brethren in Spain, France, and the Nether- 
 lands had suffered ; by the disgraceful subterfuge of the 
 Romish princes, who held that th.e Pope had power to 
 relieve them from the obligation of the most solemn 
 oaths ; and above all, by the detestable maxim, that faith 
 was riot to be kept with heretics, the Roman Church, in 
 the eyes of all honest men, had lost its honor. No 
 engagement, no oath, however sacred, from a Roman 
 Catholic, could satisfy a Protestant. What security 
 then could the religious peace afford, when, throughout 
 Germany, the Jesuits represented it as a measure of 
 mere temporary convenience, and in Rome itself it was 
 solemnly repudiated. 
 
 The General Council, to which reference had been 
 made in the treaty, had already been held in the city of 
 Trent ; but, as might have been foreseen, without accom- 
 modating the religious differences, or taking a single step 
 to effect such accommodation, arid even without being 
 attended by the Protestants. The latter, indeed, were 
 now solemnly excommunicated by it in the name of the 
 church, whose representative the Council gave itself out 
 to be. Could, then, a secular treaty, extorted moreover 
 by force of arms, afford them adequate protection against 
 the ban of the church ; a treaty, too, based on a condition 
 which the decision of the Council seemed entirely to abol- 
 ish ? There was then a show of right for violating the peace, 
 if only the Romanists possessed the power; and hence- 
 forward the Protestants were protected by nothing but 
 the respect for their formidable array. 
 
 Other circumstances combined to augment this distrust. 
 Spain, on whose support the Romanists in Germany 
 chiefly relied, was engaged in a bloody conflict with the 
 Flemings. By it the flower of the Spanish troops were 
 draw r n to the confines of Germany. With what ease 
 might they be introduced wuthin the empire, if a decisive 
 stroke should render their presence necessary ? Germany 
 was at that time a magazine of war for nearly all the 
 powers of Europe. The religious war had crowded it
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 23 
 
 with soldiers, whom the peace left destitute ; its many 
 independent princes found it easy to assemble armies, 
 and afterwards, for the sake of gain or the interests of 
 party, hire them out to other powers. With German 
 troops Philip II. waged war against the Netherlands, 
 and with German troops they defended themselves, 
 Every such levy in Germany was a subject of alarm to 
 the one party or the other, since it might be intended for 
 their oppression. The arrival of an ambassador, an 
 extraordinary legate of the Pope, a conference of princes, 
 every unusual incident, must, it was thought, be pregnant 
 with destruction to some party. Thus, for nearly half a 
 century, stood Germany, her hand upon the sword ; every 
 rustle of a leaf alarmed her. 
 
 Ferdinand I., King of Hungary, and his excel- 
 lent son, Maximilian II., held at this memorable epoch 
 the reins of government. With a heart full of 
 sincerity, with a truly hei'oic patience, had Ferdinand 
 brought about the religious peace of Augsburg, and 
 afterwards, in the Council of Trent, labored assiduously, 
 though vainly, at the ungrateful task of reconciling the 
 two religions. Abandoned by his nephew, Philip of 
 Spain, and hard pressed both in Hungary and Transyl- 
 vania by the victorious armies of the Turks, it was not 
 likely that this emperor would entertain the idea of 
 violating the religious peace, and thereby destroying his 
 own painful work. The heavy expenses of the per- 
 petually recurring war with Turkey could not be defrayed 
 by the meagre contributions of his exhausted hereditary 
 dominions. He stood, therefore, in need of the assistance 
 of the whole empire ; and the religious peace alone pre- 
 served in one body the otherwise divided empire. 
 Financial nee -ssities made the Protestant as needful to 
 him as the Romanist, and imposed upon him the 
 obligation of treating both parties with equal justice, 
 which, amidst so many contradictory claims, was truly a 
 colossal task. Very far, however, was the result from 
 answering his expectations. His indulgence of the 
 Protestants served only to bring upon his successors a 
 war, which death saved himself the mortification of 
 witnessing. Scarcely more fortunate was his son Maxi-
 
 24 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 
 
 milian, with whom perhaps the pressure of circumstances 
 was the only obstacle, and a longer life perhaps the only 
 want to his establishing the new religion upon the 
 imperial throne. Necessity had taught the father for- 
 bearance towards the Protestants necessity and justice 
 dictated the same course to the son. The grandson had 
 reason to repent that he neither listened to justice nor 
 yielded to necessity. 
 
 Maximilian left six sons, of whom the eldest, the Arch- 
 duke Rodolph, inherited his dominions, and ascended 
 the imperial throne. The other brothers were put off 
 with petty appanages. A few mesne fiefs were held by a 
 collateral branch, which had their uncle, Charles of 
 Styria, at its head ; and even these were afterwards 
 under his son, Ferdinand II., incorporated with the rest 
 of the family dominions. With this exception, the whole 
 of the imposing power of Austria was now wielded by a 
 single but unfortunately weak hand. 
 
 Rodolph II. was not devoid of those virtues which 
 might have gained him the esteem of mankind had the 
 lot of a private station fallen to him. His character was 
 mild; he loved peace and the sciences, particularly 
 astronomy, natural history, chemistry, and the study of 
 antiquities. To these he applied with a passionate zeal, 
 which at the very time when the critical posture of 
 affairs demanded all his attention, and his exhausted 
 finances the most rigid economy, diverted his attention 
 from state affairs, and involved him in pernicious 
 expenses. His taste for astronomy soon lost itself in 
 those astrological reveries to which timid and melancholy 
 temperaments like his are but too disposed. This, to- 
 gether with a youth passed in Spain, opened his ears to 
 the evil counsels of the Jesuits and the influence of the 
 Spanish court, by which at last he was wholly governed. 
 Ruled by tastes so little in accordance with the dignity 
 of his station, and alarmed by ridiculous prophecies, he 
 withdi'evv, after the Spanish custom, from the eyes of his 
 subjects, to bury himself amidst his gems and antiques, 
 or to make experiments in his laboratory, while the most 
 fatal discords loosened all the bands of the empire, and 
 the flames of rebellion began to burst out at the very
 
 THE THIRTY TEARS' WAR. 25 
 
 footsteps of his throne. All access to his person was 
 denied, the most urgent matters were neglected. The 
 prospect of the rich inheritance of Spain was closed 
 against him while he was trying to make up his mind to 
 offer his hand to the Infanta Isabella. A fearful anarchy 
 threatened the Empire, for, though without an heir of his 
 own body, he could not be persuaded to allow the election 
 of a King of the Romans. The Austrian States renounced 
 their allegiance, Hungary and Transylvania threw off his 
 supremacy, and Bohemia was not slow in following their 
 example. The descendant of the once so formidable 
 Charles V. was in perpetual danger, either of losing one 
 part of his possessions to the Turks, or another to the 
 Protestants, and of sinking beyond redemption under the 
 formidable coalition which a great monarch of Europe 
 had formed against him. The events which now took 
 place in the interior of Germany were such as usually 
 happened when either the throne was without an cmj eror 
 or the emperor without a sense of his imperial dignity. 
 Outraged or abandoned by their head, "the states of the 
 empire were left to help themselves; and alliances 
 among themselves must supply the defective authority of 
 the emperor. Germany was divided into two leagues, 
 which stood in arms arrayed against each other: between 
 both, Rodolph, the despised opponent of the one, and the 
 impotent protector of the other, remained irresolute and 
 useless, equally unable to destroy the former or to com- 
 mand the latter. What had the Empire to look for from 
 a prince incapable even of defending his hereditary do- 
 minions against its domestic enemies ? To prevent the 
 utter ruin of the House of Austria, his own family 
 combined against him ; and a powerful party threw itself 
 into the arms of his brother. Driven from his hereditary 
 dominions, nothing was now left him to lose but the 
 imperial dignity ; and he was only spared this last dis- 
 grace by a timely death. 
 
 At this critical moment, when only a supple policy, 
 united with a vigorous arm, could have maintained the 
 tranquillity of the Empire, its evil genius gave it a Ro- 
 dolph for emperor. At a more peaceful period the Ger- 
 manic Union would have managed its own interests, and
 
 26 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 
 
 Rodolph, like so many others of his rank, might have 
 hidden his deficiencies in a mysterious obscurity. But 
 the urgent demand for the qualities in which he was 
 most deficient revealed his incapacity. The position of 
 Germany called for an emperor who, by his known 
 energies, could give weight to his resolves; and the 
 hereditary dominions of Rodolph, considerable as they 
 were, were at present in a situation to occasion the 
 greatest embarrassment to the governors. 
 
 The Austrian princes, it is true, were Roman Cath- 
 olics, and, in addition to that, the supporters of popery, 
 but their countries were far from being so. The re- 
 formed opinions had penetrated even these, and, favored 
 by Ferdinand's necessities and Maximilian's mildness, 
 had met with a rapid success. The Austrian provinces 
 exhibited in miniature what Germany did on a larger 
 scale. The great nobles and the ritter class or knights 
 were chiefly evangelical, and in the cities the Protestants 
 had a decided preponderance. If they succeeded in 
 bringing a few of their party into the country, they 
 contrived imperceptibly to fill all places of trust and the 
 magistracy with their own adherents, and to exclude the 
 Catholics. Against the numerous order of the nobles 
 and knights, and the deputies from the towns, the voice 
 of a few pi-elates was powerless ; and the unseemly 
 ridicule and offensive contempt of the former soon drove 
 them entirely from the provincial diets. Thus the whole 
 of the Austrian Diet had imperceptibly become Protes- 
 tant, and the Reformation was making rapid strides 
 towards its public recognition. The prince was depend- 
 ent on the Estates, who had it in their power to grant 
 or refuse supplies. Accordingly, they availed themselves 
 of the financial necessities of Ferdinand and his son to 
 extort one religious concession after another. To the 
 nobles and knights Maximilian at last conceded the free 
 exercise of their religion, but only within their own 
 territories and castles. The intemperate enthusiasm of 
 the Protestant preachers overstepped the boundaries 
 which prudence had prescribed. In defiance of the 
 express prohibition, several of them ventured to preach 
 publicly, not only in the towns, but in Vienna itself, and
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 27 
 
 the people flocked . in crowds to this new doctrine, the 
 best seasoning of which was personality and abuse. 
 Thus continued food was supplied to fanaticism, and the 
 hatred of two churches, that were such near neighbors, 
 was farther envenomed by the sting of an impure zeal. 
 
 Among the hereditary dominions of the House- of 
 Austria, Hungary and Transylvania were the most un- 
 stable and the most difficult to retain. The impossibility 
 of holding these two countries against the neighboring 
 and overwhelming power of the Turks had already driven 
 Ferdinand to the inglorious expedient of recognizing, by 
 .in annual tribute, the Forte's supremacy over Transylva- 
 nia, a shameful confession of weakness, and a still more 
 dangerous temptation to the turbulent nobility, when they 
 fancied they had any reason to complain of their master. 
 Not without conditions had the Hungarians submitted 
 to the House of Austria. They asserted the elective 
 freedom of their crown, and boldly contended for all 
 those prerogatives of their order which are inseparable 
 from this freedom of election. The near neighborhood 
 of Turkey, the facility of changing masters with impu- 
 nity, encouraged the magnates still more in their pre- 
 sumption ; discontented with the Austrian government, 
 they threw themselves into the arms of the Turks ; dis- 
 satisfied with these, they returned again to their German 
 sovereigns. The frequency and rapidity of these transi- 
 tions from one government to another had communi- 
 cated its influences also to their mode of thinking; and as 
 their country wavered between the Turkish and Austrian 
 rule, so their minds vacillated between revolt and sub- 
 mission. The more unfortunate each nation felt itself in 
 being degraded into a province of a foreign kingdom, the 
 stronger desire did they feel to obey a monarch chosen 
 from amongst themselves, and thus it was always easy for 
 an enterprising noble to obtain their support. The 
 nearest Turkish pasha was always ready to bestow the 
 Hungarian sceptre and crown on a rebel against Austria ; 
 just as ready was Austria to confirm to any adven- 
 turer the possession of provinces which he had wrested 
 from the Porte, satisfied with preserving thereby the 
 shadow of authority, and with erecting at the same
 
 28 THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 
 
 time a barrier against the Turks. In this way several of 
 these magnates, Bathori, Boschkai, Ragoczi, and Bethlen, 
 succeeded in establishing themselves, one after another, 
 as tributary sovereigns in Transylvania and Hungary ; 
 and they maintained their ground by no deeper policy 
 than that of occasionally joining the enemy, in order to 
 render themselves more formidable to their own prince. 
 
 Ferdinand, Maximilian, and Rodolph, who were all 
 sovereigns of Hungary and Transylvania, exhausted 
 their other territories in endeavoring to defend these 
 from the hostile inroads of the Turks, and to put down 
 intestine rebellion. In this quarter destructive wars 
 were succeeded but by brief truces, which were scarcely 
 less hurtful : far and wide the land lay waste, while the 
 injured serf had to complain equally of his enemy and 
 his protector. Into these countries also the Reformation 
 had penetrated ; and protected by the freedom of the 
 States, and under the cover of the internal disorders, 
 had made a noticeable progress. Here, too, it was in- 
 cautiously attacked, and party spirit thus became yet 
 more dangerous from religious enthusiasm. Headed by 
 a bold rebel, Boschkai, the nobles of Hungary and Tran- 
 sylvania raised the standard of rebellion. The Hungarian 
 insurgents were upon the point of making common cause 
 with the discontented Protestants in Austria, Moravia, 
 and Bohemia, and uniting all those countries in one 
 fearful revolt. The downfall of popery in these lands 
 would then have been inevitable. 
 
 Long had the Austrian archdukes, the brothers of the 
 Emperor, beheld with silent indignation the impending 
 ruin of their house ; this last event hastened their deci- 
 sion. The Archduke Matthias, Maximilian's second son, 
 Viceroy in Hungary, and Rodolph's presumptive heir, 
 now came forward as the stay of the falling house of 
 Hapsburg. In his youth, misled by a false ambition, 
 this prince, disregarding the interests of his family, had 
 listened to the overtures of the Flemish insurgents, who 
 invited him into the Netherlands to conduct the defence 
 of their liberties against the oppression of his own 
 relative, Philip II. Mistaking the voice of an insulated 
 faction for that of the entire nation, Matthias obeyed the
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 29 
 
 call. But the event answered the expectations of the 
 men of Brabant as little as his own, and from this impru- 
 dent enterprise he retired with little credit. 
 
 Far more honorable was his second appearance in the 
 political world. Perceiving that his repeated remon- 
 strances with the Emperor were unavailing, he assembled 
 the archdukes, his brothers and cousins, at Presburg, and 
 consulted with them on the growing perils of their house, 
 when they unanimously assigned to him, as the oldest, 
 the duty of defending that patrimony which a feeble 
 brother was endangering. In his hands they placed all 
 their powers and rights, and vested him with sovereign 
 authority to act at his discretion for the common good. 
 Matthias immediately opened a communication with the 
 Porte and the Hungarian rebels, and through his skilful 
 management succeeded in saving by a peace with the 
 Turks the remainder of Hungary, and, by a treaty 
 with the rebels, preserved the claims of Austria to the 
 lost provinces. But Rodolph, as jealous as he had 
 hitherto been careless of his sovereign authority, refused 
 to ratify this treaty, which he regarded as a criminal 
 encroachment on his sovereign rights. He accused the 
 Archduke of keeping up a secret understanding with the 
 enemy, and of cherishing treasonable designs on the 
 crown of Hungary. 
 
 The activity of Matthias was, in truth, anything but 
 disinterested ; the conduct of the Emperor only acceler- 
 ated the execution of his ambitious views. Secure, from 
 motives of gratitude, of the devotion of the Hungarians, 
 for whom he had so lately obtained the blessings of peace ; 
 assured by his agents of the favorable disposition of the 
 nobles, and certain of the support of a large party even 
 in Austria, he now ventured to assume a bolder attitude, 
 and, sword in hand, to discuss his grievances with the 
 Emperor. The Protestants in Austria and Moravia, long 
 ripe for revolt, and now won over to the Archduke by his 
 promises of toleration, loudly and openly espoused his 
 cause, and their long-menaced alliance with the Hungarian 
 rebels was actually effected. Almost at once a formid- 
 able conspiracy was planned and matured against the 
 Emperor. Too late did he resolve to amend his past
 
 30 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 
 
 errors; in vain did he attempt to break up this fatal 
 alliance. Already the whole empire was in arms; 
 Hungary, Austria, and Moravia had done homage to 
 Matthias, who was already on his march to Bohemia to 
 seize the Emperor in his palace, and to cut at once the 
 sinews of his power. 
 
 Bohemia was not a more peaceable possession for 
 Austria than Hungary ; with this difference only, that, in 
 the latter, political considerations, in the former, religious 
 dissensions, fomented disorders. In Bohemia, a century 
 before the days of Luther, the first spark of the religious 
 war had been kindled ; a century after Luther the first 
 flames of the thirty years, war burst out in Bohemia. 
 The sect which owed its rise to John Huss still existed 
 in that country ; it agreed with the Romish Church in 
 ceremonies and docti-ines, with the single exception of 
 the administration of the Communion, in which the 
 Hussites communicated in both kinds. This privilege 
 had been conceded to the followers of Huss by the 
 Council of Basle in an express treaty (the Bohemian 
 Compact) ; and though it was afterwards disavowed by 
 the popes, they nevertheless continued to profit by it 
 under the sanction of the government. As the use of the 
 cup formed the only important distinction of their body, 
 they were usually designated by the name of Utraquists ; 
 and they readily adopted an appellation which reminded 
 them of their dearly-valued privilege. But under this 
 title lurked also the far stricter sects of the Bohemian 
 and Moravian Brethren, who differed from the predomi- 
 nant church in more important particulars, and bore, in 
 fact, a great resemblance to the German Protestants. 
 Among them both the German and Swiss opinions on 
 religion made rapid progress ; while the name of Utra- 
 quists, under which they managed to disguise the change 
 of their principles, shielded them from persecution. 
 
 In truth, they had nothing in common with the Utra- 
 quists but the name ; essentially they were altogether 
 Protestant. Confident in the strength of their party, and 
 the Emperor's toleration under Maximilian, they had 
 openly avowed their tenets. After the example of the 
 Germans, they drew up a Confession of their own, in
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 31 
 
 which Lutherans as well as Calvinists recognized their 
 own doctrines, and they sought to transfer to the new 
 Confession the privileges of the original Utraquists. In 
 this they were opposed by their Roman Catholic country- 
 men, and forced to rest content with the Emperor's 
 verbal assurance of protection. 
 
 As long as Maximilian lived they enjoyed complete 
 toleration, even under the new form they had taken. 
 Under his successor the scene changed. An imperial 
 edict appeared which deprived the Bohemian Brethren 
 of their religious freedom. Now these differed in nothing 
 from the other Utraquists. The sentence, therefore, of 
 their condemnation obviously included all the partisans 
 of the Bohemian Confession. Accordingly, they all 
 combined to oppose the imperial mandate in the Diet, 
 but without being able to procure its revocation. The 
 Emperor and the Roman Catholic Estates took their 
 ground on the Compact and the Bohemian Constitution ; 
 in which nothing appeared in favor of a religion which 
 had not then obtained the voice of the country. Since 
 that time how completely had affairs changed ? What 
 then formed but an inconsiderable opinion had now 
 become the predominant religion of the country. And 
 what was it then but a subterfuge to limit a newly- 
 spreading religion by the terms of obsolete treaties? 
 The Bohemian Protestants appealed to the verbal guar- 
 antee of Maximilian, and the religious freedom of the 
 Germans, with whom they argued they ought to be on a 
 footing of equality. It was in vain their appeal was 
 dismissed. 
 
 Such was the posture of affairs in Bohemia when 
 Matthias, already master of Hungary, Austria, and 
 Moravia, appeared in Kolin, to raise the Bohemian 
 Estates also against the Emperor. The embarrassment 
 of the latter was now at its height. Abandoned by all 
 his other subjects, he placed his last hopes on the 
 Bohemians, who, it might be foreseen, would take advan- 
 tage of his necessities to enforce their own demands. 
 After an interval of many years, he once more appeared 
 publicly in the Diet at Prague ; and to convince the 
 people that he was really still in existence, orders were
 
 32 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 
 
 given that all the windows should be opened in the 
 streets through which he was to pass proof enough 
 how far things had gone with him. The event justified 
 his fears. The Estates, conscious of their own power, 
 refused to take a single step until their privileges were 
 confirmed, and religious toleration fully assured to them. 
 It was in vain to have recourse now to the old system of 
 evasion. The Emperor's fate was in their hands, and he 
 must yield to necessity. At present, however, he only 
 granted their other demands religious matters he 
 reserved for consideration at the next Diet. 
 
 The Bohemians now took up arms in defence of the 
 Emperor, and a bloody war between the t\vo brothers 
 was on the point of breaking out. But Rodolph, who 
 feared nothing so much as remaining in this slavish 
 dependence on the Estates, waited not for a warlike 
 issue, but hastened to effect a reconciliation with his 
 brother by more peaceable means. By a formal act of 
 abdication he resigned to Matthias, what indeed he had 
 no chance of wresting from him, Austria and the kingdom 
 of Hungary, and acknowledged him as his successor to 
 the crown of Bohemia. 
 
 Dearly enough had the Emperor extricated himself 
 from one difficulty only to get immediately involved in 
 another. The settlement of the religious affairs of 
 Bohemia had been referred to the next Diet, which was 
 held in 1609. The reformed Bohemians demanded the 
 free exercise of their faith, as under the former emperors ; 
 a Consistory of their own ; the cession of the University 
 of Prague ; and the right of electing Defenders, or 
 Protectors of Liberty, from their own body. The answer 
 was the same as before ; for the timid Emperor was now 
 entirely fettered by the unreformed party. However 
 often, and in however threatening language the Estates 
 
 ~ -i 
 
 renewed their remonstrances, the Emperor persisted in 
 his first declaration of granting nothing beyond the old 
 compact. The Diet broke up without coming to a de- 
 cision ; and the Estates, exasperated against the Emperor, 
 arranged a general meeting at Prague, upon their own 
 authority, to right themselves. 
 
 They appeared at Prague in great force. In defiance
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 33 
 
 of the imperial prohibition they carried on their delibera- 
 tions almost under the very eyes of the Emperor. The 
 yielding compliance which lie began to show only proved 
 how much they were feared, and increased their audacity. 
 Yet on the main point he remained inflexible. They 
 fulfilled their threats, and at last resolved to establish, by 
 their own power, the free and universal exercise of their 
 religion, and to abandon the Emperor to his necessities 
 until he should confirm this resolution. They even went 
 farther, and elected for themselves the DEFENDERS which 
 the Emperor had refused them. Ten were nominated by 
 each of the three Estates ; they also determined to raise, 
 as soon as possible, an armed force, at the head of which 
 Count Thurn, the chief organizer of the revolt, should be 
 placed as general defender of the liberties of Bohemia. 
 Their determination brought the Emperor to submission, 
 to which he was now counselled even by the Spaniards. 
 Apprehensive lest the exasperated Estates should throw 
 themselves into the arms of the King of Hungary, he 
 signed the memorable Letter of Majesty for Bohemia, by 
 which, under the successors of the Emperor, that people 
 justified their rebellion. 
 
 The Bohemian Confession, which the States had laid 
 before the Emperor Maximilian, was, by the Letter of 
 Majesty, placed on a footing of equality with the olden 
 profession. The Utraquists, for by this title the Bohe- 
 mian Protestants continued to designate themselves, were 
 put in possession of the L T niversity of Prague, and allowed 
 a Consistory of their own entirely independent of the 
 archiepiscopal see of that city. All the churches in the 
 cities, villages, and market towns, which they held at the 
 date of the letter, were secured to them ; and if in 
 addition they wished to erect others, it was permitted to 
 the nobles, and knights, and the free cities to do so. 
 This last clause in the Letter of Majesty gave rise to the 
 unfortunate disputes which subsequently rekindled the 
 flames of war in Europe. 
 
 The Letter of Majesty erected the Protestant part of 
 Bohemia into a kind of republic. The Estates had 
 learned to feel the power which they gained by perse- 
 verance, unity, and harmony in their measures. The
 
 34 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 
 
 Emperor now retained little more than the shadow of 
 his sovereign authority ; while by the new dignity of the 
 so-called defenders of liberty a dangerous stimulus was 
 given to the spirit of revolt. The example and success 
 of Bohemia afforded a tempting seduction to the other 
 hereditary dominions of Austria, and all attempted by 
 similar means to extort similar privileges. The spirit of 
 liberty spread from one province to another ; and as it 
 was chiefly the disunion among the Austrian princes that 
 had enabled the Protestants so materially to improve 
 their advantages, they now hastened to effect a reconcili- 
 ation between the Emperor and the King of Hungary. 
 
 But the reconciliation could not be sincere. The 
 wrong was too great to be forgiven, and Rodolph con- 
 tinued to nourish at heart an unextinguishable hatred of 
 Matthias. With grief and indignation he brooded over the 
 thought that the Bohemian sceptre was finally to descend 
 into the hands of his enemy ; and the prospect was not 
 more consoling, even if Matthias should die without 
 issue. In that case, Ferdinand, Archduke of Gratz, whom 
 he equally disliked, was the head of the family. To 
 exclude the latter as well as Matthias from the succession. 
 to the throne of Bohemia, he fell upon the project of 
 diverting that inheritance to Ferdinand's brother, the 
 Archduke Leopold, Bishop of Passau, who among all his 
 relatives had ever been the dearest and most deserving. 
 The prejudices of the Bohemians in favor of the elective 
 freedom of their crown, and their attachment to Leo- 
 pold's person, seemed to favor this scheme, in which 
 Rodolph consulted rather his own partiality and vindictive- 
 ness than the good of his house. But to carry out this 
 project, a military force was requisite, and Rodolph 
 actually assembled an army in the bishopric of Passau. 
 The object of this force was hidden from all. An inroad, 
 however, which, for want of pay, it made suddenly and 
 without the Emperor's knowledge into Bohemia, and the 
 outrages which it there committed, stirred up the whole 
 kingdom against him. In vain he asserted his innocence 
 to the Bohemian Estates; they would not believe his pro- 
 testations; vainly did he attempt to restrain the violence 
 of his soldiery ; they disregarded his orders. Persuaded
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 35 
 
 that the Emperor's object was to annul the Letter of 
 Majesty, the Protectors of Liberty armed the whole of 
 Protestant Bohemia, and invited Matthias into the 
 country. After the dispersion of the force he had 
 collected at Passau, the Emperor remained helpless at 
 Prague, where he was kept shut up like a prisoner in his 
 palace, and separated from all his counsellors. In the 
 meantime Matthias entered Prague amidst universal 
 rejoicings, where Rodolph was soon afterwards weak 
 enough to acknowledge him King of Bohemia. So hard 
 a fate befell this Emperor ; he was compelled, during his 
 life, to abdicate in favor of his enemy that very throne 
 of which he had been endeavoring to deprive him after 
 his own death. To complete his degradation he was 
 obliged, by a personal act of renunciation, to release his 
 subjects in Bohemia, Silesia, and Lusatia from their 
 allegiance, and he did it with a broken heart. All, even 
 those he thought lie had most attached to his person, had 
 abandoned him. When he had signed the instrument he 
 threw his hat upon the ground, and gnawed the pen 
 which had rendered so shameful a service. 
 
 While Rodolph thus lost one hereditary dominion after 
 another the imperial dignity was not much better main- 
 tained by him. Each of the religious parties into which 
 Germany was divided continued its efforts to advance 
 itself at the expense of the other, or to guard against its 
 attacks. The weaker the hand that held the sceptre, and 
 the more the Protestants and Roman Catholics felt they 
 were left to themselves, the more vigilant necessarily 
 became their watchfulness, and the greater their distrust 
 of each other. It was enough that the Emperor was 
 ruled by Jesuits, and was guided by Spanish counsels, to 
 excite the apprehension of the Protestants and to afford a 
 pretext for hostility. The rash zeal of the Jesuits, which 
 in the pulpit and by the press disputed the validity of the 
 religious peace, increased this distrust, and caused their 
 adversaries to see a dangerous design in the most indif- 
 ferent measures of the Roman Catholics. Every step 
 taken in the hereditary dominions of the Emperor for 
 the repression of the reformed religion was sure to draw 
 the attention of all the Protestants of Germany ; and
 
 36 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 
 
 this powerful support which the reformed subjects of 
 Austria met, or expected to meet with from their reli- 
 gious confederates in the rest of Germany, was no small 
 cause of their confidence and of the rapid success of 
 Matthias. It was the general belief of the Empire that 
 they owed the long enjoyment of the religious peace 
 merely to the difficulties in which the Emperor was 
 placed by the internal troubles in his dominions ; and 
 consequently they were in no haste to relieve him from 
 them. 
 
 Almost all the affairs of the Diet were neglected, either 
 through the procrastination of the Emperor, or through 
 the fault of the Protestant Estates, who had determined 
 to make no provision for the common wants of the 
 Empire till their own grievances were removed. These 
 grievances related principally to the misgovernment of 
 the Emperor; the violation of the religious treaty, and 
 the presumptuous usurpations of the Aulic Council, 
 which in the present reign had" begun to extend its 
 jurisdiction at the expense of the Imperial Chamber. 
 Formerly, in all disputes between the Estates, which 
 could not be settled by club law, the Emperors had in 
 the last resort decided of themselves, if the case were 
 trifling, and in conjunction with the princes, if it were 
 important; or they determined them by the advice of 
 imperial judges who followed the court. This superior 
 jurisdiction they had, in the end of the fifteenth century, 
 assigned to a regular and permanent tribunal, the Im- 
 perial Chamber of Spires, in which the Estates of the 
 Empire, that they might not be oppressed by the arbi- 
 trary appointment of the Emperor, had reserved to 
 themselves the right of electing the assessors, and of 
 periodically reviewing its decrees. By the religious 
 peace, these rights of the Estates (called the rights of 
 presentation and visitation), were extended also to the 
 Lutherans, so that Protestant judges had a voice in Prot- 
 estant causes, and a seeming equality obtained for both 
 religions in this supreme tribunal. 
 
 But the enemies of the Reformation and of the freedom 
 of the Estates, vigilant to take advantage of every 
 incident that favored their views, soon found means to
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 37 
 
 neutralize the beneficial effects of this institution. A 
 supreme jurisdiction over the Imperial States was gradu- 
 ally and skilfully usurped by a private imperial tribunal, 
 the Aulic Council in Vienna, a court at first intended 
 merely to advise the Emperor in the exercise of his 
 undoubted, imperial, and personal prerogatives ; a court 
 whose members, being appointed and paid by him, had no 
 law but the interest of their master, and no standard 
 of equity but the advancement of the unreformed religion 
 of which they were partisans. Before the Aulic Council, 
 were now brought several suits originating between 
 Estates differing in religion, and which, therefore, prop- 
 erly belonged to the Imperial Chamber. It was not 
 surprising if the decrees of this tribunal bore traces of 
 their orgiu ; if the interests of the Roman Church and of 
 the Emperor were preferred to justice by Roman Catholic 
 judges, and the creatures of the Emperor. Although all 
 the Estates of Germany seemed to have equal cause for 
 resisting so perilous an abuse, the Protestants alone, who 
 most sensibly felt it, and even these not all at once and in 
 a body, came forward as the defenders of German liberty, 
 which the establishment of so arbitrary a tribunal had 
 outraged in its most sacred point, the adminstration of 
 justice. In fact, Germany would have had little cause to 
 congratulate itself upon the abolition of club law, and in 
 the institution of the Imperial Chamber, if an arbitrary 
 tribunal of the Emperor was allowed to interfere with the 
 latter. The Estates of the German Empire would indeed 
 have improved little upon the days of barbarism if the 
 Chamber of Justice, in which they sat along with the 
 Emperor as judges, and for which they had abandoned 
 their original princely prerogative, should cease to be a 
 court of the last resort. But the strangest contradictions 
 were at this date to be found in the minds of men. The 
 name of Emperor, a remnant of Roman despotism, was 
 still associated with an idea of autocracy, which, though 
 it formed a ridiculous inconsistency with the privileges of 
 the Estates, was nevertheless argued for by jurists, 
 diffused by the partisans of despotism, and believed by 
 the ignorant. 
 
 To these general grievances was gradually added a
 
 38 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 
 
 chain of singular incidents, which at length converted 
 the anxiety of the Protestants into utter distrust. During 
 the Spanish persecutions in the Netherlands several 
 Protestant families had taken refuge in Aix-la-Chapelle, 
 an imperial city, and attached to the Roman Catholic 
 faith, where they settled and insensibly extended their 
 adherents. Having succeeded by stratagem in introducing 
 some of their members into the municipal council, they 
 demanded a church and the public exercise of their 
 worship, and the demand being unfavorably received, 
 they succeeded by violence in enforcing it, and also in 
 usurping the entire government of the city. To see so 
 important a city in Protestant hands was too heavy a 
 blow for the Emperor and the Roman Catholics. After 
 all the Emperor's requests and commands for the restora- 
 tion of the olden government had proved ineffectual, the 
 Aulic Council proclaimed the city under the ban of the 
 Empire, which, however, was not put in force till the 
 following reign. 
 
 Of yet greater importance were two other attempts of 
 the Protestants to extend their influence and their power. 
 The Elector Gebhard, of Cologne (born Truchsess* of 
 Waldburg), conceived for the young Countess Agnes, of 
 Mansfield, Canoness of Gerresheim, a passion which was 
 not unreturned. As the eyes of all Germany were 
 directed to this intercourse, the brothers of the Countess, 
 two zealous Calvinists, demanded satisfaction for the 
 injured honor of their house, which, as long as the Elector 
 remained a Roman Catholic prelate, could not be repaired 
 by marriage. They threatened the Elector they would 
 wash out this stain in his blood and their sister's unless 
 he either abandoned all further connection with the 
 Countess, or consented to re-establish her reputation at 
 the altar. The Elector, indifferent to all the consequences 
 of this step, listened to nothing but the voice of love. 
 Whether it was in consequence of his previous inclination 
 to the reformed doctrines, or that the charms of his 
 mistress alone effected this wonder, he renounced the 
 Roman Catholic faith, and led the beautiful Agnes to 
 the altar. 
 
 * Grand-master of the kitchen.
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 39 
 
 This event was of the greatest importance. By the 
 letter of the clause reserving the ecclesiastical states from 
 the general operation of the religious peace, the Elector 
 had, by his apostasy, forfeited all right to the tempora- 
 lities of his bishopric ; and if, in any case, it was impor- 
 tant for the Catholics to enforce the clause, it was so 
 especially in the case of electorates. On the other hand, 
 the relinquishment of so high a dignity was a severe 
 sacrifice, and peculiarly so in the case of a tender husband, 
 who had wished to enhance the value of his heart and 
 hand by the gift of a principality. Moreover, the Reser- 
 vatum Ecclesiasticum was a disputed article of the treaty 
 of Augsburg ; and all the German Protestants were aware 
 of the extreme importance of wresting this fourth* 
 electorate from the opponents of their faith. The ex- 
 ample had already been set in several of the ecclesiastical 
 benefices of Lower Germany, and attended with success. 
 Several canons of Cologne had also already embraced the 
 Protestant confession, and were on the Elector's side, 
 while in the city itself he could depend upon the support 
 of a numerous Protestant party. All these considera- 
 tions, greatly strengthened by the persuasions of his 
 friends and relations, and the promises of several German 
 courts, determined the Elector to retain his dominions, 
 while he changed his religion. 
 
 But it was soon apparent that he had entered upon a 
 contest which he could not carry through. Even the 
 free toleration of the Protestant service within the tei - - 
 ritories of Cologne had already occasioned a violent 
 opposition on the part of the canons and .Roman Catholic 
 Estates of that province. The intervention of the Em- 
 peror, and a papal ban from Rome, which anathematized 
 the Elector as an apostate, and deprived him of all his 
 dignities, temporal and spiritual, armed his own subjects 
 and chapter against him. The Elector assembled a 
 military force ; the chapter did the same. To insure also 
 the aid of a strong arm, they proceeded fortwith to a 
 new election, and chose the Bishop of Liege, a prince of 
 Bavaria. 
 
 A civil war now commenced, which, from the strong 
 
 * Saxony, Brandenburg, and the Palatinate were already Protestant.
 
 40 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 
 
 interest which both religious parties in Germany neces- 
 sarily felt in the conjuncture, was likely to terminate in 
 a general breaking up of the religious peace. What 
 most made the Protestants indignant was that the Pope 
 should have presumed, by a pretended apostolic power, 
 to deprive a prince of the empire of his imperial dignities. 
 Even in the golden days of their spiritual domination 
 this prerogative of the Pope had been disputed ; how 
 much more likely was it to be questioned at a period 
 when his authority was entirely disowned by one party, 
 while even with the other it rested on a tottering founda- 
 tion. All the Protestant princes took up the affair 
 warmly against the Emperor ; and Henry IV. of France, 
 then King of Navarre, left no means of negotiation 
 untried to urge the German princes to the vigorous 
 assertion of their rights. The issue would decide for- 
 ever the liberties of Germany. Four Protestant against 
 three Roman Catholic voices in the Electoral College 
 must at once have given the preponderance to the former, 
 and forever excluded the House of Austria from the 
 imperial throne. 
 
 But the Elector Gebhard had embraced the Calvinist, 
 not the Lutheran religion ; and this circumstance alone 
 was his ruin. The mutual rancor of these two churches 
 would not permit the Lutheran Estates to regard the 
 Elector as one of their party, and as such to lend him 
 their effectual support. All indeed had encouraged and 
 promised him assistance ; but only one appanaged prince 
 of the Palatine House, the Palsgrave John Casimir, a 
 zealous Calvinist, kept his word. Despite of the imperial 
 prohibition he hastened with his little army into the 
 territories of Cologne ; but without being able to effect 
 anything, because the Elector, who was destitute even 
 of the first necessaries, left him totally without help. So 
 much the more rapid was the progress of the newly-chosen 
 elector, whom his Bavarian relations and the Spaniards 
 from the Netherlands supported with the utmost A-igor. 
 The troops of Gebhard, left by their master without pay, 
 abandoned one place after another to the enemy ; by 
 whom others were compelled to surrender. In his West- 
 phalian territories Gebhard held out for some time longer,
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 41 
 
 till here, too, he was at last obliged to yield to superior 
 force. After several vain attempts in Holland and 
 England to obtain means for his restoration, he retired 
 into the Chapter of Strasburg, and died dean of that 
 cathedral ; the first sacrifice to the Ecclesiastical Reser- 
 vation, or rather to the want of harmony among the 
 German Protestants. 
 
 To this dispute in Cologne was soon added another in 
 Strasburg. Several Protestant canons of Cologne, who 
 had been included in the same papal ban with the Elector, 
 had taken refuge \vithin this bishopric, where they like- 
 wise held prebends. As the Roman Catholic canons of 
 Strasburg hesitated to allow them, as being under the 
 ban, the enjoyment of their prebends, they took violent 
 possession of their benefices, and the support of a power- 
 ful Protestant party among the citizens soon gave them 
 the preponderance in the chapter. The other canons there- 
 upon retired to Alsace-Saverne, where, under the protec- 
 tion of the bishop, they established themselves as the only 
 lawful chapter, and denounced that which remained in 
 Strasburg as illegal. The latter, in the meantime, had so 
 strengthened themselves by the reception of several Prot- 
 estant colleagues of high rank that they could venture, 
 upon the death of the bishop, to nominate a new Protes- 
 tant bishop in the person of John George of Brandenburg. 
 The Roman Catholic canons, far from allowing this 
 election, nominated the Bishop of Metz, a prince of Lor- 
 raine, to that dignity, who announced his promotion by 
 immediately commencing hostilities against the territories 
 of Strasburg. 
 
 That city now took up arms in defence of its Protestant 
 chapter and the Prince of Brandendurg, while the other 
 party, with the assistance of the troops of Lorraine, 
 endeavored to possess themselves of the temporalities of 
 the chapter. A tedious war was the consequence, which, 
 according to the spirit of the times, was attended with 
 barbarous devastations. In vain did the Emperor inter- 
 pose with his supreme authority to terminate the dispute ; 
 the ecclesiastical property remained for a long time 
 divided between the two parties, till at last the Protestant 
 prince, for a moderate pecuniary equivalent, renounced
 
 42 THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 
 
 his claims ; and thus, in this dispute also, the Roman 
 Church came off victorious. 
 
 An occurrence which, soon after the adjustment of this 
 dispute, took place in Uonauwerth, a free city of Suabia, 
 was still more critical for the whole of Protestant Ger- 
 many. In this once Roman Catholic city the Protestants, 
 during the reigns of Ferdinand and his son, had, in the 
 usual way, become so completely predominant that the 
 Roman Catholics were obliged to content themselves with 
 a church in the monastery of the Holy Cross, and, for 
 fear of offending the Protestants, were even forced to 
 suppress the greater part of their religious rites. At 
 length a fanatical abbot of this monastery ventured to 
 defy the popular prejudices, and to arrange a public 
 procession, preceded by the cross and banners flying; 
 but he was soon compelled to desist from the attempt. 
 When, a year afterwards, encouraged by a favorable 
 imperial proclamation, the same abbot attempted to renew 
 this procession, the citizens proceeded to open violence. 
 The inhabitants shut the gates against the monks on 
 their return, trampled their colors under foot, and followed 
 them home with clamor and abuse. An imperial citation 
 was the consequence of this act of violence ; and as the 
 exasperated populace even threatened to assault the 
 imperial commissaries, and all attempts at an amicable 
 adjustment were frustrated by the fanaticism of the 
 multitude, the city was at last formally placed under the 
 ban of the Empire, the execution of which was entrusted 
 to Maximilian, Duke of Bavaria. The citizens, formerly 
 so insolent, were seized with terror at the approach of 
 the Bavarian army ; pusillanimity now possessed them, 
 though once so full of defiance, and they laid down their 
 arms without striking a blow. The total abolition of the 
 Protestant religion within the walls of the city was the 
 punishment of their rebellion ; it was deprived of its 
 privileges, and, from a free city of Suabia, converted into 
 a municipal town of Bavaria. 
 
 Two circumstances connected with this proceeding 
 must have strongly excited the attention of the Protes- 
 tants, even if the interests of religion had been less 
 powerful on their minds. First of all, the sentence had
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 43 
 
 been pronounced by the Aulic Council, an arbitrary and 
 exclusively Roman Catholic tribunal, whose jurisdiction 
 besides had been so warmly disputed by them; and 
 secondly, its execution had been entrusted to the Duke of 
 Bavaria, the head of another circle. These unconstitu- 
 tional steps seemed to be the harbingers of further violent 
 measures on the Roman Catholic side, the result, prob- 
 ably, of secret conferences and dangerous designs, which 
 might perhaps end in the entire subversion of their 
 religious liberty. 
 
 In circumstances where the law of force prevails, and 
 security depends upon power alone, the weakest party is 
 naturally the most busy to place itself in a posture of 
 defence. This was now the case in Germany. If the 
 Roman Catholics really meditated any evil against the 
 Protestants in Germany, the probability was that the 
 blow would fall on the south rather than the north, 
 because, in Lower Germany, the Protestants were con- 
 nected through a long unbroken tract of country, and 
 could therefore easily combine for their mutual support; 
 while those in the south, detached from each other, and 
 surrounded on all sides by Roman Catholic states, were 
 exposed to every inroad. If, moreover, as was- to be 
 expected, the Catholics availed themselves of the divis- 
 ions amongst the Protestants, and levelled their attack 
 against one of the religious parties, it was the Calvinists, 
 who as the weaker, and as being besides excluded from 
 the religious treaty, were apparently in the greatest 
 danger, and upon them would probably fall the first 
 attack. 
 
 Both these circumstances took place in the dominions 
 of the Elector Palatine, which possessed, in the Duke of 
 Bavaria, a formidable neighbor, and which, by reason of 
 their defection to Calvinism, received no protection from 
 the Religious Peace, and had little hope of succor from 
 the Lutheran states. No country in Germany had expe- 
 rienced so many revolutions in religion in such a short 
 time as the Palatinate. In the space of sixty years this 
 country, an unfortunate toy in the hands of its rulers, had 
 twice adopted the doctrines of Luther, and twice relin- 
 quished them for Calvinism. The Elector Frederick III.
 
 44 THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 
 
 first abandoned the confession of Augsburg, which his 
 eldest son and successor, Lewis, immediately re-estab- 
 lished. The Calvinists throughout the whole country were 
 deprived of their churches, their preachers and even their 
 teachers banished beyond the frontiers; while the prince, 
 in his Lutheran zeal, persecuted them even in his will, 
 by appointing none but strict and orthodox Lutherans as 
 the guardians of his son, a minor. But this illegal testa- 
 ment was disregarded by his brother, the Count Palatine, 
 John Casimir, who, by the regulations of the Golden 
 Bull, assumed the guardianship and administration of the 
 state. Calvinistic teachers were given to the Elector 
 Frederick IV., then only nine years of age, who were 
 ordered, if necessary, to drive the Lutheran heresy out 
 of the soul of their pupil with blows. If such was the 
 treatment of the sovereign, that of the subjects may be 
 easily conceived. 
 
 It was under this Frederick that the Palatine Court 
 exerted itself so vigorously to unite the Protestant states 
 of Germany in joint measures against the House of 
 Austria, and, if possible, bring about the formation of a 
 general confederacy. Besides that this court had always 
 been guided by the counsels of France, with whom hatred 
 of the House of Austria was the ruling principle, a regard 
 for his own safety urged him to secure in time the doubt- 
 ful assistance of the Lutherans against a near and over- 
 whelming enemy. Great difficulties, however, opposed 
 this union, because the Lutherans' dislike of the Reformed 
 was scarcely less than the common aversion of both to 
 the Romanists. An attempt was first made to reconcile 
 the two professions, in order to facilitate a political union ; 
 but all these attempts failed and generally ended in both 
 parties adhering the more strongly to their respective opin- 
 ions. Nothing then remained but to increase the fear 
 and the distrust of the Evangelicals, and in this way to 
 impress upon them the necessity of this alliance. The 
 power of the Roman Catholics and the magnitude of the 
 danger were exaggerated, accidental incidents were 
 ascribed to deliberate plans, innocent actions misrepre- 
 sented by invidious constructions, and the whole conduct 
 of the professors of the olden religion was interpreted as
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 45 
 
 the result of a well-weighed and systematic plan, which, 
 in all probability, they were very far from having con- 
 certed. 
 
 The Diet of Ratisbon, to which the Protestants had 
 looked forward with the hope of obtaining a renewal of 
 the Religious Peace, had broken up without coming to a 
 decision, and to the former grievances of the Protestant 
 party was now added the late oppression of Donauwerth. 
 With incredible speed the union, so long attempted, was 
 now brought to bear. A conference took place at 
 Anhausen, in Franconia, at which were present the 
 Elector Frederick IV., from the Palatinate, the Palsgrave 
 of Neuburg, two Margraves of Brandenburg, the Mar- 
 grave of Baden, and the Duke John Frederick of Wir- 
 temburg, Lutherans as well as Calvinists, who for 
 themselves and their heirs entered into a close confed- 
 eracy under the title of the Evangelical Union. The 
 purport of this union was, that the allied princes should, 
 in all matters relating to religion and their civil rights, 
 suppoi-t each other with arms and counsel against every 
 aggressor, and should all stand as one man ; that in case 
 any member of the alliance should be attacked, he should 
 be assisted by the rest with an armed force ; that, if 
 necessary, the territories, towns, and castles of the allied 
 states should be open to his troops ; and that whatever 
 conquests were made should be divided among all the 
 confederates, in proportion to the contingent furnished 
 by each. 
 
 The direction of the whole confederacy in time of peace 
 was conferred upon the Elector Palatine, but with a limit- 
 ed power. To meet the necessary expenses, sudsidies 
 were demanded, and a common fund established. Differ- 
 ences of religion ( betwixt the Lutherans and the Calvin- 
 ists) were to have no effect on this alliance, which was to 
 subsist for ten years, every member of the union engaged 
 at the same time to procure new members to it. The 
 Electorate of Brandenburg adopted the alliance, that of 
 Saxony rejected it. Hesse-Cashel could not be prevailed 
 upon to declare itself, the Dukes of Brunswick and Lune- 
 burg also hesitated. But the three cities of the Empire, 
 Strasburg, Nuremburg, and Ulm, were no unimportant
 
 46 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 
 
 acquisition for the League, which was in great want of their 
 money, while their example, besides, might be followed by 
 other imperial cities. 
 
 After the formation of this alliance, the confederate 
 states, dispirited and, singly, little feared, adopted a bolder 
 language. Through Prince Christian of Anhalt they laid 
 their common grievances and demands before the Em- 
 peror ; among which the principal were the restoration of 
 Donauwerth, the abolition of the Imperial Court, the refor- 
 mation of the Emperor's own administration and that of 
 his counsellors. For these remonstrances, they chose the 
 moment when the Emperor had scarcely recovered breath 
 from the troubles in his hereditary dominions, when he 
 had lost Hungary and Austria to Matthias, and had barely 
 preserved his Bohemian throne by the concession of the 
 Letter of Majesty, and finally, when through the succes- 
 sion of Juliers he was already threatened with the distant 
 prospect of a new war. No wonder, then, that this dila- 
 tory prince was more irresolute than ever in his decision, 
 and that the confederates took up arms before he could 
 bethink himself. 
 
 The Roman Catholics regarded this confederacy with 
 a jealous eye ; the Union viewed them and the Emperor 
 with the like distrust ; the Emperor was equally suspicious 
 of both ; and thus, on all sides, alarm arid animosity had 
 reached their climax. And, as if to crown the whole, at 
 this critical conjuncture, by the death of the Duke John 
 William of Juliers, a highly disputable succession became 
 vacant in the territories of Juliers and Cleves. 
 
 Eight competitors laid claim to this territory, the indi- 
 visibility of which had been guaranteed by solemn treaties ; 
 and the Emperor, who seemed disposed to enter upon it as 
 a vacant fief, might be considered as the ninth. Four of 
 these, the Elector of Brandenburg, the Count Palatine of 
 Neuburg, the Count Palatine of Deux Ponts, and the Mar- 
 grave of Bergau, an Austrian prince, claimed it as a female 
 fief in name of four princesses, sisters of the late duke. 
 Two others, the Elector of Saxony, of the line of Albert, 
 and the Duke of Saxony, of the line of Ernest, laid claim 
 to it under a prior right of reversion granted to them by 
 the Emperor Frederick III., and confirmed to both Saxon
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 47 
 
 houses by Maximilian I. The pretensions of some foreign 
 princes were little regarded. The best right was perhaps 
 on the side of Brandenburg and Neuberg, and between 
 the claims of the two it was not easy to decide. Both 
 courts, as soon as the succession was vacant, proceeded to 
 take possession ; Brandenburg beginning, and Neuberg 
 following the example. Both commenced their dispute 
 with the pen, and would probably have ended it with the 
 sword : but the interference of the Emperor, by proceed- 
 ing to bring the cause before his own cognizance, and, 
 during the progress of the suit, sequestrating the disputed 
 countries, soon brought the contending parties to an agree- 
 ment, in order to avert the common danger. They agreed 
 to govern the duchy conjointly. In vain did the Emperor 
 prohibit the Estates from doing homage to their new mas- 
 ters ; in vain did he send his own relation, the Archduke 
 Leopold, Bishop of Passau and Strasburg, into the terri- 
 tory of Juliers, in order, by his presence, to strengthen the 
 imperial party. The whole country, with the exception of 
 Juliers itself, had submitted to the Protestant princes, and 
 in that capital the imperialists were besieged. 
 
 The dispute about the succession of Juliers was an im- 
 portant one to the whole German Empire, and also at- 
 tracted the attention of several European courts. It was 
 not so much the question, who was or was not to possess 
 the Duchy of Juliers; the real question was, which of 
 the two religious parties in Germany, the Roman Catholic 
 or the Protestant, was to be strengthened by so important 
 an accession for which of the two religions this terri- 
 tory was to be lost or won. The question in short was, 
 whether Austria was to be allowed to persevere in her 
 usurpations, and to gratify her lust of dominion by another 
 robbery ; or whether the liberties of Germany, and the 
 balance of power, were to be maintained against her en- 
 croachments. The disputed succession of Juliers, there- 
 fore, was matter which interested all who were favorable 
 to liberty and hostile to Austria. The Evangelical Union, 
 Holland, England, and particularly Henry IV. of France 
 were drawn into the strife. 
 
 This monarch, the flower of whose life had been spent 
 in opposing the House of Austria and Spain, and by per-
 
 48 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 
 
 severing heroism alone had surmounted the obstacles 
 which this house had thrown between him and the French 
 throne, had been no idle spectator of the troubles in Ger- 
 many. This contest of the Estates with the Emperor was 
 the means of giving and securing peace to France. The 
 Protestants and the Turks were the two salutary weights 
 which kept down the Austrian power in the East and 
 West : but it would rise again in all its terrors, if once it 
 were allowed to remove this pressure. Henry IV. had 
 before his eyes for half a lifetime the uninterrupted spec- 
 tacle of Austrian ambition and Austrian lust of domin- 
 ion, which neither adversity nor poverty of talents, though 
 generally they check all human passions, could extinguish 
 in a bosom wherein flowed one drop of the blood of 
 Ferdinand of Arragon. Austrian ambition had destroyed 
 for a century the peace of Europe, and effected the 
 most violent changes in the heart of its most considerable 
 states. It had deprived the fields of husbandmen, the 
 workshops of artisans, to fill the land with enormous 
 armies, and to cover the commercial sea with hostile fleets. 
 It had imposed upon the princes of Europe the necessity 
 of fettering the industry of their subjects by unheard-of 
 imposts ; and of wasting in self-defence the best strength 
 of their states, which was thus lost to the prosperity of 
 their inhabitants. For Europe there was no peace, for its 
 states no welfare, for the people's happiness no security 
 or permanence, so long as this dangerous house was per- 
 mitted to disturb at pleasure the repose of the world. 
 
 Such considerations clouded the mind of Henry at the 
 close of his glorious career. What had it not cost him to 
 reduce to order the troubled chaos into which France had 
 been plunged by the tumult of civil war, fomented and 
 supported by this very Austria ! Every great mind labors 
 for eternity ; and what security had Henry for the endur- 
 ance of that prosperity, which he had gained for France, 
 so long as Austria and Spain formed a single power, 
 which did indeed lie exhausted for the present, but which 
 required only one lucky chance to be speedily reunited, 
 and to spring up again as formidable as ever. If he would 
 bequeath to his successors a firmly established throne, and 
 a durable prosperity to his subjects, this dangerous power
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 49 
 
 must bo forever disarmed. This was the source of that 
 irreconcilable eumity which Henry had sworn to the 
 House of Austria, a haired unextinguishable, ardent, and 
 well-founded as that of Hannibal against the people of 
 Romulus, but ennobled by a purer origin. 
 
 The other European powers had the same inducements 
 to action as Henry, but all of them had not that enlight- 
 ened policy, nor that disinterested courage to act upon 
 the impulse. All men, without distinction, are allured by 
 immediate advantages ; great minds alone are excited by 
 distant good. So long as wisdom in its projects calculates 
 upon wisdom, or relies upon its own strength, it forms 
 none but chimerical schemes, and runs a risk of making 
 itself the laughter of the world ; but it is certain of suc- 
 cess, and may reckon upon aid and admiration when it 
 finds a place in its intellectual plans for barbarism, rapac- 
 ity, and superstition, and can render the selfish passions 
 of mankind the executors of its purposes. 
 
 In the first point of view, Henry's well-known project 
 of expelling the House of Austria from all its possessions, 
 and dividing the spoil among the European powers, de- 
 serves the title of a chimera, which men have so liberally 
 bestowed upon it; but did it merit that appellation in the 
 second ? It had never entered into the head of that excel- 
 lent monarch, in the choice of those who must be the 
 instruments of his designs, to reckon on the sufficiency of 
 such motives as animated himself and Sully to the enter- 
 prise. All the' states whose co-operation was necessary 
 were to be persuaded to the work by the strongest motives 
 that can set a political power in action. From the Prot- 
 estants in Germany nothing more was required than that 
 which, on other grounds, had been long their object, 
 their throwing off the Austrian yoke; from the Flem- 
 ings, a similar revolt from the Spaniards. To the Pope 
 and all the Italian republics no inducement could be more 
 powerful than the hope of driving the Spaniards forever 
 from their peninsula ; for England, nothing more desirable 
 than a revolution which should free it from its bitterest 
 enemy. By this division of the Austrian conquests every 
 power gained either land or freedom, new possessions or 
 security for the old ; and, as all gained, the balance of
 
 50 THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 
 
 power remained undisturbed. France might magnani- 
 mously decline a share in the spoil, because by the ruin 
 of Austria it doubly profited, and was most powerful if 
 it did not become more powerful. Finally, upon condi- 
 tion of ridding Europe of their presence, the posterity of 
 Hapsburg were to be allowed the liberty of augmenting 
 her territories in all the other known or yet undiscovered 
 portions of the globe. But the dagger of Ravaillac deliv- 
 ered Austria from her danger, to postpone for some cen- 
 turies longer the tranquillity of Europe. 
 
 With his view directed to this project, Henry felt the 
 necessity of taking a prompt and active part in the impor- 
 tant events of the Evangelical Union, and the disputed 
 succession of Juliers. His emissaries were busy in all the 
 courts of Germany, and the little which they published or 
 allowed to escape of the great political secrets of their 
 master was sufficient to win over minds inflamed by so 
 ardent a hatred to Austria, and by so strong a desire of 
 aggrandizement. The prudent policy of Henry cemented 
 the Union still more closely, and the powerful aid which 
 he bound himself to furnish raised the courage of the 
 confederates into the firmest confidence. A numerous 
 French army, led by the king in person, was to meet the 
 troops of the Union on the banks of the Rhine, and to 
 assist in effecting the conquest of Juliers and Cleves; 
 then, in conjunction with the Germans, it was to march 
 into Italy (where Savoy, Venice, and the Pope were even 
 now ready with a powerful reinforcement), and to over- 
 throw the Spanish dominion in that quarter. This victo- 
 rious army was then to penetrate by Lombardy into the 
 hereditary dominions of Hapsburg ; and there, favored 
 by a general insurrection of the Protestants, destroy the 
 power of Austria in all its German territories, in Bohemia, 
 Hungary, and Transylvania. The Brabanters and Hol- 
 landers, supported by French auxiliaries, would in the 
 meantime shake off the Spanish tyranny in the Nether- 
 lands, and thus the mighty stream which, only a short time 
 before, had so fearfully overflowed its banks, threatening to 
 overwhelm in its troubled waters the liberties of Europe, 
 would then roll silent and forgotten behind the Pyrenean 
 mountains.
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS* WAE. 51 
 
 At other times the French had boasted of their rapidity 
 of action, but upon this occasion they were outstripped 
 by the Germans. An army of the confederates entered 
 Alsace before Henry made his appearance there, and an 
 Austrian army, which the Bishop of Strasburg and Passau 
 had assembled in that quarter for an expedition against 
 Juliers, was dispersed. Henry IV. had formed his plan 
 as a statesman and a king, but he had intrusted its execu- 
 tion to plunderers. According to his design, no Roman 
 Catholic state was to have cause to think this preparation 
 aimed against itself, or to make the quarrel of Austria its 
 own. Religion was in nowise to be mixed up vith the 
 matter. But how could the German princes forget their 
 own purposes in furthering the plans of Henry ? Actuated 
 as they were by the desire of aggrandizement and by 
 religious hatred, was it to be supposed that they would 
 not gratify, in every passing opportunity, their ruling pas- 
 sions to the utmost? Like vultures, they stooped upon 
 the territories of the ecclesiastical princes, and always 
 chose those rich countries for their quarters, though to 
 reach them they must make ever so wide a detour from 
 their direct route. They levied contributions as in an 
 enemy's country, seized upon the revenues, and exacted 
 by violence what they could not obtain of free-will. Not 
 to leave the Roman Catholics in doubt as to the true 
 objects of their expedition, they announced, openly and 
 intelligibly enough, the fate that awaited the property of 
 the church. So little had Henry IV. and the German 
 princes understood each other in their plan of operations, 
 so much had the excellent king been mistaken in his instru- 
 ments . It is an unfailing maxim, that, if policy enjoins 
 an act of violence, its execution ought never to be entrust- 
 ed to the violent ; and that he only ought to be trusted 
 with the violation of order by whom order is held sacred. 
 
 Both the past conduct of the Union, which was con- 
 demned even by several of the evangelical states, and the 
 apprehension of even woi'se treatment, aroused the Roman 
 Catholics to something beyond mere inactive indignation. 
 As to the Emperor, his authority had sunk too low to 
 afford them any security against such an enemy. It was 
 their Union that rendered the confederates so formidable
 
 52 THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 
 
 and so insolent ; and another union must now be opposed 
 to them. 
 
 The Bishop of Wurtzburg formed the plan of the Cath- 
 olic Union, which was distinguished from the evangelical 
 by the title of the League. The objects agreed upon 
 were nearly the same as those which constituted the 
 groundwork of the Union. Bishops formed its principal 
 members, and at its head was placed Maximilian, Duke of 
 Bavaria. As the only influential secular member of the 
 confederacy, he was entrusted with far more extensive 
 powers than the Protestants had committed to their chief. 
 In addition to the Duke's being the sole head of the 
 League's military power, whereby their operations ac- 
 quired a speed and weight unattainable by the Union, 
 they had also the advantage that supplies flowed in much 
 more regularly from the rich prelates, than the latter 
 could obtain them from the poor evangelical states. 
 Without offering to the Emperor, as the sovereign of a 
 Roman Catholic state, any share in their confederacy, 
 without ever communicating its existence to him as 
 Emperor, the League arose at once formidable and 
 threatening ; with strength sufficient to crush the Protest- 
 ant Union and to maintain itself under three emperors. 
 It contended, indeed, for Austria, in so far as it fought 
 against the Protestant princes ; but Austria herself had 
 soon cause to tremble before it. 
 
 The arms of the Union had, in the meantime, been 
 tolerably successful in Juliers and in Alsace ; Juliers was 
 closely blockaded, and the whole bishopric of Strasburg 
 was in their power. But here their splendid achieve- 
 ments came to an end. No French army appeared 
 upon the Rhine; for he who was to be its leader, he who 
 was the animating soul of the whole enterprise, Henry 
 IV., was no more ! Their supplies were on the wane ; the 
 Estates refused to grant new subsidies ; and the confeder- 
 ate free cities were offended that their money should 
 be liberally, but their advice so sparingly called for. 
 Especially were they displeased at being put to expense 
 for the expedition against Juliers, which had been 
 expressly excluded from the affairs of the Union at the 
 united princes appropriating to themselves large pensions
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAB. 53 
 
 out of the common treasure and, above all, at their 
 refusing to give any account of its expenditure. 
 
 The Union was thus verging to its fall at the moment 
 when the League started to oppose it in the vigor of its 
 strength. Want of supplies disabled the confederates 
 from any longer keeping the field. And yet it was 
 dangerous to lay down their weapons in the sight of an 
 armed enemy. To secure themselves at least on one side 
 they hastened to conclude a peace with their old enemy, 
 the Archduke Leopold ; and both parties agreed to with- 
 draw their troops from Alsace, to exchange prisoners, 
 and to bury all that had been done in oblivion. Thus 
 ended in nothing all these promising preparations. 
 
 The same imperious tone with which the Union, in the 
 confidence of its strength, had menaced the Roman Cath- 
 olics of Germany, was now retorted by the League upon 
 themselves and their troops. The traces of their march 
 were pointed out to them, and plainly branded with the 
 hard epithets they had deserved. The chapters of 
 Wurtzburg, Bamberg, Strasburg, Mentz, Treves, Cologne, 
 and several others, had experienced their destructive 
 presence ; to all these the damage done was to be made 
 good, the free passage by land and by water restored 
 (for the Protestants had even seized on the navigation of 
 the Rhine), and everything replaced on its former footing. 
 Above all, the parties to the Union were called on to 
 declare expressly and unequivocally its intentions. It 
 was now their turn to yield to superior strength. They 
 had not calculated on so formidable an opponent; but 
 they themselves had taught the Roman Catholics the 
 secret of their strength. It was humiliating to their pride 
 to sue for peace, but they might think themselves for- 
 tunate in obtaining it. The one party promised restitu- 
 tion, the other forgiveness. All laid down their arms. 
 The storm of war once more rolled by, and a temporary 
 calm succeeded. The insurrection in Bohemia then broke 
 out, which deprived the Emperor of the last of his hered- 
 itary dominions, but in this dispute neither the Union nor 
 the League took any share. 
 
 At length the Emperor died, in 1612, as little regretted 
 in his coffin as noticed on the throne. Long afterwards,
 
 54 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 
 
 when the miseries of succeeding reigns had made the 
 misfortunes of his reign forgotten, a halo spread about 
 his memory, and so fearful a night set in upon Germany 
 that, with tears of blood, people prayed for the return of 
 such an emperor. 
 
 Rodolph never could be prevailed upon to choose a 
 successor in the Empire, and all awaited with anxiety the 
 approaching vacancy of the throne; but, beyond all 
 hope, Matthias at once ascended it, and without oppo- 
 sition. The Roman Catholics gave him their voices, 
 because they hoped the best from his vigor and activity ; 
 the Protestants gave him theirs, because they hoped 
 everything from his weakness. It was not difficult to 
 reconcile this contradiction. The one relied on what he 
 had once appeared; the other judged him by what he 
 seemed at present. 
 
 The moment of a new accession is always a day of 
 hope ; and the first Diet of a king in elective monarchies 
 is usually his severest trial. Every old grievance is 
 brought forward, and new ones are sought out, that they 
 may be included in the expected reform ; quite a new 
 world is expected to commence with the new reign. The 
 important services which, in his insurrection, their relig- 
 ious confederates in Austria had rendered to Matthias, 
 were still fresh in the minds of the Protestant free cities, 
 and, above all, the price which they had exacted for their 
 services seemed now to serve them also as a model. 
 
 It was by the favor of the Protestant Estates in 
 Austria and Moravia that Matthias had sought and really 
 found the way to his brother's throne ; but, hurried on 
 by his ambitious views, he never reflected that a way was 
 thus opened for the States to give laws to their sovereign. 
 This discovery soon awoke him from the intoxication of 
 success. Scarcely had he shown himself in triumph to 
 his Austrian subjects, after his victorious expedition to 
 Bohemia, when an humble petition awaited him which was 
 quite sufficient to poison his whole triumph. They 
 required, before doing homage, unlimited religious toler- 
 ation in the cities and market towns, perfect equality of 
 rights between Roman Catholics and Protestants, and a 
 full and equal admissibility of the latter to all offices of
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS* WAK. 55 
 
 state. In several places they of themselves assumed 
 these privileges, and, reckoning on a change of adminis- 
 tration, restored the Protestant religion where the late 
 Emperor had suppressed it. Matthias, it is true, had not 
 scrupled to make use of the grievances of the Protestants 
 for his own ends against the Emperor ; but it was far 
 from being his intention to relieve them. By a firm and 
 resolute tone he hoped to check at once these presump- 
 tuous demands. He spoke of his hereditary title to these 
 territories, and would hear of no stipulations before the 
 act of homage. A like unconditional submission had 
 been rendered by their neighbors, the inhabitants of 
 Styria, to the Archduke Ferdinand, who, however, had 
 soon reason to repent of it. Wai'ned by this example, 
 the Austrian States persisted in their refusal ; and, to 
 avoid being compelled by force to do homage, their 
 deputies (after urging their Roman Catholic colleagues 
 to a similar resistance) immediately left the capital, and 
 began to levy troops. 
 
 They took steps to renew their old alliance with 
 Hungary, drew the Protestant princes into their interests, 
 and set themselves seriously to work to accomplish their 
 object by force of arms. 
 
 With the more exorbitant demands of the Hungarians 
 Matthias had not hesitated to comply. For Hungary 
 was an elective monarchy, and the republican constitution 
 of the country justified to himself their demands, and to 
 the Roman Catholic world his concessions. In Austria, 
 on the contrary, his predecessors had exercised far 
 higher prerogatives, which he could not relinquish at the 
 demand of the Estates without incurring the scorn of 
 Roman Catholic Europe, the enmity of Spain and Rome, 
 and the contempt of his own Roman Catholic subjects. 
 His exclusively Romish council, among which the Bishop 
 of Vienna, Melchio Kiesel, had the chief influence, 
 exhorted him to see all the churches extorted from him 
 by the Protestants rather than to concede one to them 
 as a matter of right. 
 
 But by ill luck this difficulty occurred at a time when 
 the Emperor Rodolph was yet alive and a spectator of 
 this scene, and who might easily have been tempted to
 
 56 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 
 
 employ against his brother the same weapons which the 
 latter had successfully directed against him namely, an 
 understanding with his rebellious subjects. To avoid 
 this blow, Matthias willingly availed himself of the offer 
 made by Moravia, to act as mediator between him and 
 the Estates of Austria. Representatives of both parties 
 met in Vienna, when the Austrian deputies held language 
 which would have excited surprise even in the English 
 Parliament. " The Protestants," they said, " are deter- 
 mined to be not worse treated in their native country 
 than the handful of Romanists. By the help of his 
 Protestant nobles had Matthias reduced the Emperor to 
 submission; where eighty Papists were to be found three 
 hundred Protestant barons might be counted. The ex- 
 ample of Rodolph should be a warning to Matthias. He 
 should take care that he did not lose the terrestrial in at- 
 tempting to make conquests for the celestial." As the 
 Moravian States, instead of using their powers as mediators 
 for the Emperor's advantage, finally adopted the cause of 
 their co-religionists of Austria ; as the Union in Germany 
 came forward to afford them its most active support, and 
 as Matthias dreaded reprisals on the part of the Emperor, 
 he was at length compelled to make the desired declara- 
 tion in favor of the Evangelical Church. 
 
 This behavior of the Austrian Estates towards their 
 Archduke was now imitated by the Protestant Estates 
 of the Empire towards their Emperor, and they promised 
 themselves the same favorable results. At his first Diet 
 at Ratisbon, in 1613, when the most pressing affairs were 
 waiting for decision when a general contribution was in- 
 dispensable for a war against Turkey, and against Bethlem 
 Gabor in Transylvania, who by Turkish aid had forcibly 
 usurped the sovereignty of that land, and even threatened 
 Hungary they surprised him with an entirely new de- 
 mand. The Roman Catholic votes were still the most numer- 
 ous in the Diet ; and as everything was decided by a plural- 
 ity of voices, the Protestant party, however closely united, 
 were entirely without consideration. The advantage of 
 this majority the Roman Catholics were now called on to 
 relinquish ; henceforward no one religious party was to 
 be permitted to dictate to the other by means of its
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 57 
 
 invariable superiority. And, in truth, if the evangelical 
 religion was really to be represented in the Diet, it was 
 self-evident that it must not be shut out from the possi- 
 bility of making use of that privilege, merely from the 
 constitution of the Diet itself. Complaints of the judi- 
 cial usurpations of the Aulic Council, and of the oppres- 
 sion of the Protestants, accompanied this demand, and 
 the deputies of the Estates were instructed to take no 
 part in any general deliberations till a favorable answer 
 should be given on this preliminary point. 
 
 The Diet was torn asunder by this dangerous division, 
 which threatened to destroy forever the unity of its de- 
 liberations. Sincerely as the Emperor might have wished, 
 after the example of his father, Maximilian, to preserve a 
 prudent balance between the two religions, the present 
 conduct of the Protestants seemed to leave him nothing 
 but a critical choice between the two. In his present 
 necessities a general contribution from the Estates was 
 indispensable to him ; and yet he could not conciliate the 
 one party without sacrificing the support of the other. 
 Insecure as he felt his situation to be in his own heredi- 
 tary dominions, he could not but tremble at the idea, 
 however remote, of an open war with the Protestants. 
 But the eyes of the whole Roman Catholic world, which 
 were attentively regarding his conduct, the remonstrances 
 of the Roman Catholic Estates, and of the Courts of Rome 
 and Spain, as little permitted him to favor the Protestant 
 at the expense of the Romish religion. 
 
 So critical a situation would have paralyzed a greater 
 mind than Matthias ; and his own prudence would scarcely 
 have extricated him from his dilemma. But the interests 
 of the Roman Catholics were closely interwoven with the 
 imperial authority; if they suffered this to fall the 
 ecclesiastical princes in particular would be without a 
 bulwark against the attacks of the Protestants. Now, 
 then, that they saw the Emperor wavering, they thought 
 it high time to reassure his sinking courage. They 
 imparted to him the secret of their League, and ac- 
 quainted him with its whole constitution, resources, and 
 power. Little comforting as such a revelation must have 
 been to the Emperor, the prospect of so powerful a
 
 58 THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 
 
 support gave him greater boldness to oppose the Prot- 
 estants. Their demands were rejected, and the Diet 
 broke up without coming to a decision. But Matthias 
 was the victim of this dispute. The Protestants refused 
 him their supplies, and made him alone suffer for the 
 inflexibility of the Roman Catholics. 
 
 The Turks, however, appeared willing to prolong the 
 cessation of hostilities, and Bethlern Gabor was left in 
 peaceable possession of Transylvania. The empire was 
 now free from foreign enemies ; and even at home, in the 
 midst of all these fearful disputes, peace still reigned. 
 An unexpected accident had given a singular turn to the 
 dispute as to the succession of Juliers. This duchy was 
 still ruled conjointly by the Electoral House of Branden- 
 burg and the Palatine of Neuberg: and a marriage 
 between the Prince of Neuberg and a Princess of Branden- 
 burg was to have inseparably united the interests of the two 
 houses. But the whole scheme was upset by a box on 
 the ear, which, in a drunken brawl, the Elector of 
 Brandenburg unfortunately inflicted upon his intended 
 son-in-law. From this moment the good understanding 
 between the two houses was at an end. The Prince of 
 Neuberg embraced popery. The hand of a princess of 
 Bavaria rewarded his apostasy, and the strong support of 
 Bavaria and Spain was the natural result of both. To 
 secure to the Palatine the exclusive possession of Juliers, 
 the Spanish troops from the Netherlands were marched 
 into the Palatinate. To rid himself of these guests, the 
 Elector of Brandenburg called the Flemings to his 
 assistance, whom he sought to propitiate by embracing 
 the Calvinist religion. Both Spanish and Dutch armies 
 appeared, but, as it seemed, only to make conquests for 
 themselves. 
 
 The neighboring war of the Netherlands seemed now 
 about to be decided on German ground ; and what an 
 inexhaustible mine of combustibles lay here ready for it ! 
 The Protestants saw with consternation the Spaniards 
 establishing themselves upon the Lower Rhine ; with still 
 greater anxiety did the Roman Catholics see the Hol- 
 landers bursting through the frontiers of the empire. 
 It was in the west that the mine was expected to explode
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 59 
 
 which had long been dug under the whole of Germany. 
 To the west apprehension and anxiety turned ; but the 
 spark which kindled the flame came unexpectedly from 
 the east. 
 
 The tranquillity w*hich the Letter of Majesty of 
 Rodolph II. had established in Bohemia lasted for some 
 time under the administration of Matthias, till the 
 nomination of a new heir to this kingdom in the person 
 of Ferdinand of Gratz. 
 
 This prince, whom we shall afterwards become better 
 acquainted with under the title of Ferdinand II.,- Em- 
 peror of Germany, had, by the violent extirpation of the 
 Protestant religion within his hereditary dominions, an- 
 nounced himself as an inexorable zealot for popery, and 
 w.-is consequently looked upon by the Roman Catholic 
 part of Bohemia as the future pillar of their church. 
 T!K> declining health of the Emperor brought on this 
 hour rapidly ; and, relying on so powerful a supporter, 
 the Bohemian Papists began to treat the Protestants with 
 little moderation. The Protestant vassals of Roman 
 Catholic nobles, in particular, experienced the harshest 
 treatment. At length several of the former were in- 
 cautious enough to speak somewhat loudly of their hopes, 
 and by threatening hints to awaken among the Prot- 
 estants a suspicion of their future sovereign. But this 
 mistrust would never have broken out into actual 
 violence had the Roman Catholics confined themselves 
 to general expressions, and not by attacks on individuals 
 furnished the discontent of the people with enterprising 
 leaders. 
 
 Henry Matthias, Count Thurn, not a native of Bohemia, 
 but proprietor of some estates in that kingdom, had, by 
 his zeal for the Protestant cause, and an enthusiastic 
 attachment to his newly-adopted country, gained the 
 entire confidence of the Utraquists, which opened him 
 the way to the most important posts. He had fought 
 with great glory against the Turks, and won by a 
 flattering address the hearts of the multitude. Of a hot 
 and impetuous disposition, which loved tumult because 
 his talents shone in it rash and thoughtless enough to 
 undertake things which cold prudence and a calmer
 
 60 THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 
 
 temper would not have ventured upon unscrupulous 
 enough, where the gratification of his passions was con- 
 cerned, to sport with the fate of thousands, and at the 
 same time politic enough to hold in leading-strings such 
 a people as the Bohemians then were. He had already 
 taken an active part in the troubles under Rodolph's 
 administration; and the Letter of Majesty which the 
 States had extorted from that Emperor was chiefly to be 
 laid to his merit. The court had entrusted to him, as 
 burgrave or castellan of Calstein, the custody of the 
 Bohemian crown and of the national charter. But the 
 nation had placed in his hands something far more 
 important itself with the office of defender or pro- 
 tector of the faith. The aristocracy, by which the 
 Emperor w r as ruled, imprudently deprived him of this 
 harmless guardianship of the dead, to leave him his full 
 influence over the living. They took him from his office 
 of burgrave, or constable of the castle, which had rendered 
 him dependent on the court, thereby opening his eyes 
 to the importance of the other which remained, and 
 wounded his vanity, which yet was the thing that made 
 his ambition harmless. From this moment he was act- 
 uated solely by a desire of revenge ; and the opportunity 
 of gratifying it was not long wanting. 
 
 In the Royal Letter which the Bohemians had extorted 
 from Rodolph II., as well as in the German religious 
 treaty, one material article remained undetermined. All 
 the privileges granted by the latter to the Protestants 
 were conceived in favor of the Estates or governing 
 bodies, not of the subjects; for only to those of the 
 ecclesiastical states had a toleration, and that precarious, 
 been conceded. The Bohemian Letter of Majesty, in the 
 same manner, spoke only of the Estates and imperial 
 towns, the magistrates of which had contrived to obtain 
 equal privileges with the former. These alone were free 
 to erect churches and schools, and openly to celebrate 
 their Protestant worship; in all other towns, it was left 
 entirely to the government to which they belonged to 
 determine the religion of the inhabitants. The Estates of 
 the Empire had availed themselves of this privilege in its 
 fullest extent ; the secular, indeed, without opposition ;
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS* WAB. 61 
 
 while the ecclesiastical, in whose case the declaration of 
 Ferdinand had limited this privilege, disputed, not with- 
 out reason, the validity of that limitation. What was a 
 disputed point in the religious treaty was left still more 
 doubtful in the Letter of Majesty ; in the former the 
 construction was not doubtful, but it was a question how 
 far obedience might be compulsory ; in the latter the 
 interpretation was left to the states. The subjects of the 
 ecclesiastical Estates in Bohemia thought themselves 
 entitled to the same rights which the declaration of 
 Ferdinand secured to the subjects of German bishops; 
 they considered themselves on an equality with the 
 subjects of imperial towns, because they looked upon the 
 ecclesiastical property as part of the royal demesnes. In 
 the little town of Klostergrab, subject to the Archbishop 
 of Prague, and in Braunau, which belonged to the abbot 
 of that monastery, churches were founded by the Prot- 
 estants, and completed, notwithstanding the opposition 
 of their superiors and the disapprobation of the Emperor. 
 In the meantime the vigilance of the defenders had 
 somewhat relaxed, and the court thought it might venture 
 on a decisive step. By the Emperor's orders the church 
 at Klostergrab was pulled down, that at Braunau forcibly 
 shut up, and the most turbulent of the citizens thrown 
 into prison. A general commotion among the Protestants 
 was the consequence of this measure ; a loud outcry was 
 everywhere raised at this violation of the Letter of 
 Majesty ; and Count Thurn, animated by revenge, and 
 particularly called upon by his office of defender, showed 
 himself not a little busy inflaming the minds of the 
 people. At his instigation deputies were summoned to 
 Prague from every circle in the empire, to concert the 
 necessary measures against the common danger. It was 
 resolved to petition the Emperor to press for the libera- 
 tion of the prisoners. The answer of the Emperor, 
 already offensive to the states, from its being addressed, 
 not to them, but to his viceroy, denounced their conduct 
 as illegal and rebellious, justified what had been done at 
 Klostergarb and Braunau as the result of an imperial 
 mandate, and contained some passages that might be 
 construed into threats.
 
 62 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 
 
 Count Thurn did not fail to augment the unfavorable 
 impression which this imperial edict made upon the 
 assembled Estates. He pointed out to them the danger 
 in which all who had signed the petition were involved, 
 and sought by working on their resentment and fears to 
 hurry them into violent resolutions. To have caused 
 their immediate revolt against the Emperor would have 
 been, as yet, too bold a measure. It was only step by 
 step that he would lead them on to this unavoidable 
 result. He held it, therefore, advisable first to direct 
 their indignation against the Emperor's counsellors ; and 
 for that purpose circulated a report that the imperial 
 proclamation had been drawn up by the government at 
 Prague, and only signed in Vienna. Among the imperial 
 delegates, the chief objects of the popular hatred, were 
 the President of the Chamber, Slawata, and Baron 
 Martinitz, who had been elected in place of Count Thurn, 
 Bunn-ave of Calstein. Both had long before evinced 
 
 o o 
 
 pretty openly their hostile feelings towards the Prot- 
 estants, by alone refusing to be present at the sitting at 
 which the Letter of Majesty had been inserted in the 
 Bohemian constitution. A threat was made at the time 
 to make them responsible for every violation of the Letter 
 of Majesty ; and from this moment, whatever evil befell 
 the Protestants was set down, and not without reason, to 
 their account. Of all the Roman Catholic nobles, these 
 two had treated their Protestant vassals with the greatest 
 harshness. They were accused of hunting them with 
 dogs to the mass, and of endeavoring to drive them to 
 popery by a denial of the rites of baptism, marriage, and 
 burial. Against two characters so unpopular the public 
 indignation was easily excited, and they were marked out 
 for a sacrifice to the general indignation. 
 
 On the 23d of May, 1618, the deputies appeared armed, 
 and in great numbers, at the royal palace, and forced 
 their way into the hall where the Commissioners Stern- 
 berg, Martinitz, Lobkowitz, and Slawata were assembled. 
 In a threatening tone they demanded to know from each 
 of them, whether he had taken any part, or had consented 
 to, the imperial proclamation. Sternberg received them 
 with composure, Martinitz and Slawata with defiance.
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 63 
 
 This decided their fate ; Sternberg and Lobkowitz, less 
 hated and more feared, were led by the arm out of the 
 room ; Martinitz and Slawata were seized, dragged to a 
 window, and precipitated from a height of eighty feet 
 into the castle trench. Their creature, the secretary 
 Fabricius, was thrown after them.. This singular mode 
 of execution naturally excited the surprise of civilized 
 nations. The Bohemians justified it as a national custom, 
 and saw nothing remarkable in the whole affair, excepting 
 that any one should have got up again safe and sound 
 after such a fall. A dunghill, on which the imperial 
 commissioners chanced to be deposited, had saved them 
 from injury. 
 
 It was not to be expected that this summary mode of 
 proceeding would much increase the favor of the parties 
 with the Emperor, but this was the very position to which 
 Count Thurn wished to bring them. If, from the fear of 
 uncertain danger, they had permitted themselves such an 
 act of violence, the certain expectation of punishment, 
 and the now urgent necessity of making themselves 
 secure, would plunge them still deeper into guilt. By 
 this brutal act of self-redress no room was left for irreso- 
 lution or repentance, and it seemed as if a single crime 
 could be absolved only by a series of violences. As the 
 deed itself could not be undone, nothing was left but to 
 disarm the hand of punishment. Thirty directors were 
 appointed to organize a regular insurrection. They seized 
 upon all the offices of state, and all the imperial revenues, 
 took into their own service the royal functionaries and 
 the soldiers, and summoned the whole Bohemian nation 
 to avenge the common cause. The Jesuits, whom the 
 common hatred accused as the instigators of every 
 previous oppression, were banished the kingdom, and this 
 harsh measure the Estates found it necessaiy to justify 
 in a formal manifesto. These various steps were taken 
 for the preservation of the royal authority and the laws 
 the language of all rebels till fortune has decided in their 
 favor. 
 
 The emotion which the news of the Bohemian insurrec- 
 tion excited at the imperial court was much less lively 
 than such intelligence deserved. The Emperor Matthias
 
 64 THE THIRTY YEARS* WAK. 
 
 was no longer the resolute spirit that formerly sought out 
 his king and master in the very bosom of his people, and 
 hurled him from three thrones. The confidence and 
 courage which had animated him in an usurpation de- 
 serted him in a legitimate self-defense. The Bohemian 
 rebels had first taken up arms, and the nature of circum- 
 stances drove him to join them. But he could not hope 
 to confine such a war to Bohemia. In all the territories 
 under his dominion the Protestants were united by a 
 dangerous sympathy the common danger of their 
 religion might suddenly combine them all into a formi- 
 dable republic. What could he oppose to such an enemy, 
 if the Protestant portion of his subjects deserted him ? 
 And would not both parties exhaust themselves in so 
 ruinous a civil war ? How much was at stake if he lost ; 
 and if he won, whom else would he destroy but his own 
 subjects ? 
 
 Considerations such as these inclined the Emperor and 
 his council to concessions and pacific measures, but it was 
 in this very spirit of concession that, as others would have 
 it, lay the origin of the evil. The Archduke Ferdinand 
 of Gratz congratulated the Emperor upon an event which 
 would justify in the eyes of all Europe the severest 
 measures against the Bohemian Protestants. " Disobed- 
 ience, lawlessness, and insurrection," he said, " went 
 always hand-in-hand with Protestantism. Every privilege 
 which had been conceded to the Estates by himself and 
 his predecessor had had no other effect than to raise 
 their demands. All the measures of the heretics were 
 aimed against the imperial authority. Step by step had 
 they advanced from defiance to defiance up to this last 
 aggression ; in a short time they would assail all that re- 
 mained to be assailed, in the person of the Emperor. In 
 arms alone was there any safety against such an enemy 
 peace and subordination could be only established on 
 the ruins of their dangerous privileges ; security for the 
 Catholic belief was to be found only in the total destruc- 
 tion of this sect. Uncertain, it was true, might be the 
 event of the war, but inevitable was the ruin if it were 
 pretermitted. The confiscation of the lands of the rebels 
 would richly indemnify them for its expenses, while the
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 65 
 
 terror of punishment would teach the other states the 
 wisdom of a prompt obedience in future." Were the 
 Bohemian Protestants to blame if they armed themselves 
 in time against the enforcement of such maxims? The 
 insurrection in Bohemia, besides, was directed only 
 against the successor of the Emperor, not against him- 
 self, who had done nothing to justify the alarm of the 
 Protestants. To exclude this prince from the Bohemian 
 throne, arms had before been taken up under Matthias, 
 though as long as this Emperor lived his subjects had 
 kept within the bounds of an apparent submission. 
 
 But Bohemia was in arms, and, unarmed, the Emperor 
 dared riot even offer them peace. For this purpose Spain 
 supplied gold, and promised to send troops from Italy 
 and the Netherlands. Count Bucquoi, a native of the 
 Netherlands, was named generalissimo, because no native 
 could be trusted, and Count Dampierre, another foreigner, 
 commanded under him. Before the army took the field 
 the Emperor endeavored to bring about an amicable 
 arrangement by the publication of a manifesto. In this 
 he assured the Bohemians, "that he held sacred the 
 Letter of Majesty that he had not formed any resolu- 
 tions inimical to their religion or their privileges, and 
 that his present preparations were forced upon him by 
 their own. As soon as the nation laid down their arms, 
 he also would disband his army." But this gracious letter 
 failed of its effect, because the leaders of the insurrection 
 contrived to hide from the people the Emperor's good 
 intentions. Instead of this, they circulated the most 
 alarming reports from the pulpit, and by pamphlets, and 
 terrified the deluded populace with threatened horrors of 
 another Saint Bartholomew's that existed only in their 
 own imagination. All Bohemia, with the exception of 
 three towns, Budweiss, Krummau, and Pilsen, took part 
 in this insurrection. These three towns, inhabited princi- 
 pally by Roman Catholics, alone had the courage, in this 
 general revolt, to hold out for the Emperor, who promised 
 them assistance. But it could not escape Count Thurn 
 how dangerous it was to leave in hostile hands three 
 places of such importance, which would at all times keep 
 open for the imperial troops an entrance into the kingdom.
 
 66 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 
 
 With prompt determination he appeared before Budweiss 
 and Krummau in the hope of terrifying them into a surren- 
 der. Krummau surrendered, but all his attacks were 
 steadfastly repulsed by Budweiss. 
 
 And now, too, the Emperor began to show more 
 earnestness and energy. Bucquoi and Dampierre, with 
 two armies, fell upon the Bohemian territories, which 
 they treated as a hostile country. But the imperial 
 generals found the march to Prague more difficult than 
 they had expected. Every pass, every position that was 
 the least tenable, must be opened by the sword, and 
 resistance increased at each fresh step they took, for the 
 outrages of their troops, chiefly consisting of Hungarians 
 and Walloons, drove their friends to revolt and their 
 enemies to despair. But even now that his troops had 
 penetrated into Bohemia, the Ernperor continued to offer 
 the Estates peace, and to show himself ready for an 
 amicable adjustment. But the new prospects which 
 opened upon them raised the courage of the revolters. 
 Moravia espoused their party; and from Germany ap- 
 peared to them a defender equally intrepid and unex- 
 pected, in the person of Count Mansfeld. 
 
 The heads of the Evangelic Union had been silent but 
 not inactive spectators of the movements in Bohemia. 
 Both were contending for the same cause and against the 
 same enemy. In the fate of the Bohemians their con- 
 federates in the faith might read their own ; and the 
 cause of this people was represented as of solemn concern 
 to the whole German union. True to these principles, 
 the Unionists supported the courage of the insurgents by 
 promises of assistance ; and a fortunate accident now 
 enabled them, beyond their hopes, to fulfil them. 
 
 The instrument by which the House of Austria was 
 humbled in Germany was Peter Ernest, Count Mansfeld, 
 the son of a distinguished Austrian officer, Ernest von 
 Mansfeld, who for some time had commanded with repute 
 the Spanish army in the Netherlands. His first campaigns 
 in Juliers and Alsace had been made in the service of 
 this house, and under the banner of the Archduke Leo- 
 pold, against the Protestant religion and the liberties of 
 Germany. But insensibly won by the principles of thia
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 67 
 
 religion, he abandoned a leader whose selfishness denied 
 him the reimbursement of the moneys expended in his 
 cause, and he transferred his zeal and a victorious sword 
 to the Evangelic Union. It happened just then that the 
 Duke of Savoy, an ally of the Union, demanded assistance 
 in a war against Spain. They assigned to him their 
 newly-acquired servant, and Mansfeld received instruc- 
 tions to raise an army of four thousand men in Germany, 
 in the cause and in the pay of the duke. The army was 
 ready to march at the very moment when the flames of 
 war burst out in Bohemia, and the duke, who at the time 
 did not stand in need of its services, placed it at the 
 disposal of the Union. Nothing could be more welcome 
 to these troops than the prospect of aiding their confed- 
 erates in Bohemia at the cost of a third party. Mansfeld 
 received orders forthwith to march with these four thou- 
 sand men into that kingdom ; and a pretended Bohemian 
 commission Avas given to blind the public as to the true 
 author of this levy. 
 
 This Mansfeld now appeared in Bohemia, and, by the 
 occupation of Pilsen, strongly fortified and favorable to 
 the Emperor, obtained a firm footing in the country. 
 The courage of the rebels was farther increased by succors 
 which the Silesian States despatched to their assistance. 
 Between these and the Imperialists several battles were 
 fought, far indeed from decisive, but only on that account 
 the more destructive, which served as the prelude to a 
 more serious Avar. To check the vigor of his military 
 operations, a negotiation Avas entered into with the Em- 
 peror, and a disposition Avas shown to accept the proffered 
 mediation of Saxony. But before the event could prove 
 how little sincerity there Avas in these proposals, the 
 Emperor Avas remoA'ed from the scene by death. 
 
 What now had Matthias done to justify the expecta- 
 tions Avhich lie had excited by the overthroAV of his pre- 
 decessor? Was it worth Avhile to ascend a brother's 
 throne through guilt, and then maintain it witli so little 
 dignity, and leave it Avith so little renown ? As long as 
 Matthias sat on the throne he had to atone for the im- 
 prudence by Avhich he had gained it. To enjoy the real 
 dignity a few years sooner he had shackled the free
 
 68 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 
 
 exercise of its prerogatives. The slender portion of inde- 
 pendence left him by the growing power of the Estates, 
 was still farther lessened by the encroachments of his 
 relations. Sickly and childless he saw the attention of 
 the world turned to an ambitious heir who was impa- 
 tiently anticipating his fate ; and who, by his interference 
 with the closing administration, was already opening his 
 own. 
 
 With Matthias the reigning line of the German House 
 of Austria was in a manner extinct ; for of all the sons of 
 Maximilian one only was now alive, the weak and child- 
 less Archduke Albert, in the Netherlands, who had 
 already renounced his claims to the inheritance in favor 
 of the line of Gratz. The Spanish House had also, in a 
 secret bond, resigned its pretensions to the Austrian 
 possessions in behalf of the Archduke Ferdinand of Styria, 
 in whom the branch of Hapsburg was about to put forth 
 new shoots, and the former greatness of Austria to 
 experience a revival. 
 
 The father of Ferdinand was the Archduke Charles of 
 Carniola, Carinthia, and Styria, the youngest brother of 
 Emperor Maximilian II. ; his mother a princess of Bavaria. 
 Having lost his father at twelve years of age, he was 
 entrusted by the archduchess to the guardianship of her 
 brother William, Duke of Bavaria, under whose eyes he 
 was instructed and educated by Jesuits at the Academy 
 of Ingolstadt. What principles he was likely to imbibe 
 by his intercourse with a prince, who from motives of 
 devotion had abdicated his government, may be easily 
 conceived. Care was taken to point out to him, on the one 
 hand, the weak indulgence of Maximilian's house towards 
 the adherents of the new doctrines, and the consequent 
 troubles of their dominions ; on the other, the blessings 
 of Bavaria, and the inflexible religious zeal of its rulers ; 
 between these two examples he was left to choose for 
 himself. 
 
 Formed in this school to be a stout champion of the 
 faith, and a prompt instrument of the church, he left 
 Bavaria, after a residence of five years, to assume the gov- 
 ernment of his hereditary dominions. The Estates of 
 Carniola, Carinthia, and Styria, who, before doing homage,
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAK. 69 
 
 demanded a guarantee for freedom of religion, were told 
 that religious liberty has nothing to do with their allegi- 
 ance. The oath was put to them without conditions, and 
 unconditionally taken. Many years, however, elapsed, 
 ere the designs which had been planned at Ingolstadt 
 were ripe for execution. Before attempting to carry 
 them into effect, he sought in person at Loretto the favor 
 of the Virgin, and received the apostolic benediction in 
 Rome at the feet of Clement VIII. 
 
 These designs were nothing less than the expulsion of 
 Protestantism from a country where it had the advantage 
 of numbers, and had been legally recognized by a formal 
 act of toleration, granted by his father to the noble and 
 knightly estates of the land. A grant so formally ratified 
 could not be revoked without danger ; but no difficulties 
 could deter the pious pupil of the Jesuits. The example 
 of other states, both Roman Catholic and Protestant, 
 which within their own territories had exercised un- 
 questioned a right of reformation, and the abuse which the 
 Estates of Styria made of their religious liberties, would 
 serve as a justification of this violent procedure. Under 
 the shelter of an absurd positive law those of equity and 
 prudence might, it is thought, be safely despised. In 
 the execution of these unrighteous designs Ferdinand 
 did, it must be owned, display no common courage and 
 perseverance. Without tumult, and we may add, with- 
 out cruelty, he suppressed the Protestant service in one 
 town after another, and in a few years, to the astonish- 
 ment of Germany, this dangerous work was brought to a 
 successful end. 
 
 But, while the Roman Catholics admired him as a hero, 
 and the champion of the church, the Protestants began 
 to combine against him as their most dangerous enemy. 
 And yet Matthias' intention to bequeath to him the suc- 
 cession met with little or no opposition in the elective 
 states of Austria. Even the Bohemians agreed to receive 
 him as their future king on very favorable conditions. 
 It was not until afterwards, when they had experienced 
 the pernicious influence of his councils on the administra- 
 tion of the Emperor, that their anxiety was first excited ; 
 and then several projects, in his handwriting, which an
 
 70 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 
 
 unlucky chance threw into their hands, as they plainly 
 evinced his disposition towards them, carried their 
 apprehension to the utmost pitch. In particular, they 
 were alarmed by a secret family compact with Spain, by 
 which, in default of heirs-male of his own body, Fer- 
 dinand bequeathed to that crown the kingdom of Bo- 
 hemia, without first consulting the wishes of that nation, 
 and without regard to its rights of free election. The 
 many enemies, too, which by his reforms in Styria that 
 prince had provoked among the Protestants, were very 
 prejudicial to his interests in Bohemia; and some Styrian 
 emigrants, who had taken refuge there, bringing with 
 them into their adopted country hearts overflowing with 
 a desire of revenge, were particularly active in exciting 
 the flame of revolt. Thus ill-affected did Ferdinand find 
 the Bohemians when he succeeded Matthias. 
 
 So bad an understanding between the nation and the 
 candidate for the throne would have raised a storm even 
 in the most peaceable succession ; how much more so at 
 the present moment, before the ardor of insurrection had 
 cooled ; when the nation had just recovered its dignity, 
 and reasserted its rights ; when they still held arms in 
 their handsj and the consciousness of unity had awakened 
 an enthusiastic reliance on their own strength ; when by 
 past success, by the promises of foreign assistance, and 
 by visionary expectations of the future, their courage had 
 been raised to an undoubting confidence. Disregarding 
 the rights already conferred on Ferdinand, the Estates 
 declared the throne vacant, and their right of election 
 entirely unfettered. All hopes of their peaceful submis- 
 sion were at an end, and if Ferdinand wished still to wear 
 the crown of Bohemia he must choose between pur- 
 chasing it at the sacrifice of all that would make a crown 
 desirable, or winning it sword in hand. 
 
 But with what means was it to be won? - Turn his eyes 
 where he would the fire of revolt was burning. Silesia 
 had already joined the insurgents in Bohemia ; Moravia 
 was on the point of following its example. In Upper 
 and Lower Austria the spirit of liberty was awake, as it 
 had been under Rodolph, and the Estates refused to do 
 homage. Hungary was menaced with an inroad by
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 71 
 
 Prince Bethlen Gabor, on the side of Transylvania; a 
 secret arming among the Turks spread consternation 
 among the provinces to the eastward ; and, to complete 
 his perplexities, the Protestants also in his hereditary 
 dominions, stimulated by the general example, were 
 again raising their heads. In that quarter their numbers 
 were overwhelming ; in most places they had possession 
 of the revenues which Ferdinand would need for the 
 maintenance of the war. The neutral began to waver, 
 the faithful to be discouraged, the turbulent alone to be 
 animated and confident. One half of Germany encouraged 
 the rebels, the other inactively awaited the issue ; Spanish 
 assistance was still very remote. The moment which 
 had brought him everything threatened also to deprive 
 him of all. 
 
 And when he now, yielding to the stern law of necessity, 
 made overtures to the Bohemian rebels, all his proposals 
 for peace were insolently rejected. Count Thurn, at the 
 head of an army, entered Moravia to bring this province, 
 which alone continued to waver, to a decision. The ap- 
 pearance of their friends is the signal of revolt for the 
 Moravian Protestants. Brunn is taken, the remainder of 
 the country yields with free will ; throughout the province 
 government and religion are changed. Swelling as it 
 flows, the torrent of rebellion pours down upon Austria, 
 where a party, holding similar sentiments, receives it with 
 a joyful concurrence. Henceforth there should be no 
 more distinctions of religion ; equality of rights should 
 be guaranteed to all Christian churches. They hear that 
 a foreign force has been invited into the country to 
 oppress the Bohemians. Let them be sought out, and 
 the enemies of liberty pursued to the ends of the earth. 
 Not an arm is raised in defence of the Archduke, and the 
 rebels, at length, encamp before Vienna to besiege their 
 sovereign. 
 
 Ferdinand had sent his children from Gratz, where 
 they were no longer safe, to the Tyrol ; he himself awaited 
 the insurgents in his capital. A handful of soldiers was 
 all he could oppose to the enraged multitude ; these few 
 were without pay or provisions, and therefore little to be 
 depended on. Vienna was unprepared for a long siege.
 
 72 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 
 
 The party of the Protestants, ready at any moment to 
 join the Bohemians, had the preponderance in the city ; 
 those in the country had already begun to levy troops 
 against him. Already, in imagination, the Protestant 
 populace -saw the Emperor shut up in a monastery, his 
 territories divided, and his children educated as Prot- 
 estants. Confiding in secret, and surrounded by public 
 enemies, he saw the chasm every moment widening to 
 engulf his hopes and even himself. The Bohemian bullets 
 were already falling upon the imperial palace, when 
 sixteen Austrian barons forcibly entered his chamber, 
 and inveighing against him with loud and bitter re- 
 proaches, endeavored to force him into a confederation 
 with the Bohemians. One of them seizing him by the 
 button of his doublet, demanded, in a tone of menace, 
 " Ferdinand, wilt thou sign it ? " 
 
 Who would not be pardoned had he wavered in this 
 frightful situation ? Yet Ferdinand still remembered the 
 dignity of a Roman emperor. No alternative seemed 
 left to him but an immediate flight or submission ; laymen 
 urged him to the one, priests to the other. If he aban- 
 doned the city it would fall into the enemy's hands ; 
 with Vienna, Austria was lost ; with Austria, the imperial 
 throne. Ferdinand abandoned not his capital, and as 
 little would he hear of conditions. 
 
 The Archduke is still engaged in altercation with the 
 deputed barons, when all at once a sound of trumpets is 
 heard in the palace square. Terror and astonishment take 
 possession of all present; a fearful report pervades the 
 palace; one deputy after another disappears. Many of 
 the nobility and the citzens hastily take refuge in the 
 camp of Thurn. This sudden change is effected by a 
 regiment of Dampierre's cuirassiers, who at that moment 
 marched into the city to defend the Archduke. A body 
 of infantry soon followed ; reassured by their appearance, 
 several of the Roman Catholic citizens, and even the 
 students themselves, take up arms. A report which 
 arrived just at the same time from Bohemia made his 
 deliverance complete. The Flemish general, Bucquoi, 
 had totally defeated Count Mansfeld at Budweiss, and 
 was marching upon Prague. The Bohemians hastily
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS* WAE. 73 
 
 broke up their camp before Vienna to protect their own 
 capital. 
 
 And now also the passes were free which the enemy 
 had taken possession of in order to obstruct Ferdinand's 
 progress to his coronation at Frankfort. If the accession 
 to the imperial throne was important for the plans of the 
 King of Hungary, it was of still greater consequence at the 
 present moment, when his nomination as Emperor would 
 afford the most unsuspicious and decisive proof of the 
 dignity of his person, and of the justice of his cause, 
 while, at the same time, it would give him a hope of 
 support from the Empire. But the same cabal which 
 opposed him in his hereditary dominions labored also to 
 counteract him in his canvass for the imperial dignity. 
 No Austrian prince, they maintained, ought to ascend 
 the throne ; least of all Ferdinand, the bigoted persecutor 
 of their religion, the slave of Spain and of the Jesuits. 
 To prevent this the crown had been offered, even during 
 the lifetime of Matthias, to the Duke of Bavaria, and, on 
 his refusal, to the Duke of Savoy. As some difficulty 
 was experienced in settling with the latter the conditions 
 of acceptance, it was sought, at all events, to delay the 
 election till some decisive blow in Austria or Bohemia 
 should annihilate all the hopes of Ferdinand, and incapa- 
 citate him from any competition for this dignity. The 
 members of the Union left no stone unturned to gain over 
 from Ferdinand the Electorate of Saxony, which was 
 bound to Austrian interests; they represented to this 
 court the dangers with which the Protestant religion, and 
 even the constitution of the empire, were threatened by the 
 principles of this prince and his Spanish alliance. By 
 the elevation of Ferdinand to the imperial throne, 
 Germany, they further asserted, would be involved in 
 the private quarrels of this prince, and bring upon itself 
 the arms of Bohemia. But in spite of all opposing 
 influences the day of election was fixed, Ferdinand 
 summoned to it 'as lawful King of Bohemia, and his 
 electoral vote, after a fruitless resistance on the part of 
 the Bohemian Estates, acknowledged to be good. The 
 votes of the three ecclesiastical electorates were for him, 
 Saxony was favorable to him, Brandenburg made no
 
 74 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 
 
 opposition, and a decided majority declared him Emperor 
 in 1619. Thus he saw the most doubtful of his crowns 
 placed first of all on his head; but a few days after he 
 lost that which he had reckoned among the most certain 
 of his possessions. While he was thus elected Emperor 
 in Frankfort, he was in Prague deprived of the Bohemian 
 throne. 
 
 Almost all of his German hereditary dominions had in 
 the meantime entered into a formidable league with the 
 Bohemians, whose insolence now exceeded all bounds. 
 In a general Diet, the latter, on the 17th of August, 1619, 
 proclaimed the Emperor an enemy to the Bohemian 
 religion and liberties, who by his pernicious counsels had 
 alienated from them the affections of the late Emperor, 
 had furnished troops to oppress them, had given their 
 country as a prey to foreigners, and finally, in contraven- 
 tion of the national rights, had bequeathed the crown, by 
 a secret compact, to Spain ; they therefore declared that 
 he had forfeited whatever title he might otherwise have 
 had to the crown, and immediately proceeded to a new 
 election. As this sentence was pronounced by Protest- 
 ants, their choice could not well fall upon a Roman 
 Catholic prince, though, to save appearances, some voices 
 were raised for Bavaria and Savoy. But the violent 
 religious animosities which divided the evangelical and 
 the reformed parties among the Protestants impeded 
 for some time the election even of a Protestant king; 
 till at last the address and activity of the Calvinists 
 carried the day from the numerical superiority of the 
 Lutherans. 
 
 Among all the princes who were competitors for this 
 dignity, the Elector Palatine Frederick V. had the best 
 grounded claims on the confidence and gratitude of the 
 Bohemians; and, among them all, there was no one in 
 whose case the private interests of particular Estates, and 
 the attachment of the people, seemed to be justified by 
 so many considerations of state. Frederick V. was a free 
 and lively spirit, of great goodness of heart and regal 
 liberality. He was the head of the Calvinistic party in 
 Germany, the leader of the Union, whose resources were 
 at his disposal, a near relation of the Duke of Bavaria,
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 75 
 
 and a son-in-law of the King of Great Britain, who might 
 lend him his powerful support. All these considerations 
 were prominently and successfully brought forward by 
 the Calviuists, and Frederick V. was chosen king by the 
 Assembly at Prague amidst prayers and tears of joy. 
 
 The whole proceedings of the Diet at Prague had been 
 premeditated, and Frederick himself had taken too active 
 a share in the matter to feel at all surprised at the offer 
 made to him by the Bohemians. But now the immediate 
 glitter of this throne dazzled him, and the magnitude both 
 of his elevation and his delinquency made his weak mind 
 to tremble. After the usual manner of pusillanimous 
 spirits, he sought to confirm himself in his purpose by the 
 opinions of others ; but these opinions had no weight 
 with him when they ran counter to his own cherished 
 wishes. Saxony and Bavaria, of whom he sought advice, 
 all his brother electors, all who compared the magnitude 
 of the design with his capacities and resources, warned 
 him of the danger into which he was about to rush. Even 
 King James of England preferred to see his son-in-law 
 deprived of this crown than that the sacred majesty of 
 kings should be outraged by so dangerous a precedent. 
 But of what avail was the voice of prudence against the 
 seductive glitter of a crown? In the moment of boldest 
 determination, when they are indignantly rejecting the 
 consecrated branch of a race which had governed them 
 for two centuries, a free people throws itself into his arms. 
 Confiding in his courage, they choose him as their leader 
 in the dangerous career of glory and liberty. To him, as 
 to its born champion, an oppressed religion looks for 
 shelter and support against its persecutors. Could he 
 have the weakness to listen to his fears, and to betray the 
 cause of religion and liberty? This religion proclaims to 
 him its own preponderance and the weakness of its 
 rival, two-thirds of the power of Austria are now in 
 arms against Austria itself, while a formidable confed- 
 eracy, already formed in Transylvania, would, by a hostile 
 attack, further distract even the weak remnant of its 
 power. Could inducements such as these fail to awaken 
 his ambition, or such hopes to animate and inflame his 
 resolution ?
 
 76 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 
 
 A few moments of calm consideration would have 
 sufficed to show the danger of the undertaking and the 
 comparative worthlessness of the prize. But the tempta- 
 tion spoke to his feelings ; the warning only to his 
 reason. It was his misfortune that his nearest and most 
 influential counsellors espoused the side of his passions. 
 The aggrandizement of their master's power opened to 
 the ambition and avarice of his Palatine servants an 
 unlimited field for their gratification ; this anticipated 
 triumph of their church kindled the ardor of the Calvin- 
 istic fanatic. Could a mind so weak as that of Ferdinand 
 resist the delusions of his counsellors, who exaggerated 
 his resources and his strength as much as they under- 
 rated those of his enemies ; or the exhortations of his 
 preachers, who announced the effusions of their fanatical 
 zeal as the immediate inspiration of heaven ? The dreams 
 of astrology filled his mind with visionary hopes ; even 
 love conspired, with its irresistible fascination, to complete 
 the seduction. "Had you," demanded the Electress, 
 " confidence enough in yourself to accept the hand of a 
 king's daughter, and have you misgivings about taking 
 a crown which is voluntarily offered you ? I would 
 rather eat bread at thy kingly table than feast at thy 
 electoral board." 
 
 Frederick accepted the Bohemian crown. The corona- 
 tion was celebrated with unexampled pomp at Prague, 
 for the nation displayed all its riches in honor of its own 
 work. Silesia and Moravia, the adjoining provinces to 
 Bohemia, followed their example, and did homage to 
 Frederick. The reformed faith was enthroned in all the 
 churches of the kingdom ; the rejoicings were unbounded, 
 their attachment to their new king bordered on adoration. 
 Denmark and Sweden, Holland and Venice, and several 
 of the Dutch states, acknowledged him as lawful sover- 
 ereign, and Frederick now prepared to maintain his new 
 acquisition. 
 
 His principal hopes rested on Prince Bethlen Gabor of 
 Transylvania. This formidable enemy of Austria, and 
 of the Roman Catholic church, not content with the 
 principality which, with the assistance of the Turks, he had 
 wrested from his legitimate prince, Gabriel Bathori, gladly
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 77 
 
 seized this opportunity of aggrandizing himself at the 
 expense of Austria, which had hesitated to acknowledge 
 him as sovereign of Transylvania. An attack upon Hun- 
 gary and Austria was concerted with the Bohemian rebels, 
 and both armies were to unite before the capital. Mean- 
 time, Bethlen Gabor, under the mask of friendship, dis- 
 guised the true object of his warlike preparations, artfully 
 promising the Emperor to lure the Bohemians into the 
 toils by a pretended offer of assistance, and to deliver 
 up to him alive the leaders of the insurrection. All at 
 once, however, he appeared in a hostile attitude in Upper 
 Hungary. Before him went terror, and devastation 
 behind ; all opposition yielded, and at Presburg he 
 received the Hungarian crown. The Emperor's brother, 
 who governed in Vienna, trembled for the capital. He 
 hastily summoned General Bucquoi to his assistance, and 
 the retreat of the Imperialists drew the Bohemians, a 
 second time, before the walls of Vienna. Reinforced by 
 twelve thousand Transylvanians, and soon after joined by 
 the victorious army of Bethlen Gabor, they again menaced 
 the capital with assault ; all the country round Vienna 
 was laid waste, the navigation of the Danube closed, all 
 supplies cut off, and the horrors of famine were threatened. 
 Ferdinand, hastily recalled to his capital by this urgent 
 danger, saw himself a second time on the brink of ruin. 
 But want of provisions, and the inclement weather, finally 
 compelled the Bohemians to go into quarters, a defeat in 
 Hungary recalled Bethlen Gabor, and thus once more had 
 fortune rescued the Emperor. 
 
 In a few weeks the scene was changed, and by his pru- 
 dence and activity Ferdinand improved his position as 
 rapidly as Frederick, by indolence and impolicy, ruined 
 his. The Estates of Lower Austria were regained to 
 their allegiance by a confirmation of their privileges ; and 
 the few who still held out were declared guilty of lese- 
 majeste and high treason. During the election of Frank- 
 fort he had contrived, by personal representations, to 
 win over to his cause the ecclesiastical electors, and also 
 Maximilian, Duke of Bavaria, at Munich. The whole 
 issue of the war, the fate of Frederick and the Emperor, 
 were now dependent on the part which the Union and the
 
 78 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 
 
 League should take in the troubles of Bohemia. It was 
 evidently of importance to all the Protestants of Germany 
 that the King of Bohemia should be supported, while it 
 was equally the interests of the Roman Catholics to 
 prevent the ruin of the Emperor. If the Protestants 
 succeeded in Bohemia, all the Roman Catholic princes in 
 Germany might ti-emble for their possessions ; if they 
 failed, the Emperor would give laws to Protestant Ger- 
 many. Thus Ferdinand put the League, Frederick the 
 Union, in motion. The ties of relationship and a personal 
 attachment to the Emperor, his brother-in-law, with 
 whom he had been educated at Ingolstadt, zeal for the 
 Roman Catholic religion, which seemed to be in the most 
 imminent peril, and the suggestions of the Jesuits, com- 
 bined with the suspicious movements of the Union, moved 
 the Duke of Bavaria, and all the princes of the League, 
 to make the cause of Ferdinand their own. 
 
 According to the terms of a treaty with the Emperor, 
 which assured to the Duke of Bavaria compensation for 
 all the expenses of the war, or the losses he might sustain, 
 Maximilian took, with full powers, the command of the 
 troops of the League, which were ordered to march to the 
 assistance of the Emperor against the Bohemian rebels. 
 The leaders of the Union, instead of delaying by every 
 means this dangerous coalition of the League with the 
 Emperor, did everything in their power to accelerate it. 
 Could they, they thought, but once drive the Roman 
 Catholic League to take an open part in the Bohemian 
 war they might reckon on similar measures from all the 
 members and allies of the Union. Without some open 
 step taken by the Roman Catholics against the Union no 
 effectual confederacy of the Protestant powers was to be 
 looked for. They seized, therefore, the present emer- 
 gency of the troubles in Bohemia to demand from the 
 Roman Catholics the abolition of their past grievances, 
 and full security for the future exercise of their religion. 
 They addressed this demand, which was moreover 
 couched in threatening language, to the Duke of Bavaria, 
 as the head of the Roman Catholics, and they insisted on 
 an immediate and categorical answer. Maximilian might 
 decide for or against them, still their point was gained ;
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 79 
 
 his concession, if lie yielded, would deprive the Roman 
 Catholic party of its most powerful protector ; his refusal 
 would arm the whole Protestant party, and render 
 inevitable a war in which they hoped to be the conquerors. 
 Maximilian, firmly attached to the opposite party from 
 so many other considerations, took the demands of the 
 Union as a formal declaration of hostilities, and quickened 
 his preparations. While Bavaria and the League were 
 thus arming in the Emperor's cause negotiations for a 
 subsidy were opened with the Spanish court. All the 
 difficulties with which the indolent policy of that ministry 
 met this demand were happily surmounted by the imperial 
 ambassador at Madrid, Count Khevenhuller. In addition 
 to a subsidy of a million of florins, which from time to 
 time were doled out by this court an attack upon the 
 Lower Palatinate, from the side of the Spanish Nether- 
 lands, was at the same time agreed upon. 
 
 During these attempts to draw all the Roman Catholic 
 powers into the League, every exertion was made against 
 the counter-league of the Protestants. To this end it 
 was important to alarm the Elector of Saxony and the 
 other Evangelical powers, and accordingly the L^nion 
 were diligent in propagating a rumor that the preparations 
 of the League had for their object to deprive them of the 
 ecclesiastical foundations they had secularized. A writ- 
 ten assurance to the contrary calmed 'the fears of the 
 Duke of Saxony, whom moreover private jealousy of the 
 Palatine, and the insinuations of his chaplain, who was in 
 the pay of Austria, and mortification at having been 
 passed over by the Bohemians in the election to the 
 throne, strongly inclined to the side of Austria. The 
 fanaticism of the Lutherans could neveV forgive the 
 reformed party for having drawn, as they expressed it, so 
 many fair provinces into the gulf of Calvinism, and 
 rejecting the Roman Antichrist only to make way for an 
 Helvetian one. 
 
 While Ferdinand used every effort to improve the 
 unfavorable situation of his affairs, Frederick was daily 
 injuring his good cause. By his close and questionable 
 connection with the Prince of Transylvania, the open ally 
 of the Porte, he gave offence to weak minds ; and a
 
 80 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 
 
 general rumor accused him of furthering his own ambition 
 at the expense of Christendom, and arming the Turks 
 against Germany. His inconsiderate zeal for the Cal- 
 vinistic scheme irritated the Lutherans of Bohemia, his 
 attacks on image-worship incensed the Papists of this 
 kingdom against him. New and oppressive imposts 
 alienated the affections of all his subjects. The disap- 
 pointed hopes of the Bohemian nobles cooled their zeal ; 
 the absence of foreign succors abated their confidence. 
 Instead of devoting himself with untiring energies to the 
 affairs of his kingdom, Frederick wasted his time in 
 amusements ; instead of filling his treasury by a wise 
 economy, he squandered his revenues by a needless 
 theatrical pomp and a misplaced munificence. With a 
 light-minded carelessness, he did but gaze at himself in 
 his new dignity, and in the ill-timed desire to enjoy his 
 crown, he forgot the more pressing duty of securing it on 
 his head. 
 
 But greatly as men erred in their opinion of him, Fre- 
 derick himself had not less miscalculated his foreign 
 resources. Most of the members of the Union considered 
 the affairs of Bohemia as foreign to the real object of 
 their confederacy; others, who were devoted to him, 
 were overawed by fear of the Emperor. Saxony and 
 Hesse Darmstadt had already been gained over by Fer- 
 dinand ; Lower Austria, on which side a powerful diver- 
 sion had been looked for, had made its submission to the 
 Emperor; and Bethlen Gabor had concluded a truce with 
 him. By its embassies the court of Vienna had induced 
 Denmark to remain inactive, and to occupy Sweden in a 
 war with the Poles. The republic of Holland had enough 
 to do to defend itself against the arms of the Spaniards; 
 Venice and Saxony remained inactive ; King James of 
 England was overreached by the artifice of Spain. One 
 friend after another withdrew; one hope vanished after 
 another so rapidly in a few months was everything 
 changed. 
 
 In the meantime the leaders of the Union assembled 
 an army; the Emperor and the League did the same. 
 The troops of the latter were assembled under the banners 
 of Maximilian at Donauwerth, those of the Union at Ulna,
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 81 
 
 under the Margrave of Anspach. The decisive moment 
 seemed at length to have arrived which was to end these 
 long dissensions by a vigorous blow, and irrevocably to set- 
 tle the relation of the two churches in Germany. Anxiously 
 on the stretch was the expectation of both parties. How 
 great then was their astonishment when suddenly the 
 intelligence of peace arrived, and both armies separated 
 without striking a blow ! 
 
 The intervention of France effected this peace, which 
 was equally acceptable to both parties. The French 
 cabinet, no longer swayed by the counsels of Henry the 
 Great, and whose maxims of state were perhaps not 
 applicable to the present condition of that kingdom, was 
 now far less alarmed at the preponderance of Austria 
 than of the increase which would accrue to the strength 
 of the Calvinists if the Palatine house should be able 
 to retain the throne of Bohemia. Involved at the time 
 in* a dangerous conflict with its own Calvinistic subjects, 
 it was of the utmost importance to France that the Prot- 
 estant faction in Bohemia should be suppressed before 
 the Huguenots could copy their dangerous example. In 
 order therefore to facilitate the Emperor's operations 
 against the Bohemians, she offered her mediation to the 
 Union and the League, and effected this unexpected 
 treaty of which the main article was, " That the Union 
 should abandon all interference in the affairs of Bohemia, 
 and confine the aid which they might afford to Frederick 
 V., to his Palatine territories." To this disgraceful 
 treaty, the Union were moved by the firmness of Maxi- 
 milian and the fear of being pressed at once by the 
 troops of the League, and a new Imperial army which 
 was on its march from the Netherlands. 
 
 The whole force of Bavaria and the League was now 
 at the disposal of the Emperor to be employed against 
 the Bohemians, who by the pacification of Ulm were 
 abandoned to their fate. With a rapid movement, and 
 before a rumor of the proceedings at Ulm could reach 
 there, Maximilian appeared in Upper Austria, when the 
 Estates, surprised and unprepared for an enemy, purchased 
 the Emperor's pardon by an immediate and uncondi- 
 tional submission. In Lower Austria the duke formed a
 
 82 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 
 
 junction with the troops from the Low Countries, under 
 Bucquoi, and without loss of time the united Imperial 
 and Bavarian forces, amounting to fifty thousand men, 
 entered Bohemia. All the Bohemian troops, which were 
 dispersed over Lower Austria and Moravia, were driven 
 before them ; every town which attempted resistance was 
 quickly taken by storm ; others, terrified by the report of 
 the punishment inflicted on these, voluntarily opened their 
 gates ; nothing in short interrupted the impetuous career 
 of Maximilian. The Bohemian army, commanded by the 
 brave Prince Christian of Anhalt, retreated to the neigh- 
 borhood of Prague ; where, under the walls of the city, 
 Maximilian offered him battle. 
 
 The wretched condition in which he hoped to surprise 
 the insurgents justified the rapidity of the duke's move- 
 ments, and secured him the victory. Frederick's army 
 did not amount to thirty thousand men. Eight thousand 
 of these were furnished by the Prince of Anhalt ; ten 
 thousand were Hungarians, whom Bethlen Gabor had 
 despatched to his assistance. An inroad of the Elector of 
 Saxony upon Lusatia had cut off all succors from that 
 country and from Silesia ; the pacification of Austria put 
 an end to all his expectations from that quarter ; Bethlen 
 Gabor, his most powerful ally, remained inactive in Tran- 
 sylvania ; the Union had betrayed his cause to the 
 Emperor. Nothing remained to him but his Bohemians ; 
 and they were without good-will to his cause, and without 
 unity and courage. The Bohemian magnates were indig- 
 nant that German generals should be put over their heads ; 
 Count Mansfeld remained in Pilsen, at a distance from 
 the camp, to avoid the mortification of serving under 
 Anhalt and Hohenlohe. The soldiers, in want of neces- 
 saries, became dispirited ; and the little discipline that 
 was observed gave occasion to bitter complaints from the 
 peasantry. It was in vain that Frederick made his ap- 
 pearance in the camp, in the hope of reviving the courage 
 of the soldiers by his presence, and of kindling the emu- 
 lation of the nobles by his example. 
 
 The Bohemians had begun to entrench themselves on 
 the White Mountain, near Prague, when they were at- 
 tacked by the Imperial and Bavarian armies, on the 8th
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 83 
 
 Xoveniber, 1620. In the beginning of the action some 
 advantages were gained by the cavalry of the Prince of 
 Anhalt ; but the superior numbers of the enemy soon 
 neutralized them. The charge of tha Bavarians and Wal- 
 loons was irresistible. The Hungarian cavalry was the 
 first to retreat. The Bohemian infantry soon followed their 
 example; and the Germans were at last carried along 
 with them in the general flight. Ten cannons, composing 
 the whole of Frederick's artillery, were taken by the 
 enemy ; four thousand Bohemians fell in the flight and on 
 the field; while of the Imperialists and soldiers of the 
 League only a few hundred were killed. In less than an 
 hour this decisive action was over. 
 
 Frederick was seated at table in Prague while his 
 army was thus cut to pieces. It is probable that he had 
 not expected the attack on this day, since he had ordered 
 an entertainment for it. A messenger summoned him 
 from table to show him from the walls the whole frightful 
 scene. He requested a cessation of hostilities for twenty- 
 four hours for deliberation ; but eight was all the Duke 
 of Bavaria would allow him. Frederick availed him- 
 self of these to fly by night from the capital, with his 
 wife and the chief officers of his army. This flight was so 
 hurried that the Prince of Anhalt left behind him his most 
 private papers and Frederick his crown. "I know now 
 what I am," said this unfortunate prince to those who 
 endeavored to comfort him ; " there are virtues which 
 misfortune only can teach us, and it is in adversity alone 
 that princes learn to know themselves." 
 
 Prague was not irretrievably lost when Frederick's 
 pusillanimity abandoned it. The light troops of Mansfeld 
 were still in Pilsen, and were not engaged in the action. 
 Bethlen Gabor might at any moment have assumed an 
 offensive attitude, and drawn off the Emperor's army to 
 the Hungarian frontier. The defeated Bohemians might 
 rally. Sickness, famine, and the inclement weather might 
 wear out the enemy; but all these hopes disappeared 
 before the immediate alarm. Frederick dreaded the 
 fickleness of the Bohemians, who might probably yield to 
 the temptation to purchase, by the surrender of his person, 
 the pardon of the Emperor,
 
 84 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 
 
 Thurn, and those of this party who were in the same 
 condemnation with him, found it equally inexpedient to 
 await their destiny within the walls of Prague. They 
 retired towards Moravia, with a view of seeking refuge 
 in Transylvania. Frederick fled to Breslau, where, how- 
 ever, he only remained a short time. He removed from 
 thence to the court of the Elector of Brandenburg, and 
 finally took shelter in Holland. 
 
 The battle of Prague had decided the fate of Bohemia. 
 Prague surrendered the next day to the victors ; the 
 other towns followed the example of the capital. The 
 Estates did homage without conditions, and the same was 
 done by those of Silesia and Moravia. The Emperor 
 allowed three months to elapse before instituting any 
 inquiry into the past. Reassured by this apparent clem- 
 ency, many who at first had fled in terror appeared again 
 in the capital. All at once, however, the storm burst 
 forth ; forty^eight of the most active among the insurgents 
 were arrested on the same day and hour, and tried by an 
 extraordinary commission, composed of native Bohemians 
 and Austrians. Of these, twenty-seven, and of the com- 
 mon people an immense number, expired on the scaffold. 
 The absenting offenders were summoned to appear to 
 their trial, and, failing to do so, condemned to death as 
 traitors and offenders against his Catholic Majesty, their 
 estates confiscated, and their names affixed to the gallows. 
 The property also of the rebels who had fallen in the field 
 was seized. This tyranny might have been borne, as it 
 affected individuals only, and while the ruin of one en- 
 riched another ; but more intolerable was the oppression 
 which extended to the whole kingdom without exception. 
 All the Protestant preachers were banished from the 
 country; the Bohemians first, and afterwards those of 
 Germany. The Letter of Majesty Ferdinand tore with 
 his own hand and burnt the seal. Seven years after the 
 battle of Prague the toleration of the Protestant religion 
 within the kingdom was entirely revoked. But what- 
 ever violence the Emperor allowed himself against the 
 religious privileges of his subjects, he carefully abstained 
 from interfering with their political constitution ; and 
 while he deprived them of the liberty of thought, he
 
 THE THIRTY YEAJRS' WAR. 85 
 
 magnanimously left them the prerogative of taxing them- 
 selves. 
 
 The victory of the White Mountain put Ferdinand in 
 possession of all his dominions. It even invested him 
 with greater authority over them than his predecessors 
 enjoyed, since their allegiance had been unconditionally 
 pledged to him, and no Letter of Majesty now existed to 
 limit his sovereignty. All his wishes were now gratified 
 to a degree surpassing his most sanguine expectations. 
 
 It was now in his power to dismiss his allies and dis- 
 band his army. If he was just, there was an end of the 
 war if he was both magnanimous and just, punishment 
 was also at an end. The fate of Germany was in his 
 hands ; the happiness and misery of millions depended on 
 the resolution he should take. Never was so great a 
 decision resting on a single mind ; never did the blindness 
 of one man produce so much ruin. 
 
 BOOK II. 
 
 THE resolution which Ferdinand now adopted gave to 
 the war a new direction, a new scene, and new actors. 
 From a rebellion in Bohemia, and the chastisement of 
 rebels, a war extended first to Germany, and afterwards 
 to Europe. It is, therefore, necessary to take a general 
 survey of the state of affairs both in Germany and the 
 rest of Europe. 
 
 Unequally as the territory of Germany and the privi- 
 leges of its members were divided among the Roman 
 Catholics and the Protestants, neither party could hope 
 to maintain itself against the encroachments of its adver- 
 sary otherwise than by a prudent use of its peculiar ad- 
 vantages, and by a politic union among themselves. If 
 the Roman Catholics were the more numerous party, and 
 more favored by the constitution of the Empire, the Prot- 
 estants, on the other hand, had the advantage of posses- 
 sing a more compact and populous line of territories,
 
 86 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 
 
 valiant princes, a warlike nobility, numerous armies, 
 flourishing free towns, the command of the sea, and, even 
 at the worst, certainty of support from Roman Catholic 
 states. If the Catholics could arm Spain and Italy in 
 their favor, the republics of Venice, Holland, and Eng- 
 land opened their treasures to the Protestants, while the 
 states of the North and the formidable power of Turkey 
 stood ready to afford them prompt assistance. Branden- 
 burg, Saxony, and the Palatinate opposed three Protest- 
 ant to three Ecclesiastical votes in the Electoral College ; 
 while to the Elector of Bohemia, as to the Archduke of 
 Austria, the possession of the Imperial dignity was an 
 important check if the Protestants properly availed 
 themselves of it. The sword of the Union might keep 
 within its sheath the sword of the League ; or, if matters 
 actually came to a war, might make the issue of it doubt- 
 ful. But, unfortunately, private interests dissolved the 
 band of union which should have held together the 
 Protestant members of the empire. This critical con- 
 juncture found none but second-rate actors on the political 
 stage, and the decisive moment was neglected because the 
 courageous were deficient in power, and the powerful in 
 sagacity, courage, and resolution. 
 
 The Elector of Saxony was placed at the head of the 
 German Protestants by the services of his ancestor Man- 
 rice, by the extent of his territories, and by the influence of 
 his electoral vote. Upon the resolution he might adopt 
 the fate of the contending parties seemed to depend ; and 
 John George was not insensible to the advantages which 
 this important situation procured him. Equally valuable 
 as an ally, both to the Emperor and to the Protestant 
 Union, he cautiously avoided committing himself to either 
 party; neither trusting himself by any irrevocable declar- 
 ation entirely to the gratitude of the Emperor, nor 
 renouncing the advantages which were to be gained from 
 his fears. Uninfected by the contagion of religious and 
 romantic enthusiasm which hurried sovereign after sov- 
 ereign to risk both crown and life on the hazard of war, 
 John George aspired to the more solid renown of improv- 
 ing and advancing the interests of his territories. His 
 contemporaries accused him of forsaking the Protestant
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 87 
 
 cause in the very midst of the storm ; of preferring the 
 aggrandizement of his house to the emancipation of his 
 country ; of exposing the whole Evangelical or Lutheran 
 church of Germany to ruin rather than raise an arm in 
 defence of the Reformed or Calvinists; of injuring the 
 common cause by his suspicious friendship more seriously 
 than the open enmity of its avowed opponents. But it 
 would have been well if his accusers had imitated the 
 wise policy of the Elector. If, despite of the prudent 
 policy, the Saxons, like all others, groaned at the cruelties 
 which marked the Emperor's progress; if all Germany 
 was a witness how Ferdinand deceived his confederates 
 and trifled with his engagements; if even the Elector 
 himself at last perceived this the more shame to the 
 Emperor who could so basely betray such implicit confi- 
 dence. 
 
 If an excessive reliance on the Emperor, and the hope 
 of enlarging his territories, tied the hands of the Elector 
 of Saxony, the weak George William, Elector of Bran- 
 denburg, was still more shamefully fettered by fear of 
 Austria and of the loss of his dominions. What was 
 made a reproach against these princes would have pre- 
 served to the Elector Palatine his fame and his kingdom. 
 A rash confidence in his untried strength, the influence of 
 French counsels, and the temptation of a crown had 
 seduced that unfortunate prince into an enterprise for 
 which he had neither adequate genius nor political capac- 
 ity. The partition of his territories among discordant 
 princes enfeebled the Palatinate, which, united, might 
 have made a longer resistance. 
 
 This partition of territory was equally injurious to the 
 House of Hesse, in which, between Darmstadt and Cassel, 
 religious dissensions had occasioned a fatal division. The 
 line of Darmstadt, adhering to the Confession of Augs- 
 burg, had placed itself under the Emperor's protection, 
 who favored it at the expense of the Calvinists of Cassel. 
 While his religious confederates were shedding their 
 blood for their faith and their liberties, the Landgrave of 
 Darmstadt was won over by the Emperor's gold. But 
 William of Cassel, every way worthy of his ancestor, who, 
 a century before, had defended the freedom of Germany
 
 88 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 
 
 against the formidable Charles V., espoused the cause of 
 danger and of honor. Superior to that pusillanimity 
 which made far more powerful princes bow before Ferdi- 
 nand's might, the Landgrave William was the first to join 
 the hero of Sweden, and set an example to the princes of 
 Germany, which all had hesitated to begin. The boldness 
 of his resolve was equalled by the steadfastness of his 
 perseverance and the valor of his exploits. He placed 
 himself with unshrinking resolution before his bleeding 
 country, and boldly confronted the fearful enemy, whose 
 hands were still reeking from the carnage of Magdeburg. 
 
 The Landgrave William deserves to descend to immor- 
 tality with the heroic race of Ernest. Thy day of ven- 
 geance was long delayed, unfortunate John Frederick! 
 Noble ! never-to-be-forgotten prince ! Slowly but brightly 
 it broke. Thy times returned, and thy heroic spirit de- 
 scended on thy grandson. An intrepid race of princes 
 issues from the Thuringian forests to shame, by immortal 
 deeds, the unjust sentence which robbed thee of the elec- 
 toral crown to avenge thy offended shade by heaps of 
 bloody sacrifice. The sentence of the conqueror could 
 deprive thee of thy territories, but not that spirit of 
 patriotism which staked them, nor that chivalrous courage 
 which, a century afterwards, was destined to shake the 
 throne of his descendant. Thy vengeance and that of 
 Germany whetted the sacred sword, and one heroic hand 
 after the other wielded the irresistible steel. As men 
 they achieved what as sovereigns they dared not under- 
 take ; they met in a glorious cause as the valiant soldiers 
 of liberty. Too weak in territory to attack the enemy 
 with their own forces, they directed foreign artillery 
 against them, and led foreign banners to victory. 
 
 The liberties of Germany, abandoned by the more 
 powerful states, who, however, enjoyed most of the pros- 
 perity accruing from them, were defended by a few 
 princes for whom they were almost without value, The 
 possession of territories and dignities deadened courage ; 
 the want of both made heroes. While Saxony, Branden- 
 burg, and the rest drew back in terror, Anhalt, Mansfeld, 
 the Prince of Weimar and others were shedding their 
 blood in the field. The Dukes of Pomerania, Mecklen-
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 89 
 
 burg, Luneburg, and Wirtemberg, and the free cities of 
 Upper Germany, to whom the name of Emperor was of 
 course a formidable one, anxiously avoided a contest with 
 such an opponent, and crouched murmuring beneath his 
 mighty arm. 
 
 Austria and Roman Catholic Germany possessed in 
 Maximilian of Bavaria a champion as prudent as he was 
 powerful. Adhering throughout the war to one fixed 
 plan, never divided between his religion and his political 
 interests ; not the slavish dependent of Austria, who was 
 laboring for his advancement, and trembled before her 
 powerful protector, Maximilian earned the territories and 
 dignities that rewarded his exertions. The other Roman 
 Catholic states, which were chiefly ecclesiastical, too un- 
 warlike to resist the multitudes whom the prosperity of 
 their territories allured, became the victims of the war 
 one after another, and were contented to persecute in the 
 cabinet and in the pulpit the enemy whom they could not 
 openly oppose in the field. All of them, slaves either to 
 Austria or Bavaria, sunk into insignificance by the side 
 of Maximilian ; in his hand alone their united power 
 could be rendered available. 
 
 The formidable monarchy which Charles V. and his 
 son had unnaturally constructed of the Netherlands, 
 Milan, and the two Sicilies, and their distant possessions 
 in the East and West Indies, was under Philip III. and 
 Philip IV. fast verging to decay. Swollen to a sudden 
 greatness by unfruitful gold, this power was now sinking 
 under a visible decline, neglecting, as it did, agriculture, 
 the natural support of states. The conquests in the West 
 Indies had reduced Spain itself to poverty, while they 
 enriched the markets of Europe ; the bankers of Antwerp, 
 Venice, and Genoa were making profit on the gold which 
 was still buried in the mines of Peru. For the sake of 
 India Spain had been depopulated, while the treasures 
 drawn from thence were wasted in the reconquest of 
 Holland, in the chimerical project of changing the succes- 
 sion to the crown of France, and in an unfortunate attack 
 upon England. But the pride of this court had survived 
 its greatness, as the hate of its enemies had outlived its 
 power. Distrust of the Protestants suggested to the
 
 90 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 
 
 ministry of Philip III. the dangerous policy of his father ; 
 and the reliance of the Roman Catholics in Germany on 
 Spanish assistance was as firm as their belief in the 
 wonder-working bones of the martyrs. External splen- 
 dor concealed the inward Avounds at which the life-blood 
 of this monarchy was oozing ; and the belief of its strength 
 survived, because it still maintained the lofty tone of its 
 golden days. Slaves in their palaces, and strangers even 
 upon their own thrones, the Spanish nominal kings still 
 gave laws to their German relations ; though it is very 
 doubtful if the support they afforded was worth the de- 
 pendence by which the emperors purchased it. The fate 
 of Europe was decided behind the Pyrenees by ignorant 
 monks or vindictive favorites. Yet, even in its debase- 
 ment, a power must always be formidable which yields to 
 none in extent ; which, from custom, if not from the stead- 
 fastness of its viaws, adhered faithfully to one system of 
 policy ; which possessed well-disciplined armies and con- 
 summate generals ; which, where the sword failed, did not 
 scruple to employ the dagger ; and converted even its am- 
 bassadors into incendiaries and assassins. What it had lost 
 in three quarters of the globe it now sought to regain to 
 the eastward, and all Europe was at its mercy, if it could 
 succeed in its long-cherished design of uniting with the 
 hereditary dominions of Austria all that lay between the 
 Alps and the Adriatic. 
 
 To the great alarm of the native states this formidable 
 power had gained a footing in Italy, where its continual 
 encroachments made the neighboring sovereigns to trem- 
 ble for their own possessions. The Pope himself was in 
 the most dangerous situation, hemmed in on both sides 
 by the Spanish ^ 7 iceroys of Naples on the one side, and 
 that of Milan upon the other. Venice was confined be- 
 tween the Austrian Tyrol and the Spanish territories in 
 Milan. Savoy was surrounded by the latter and France. 
 Hence the wavering and equivocal policy which, from 
 the time of Charles V., had been pursued by the Italian 
 states. The double character which pertained to the 
 Popes made them perpetually vacillate between two con- 
 tradictory systems of policy. If the successors of St. 
 Peter found in the Spanish princes their most obedient
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 91 
 
 disciples, and the most steadfast supporters of the Papal 
 See, yet the princes of the states of the Church had in 
 these monarchs their most dangerous neighbors and most 
 formidable opponents. If, in the one capacity, their 
 dearest wish was the destruction of the Protestants, and 
 the triumph of Austria in the other, they had reason to 
 bless the arms of the Protestants which disabled a dan- 
 gerous enemy. The one or the other sentiment prevailed, 
 according as the love of temporal dominion or zeal for 
 spiritual supremacy predominated in the mind of the 
 Pope. But the policy of Rome was, on the whole, directed 
 to immediate dangers ; and it is well known how far more 
 powerful is the apprehension of losing a present good 
 than anxiety to recover a long lost possession. And thus 
 it becomes intelligible how the Pope should first combine 
 with Austria for the destruction of heresy, and then con- 
 spire with these very heretics for the destruction of 
 Austria. Strangely blended are the threads of human 
 affairs ! What would have become of the Reformation 
 and of the liberties of Germany if the Bishop of Rome 
 and the Prince of Rome had had but one interest? 
 
 France had lost with its great Henry all its importance 
 and all its weight in the political balance of Europe. A 
 turbulent minority had destroyed all the benefits of the 
 able administration of Henry. Incapable ministers, the 
 creatures of court intrigue, squandered in a few years the 
 treasures which Sully's economy and Henry's frugality had 
 amassed. Scarce able to maintain their ground against 
 internal factions, they were compelled to resign to other 
 hands the helm of European affairs. The same civil war 
 which armed Germany against itself excited a similar 
 commotion in France ; and Louis XIII. attained majority 
 only to wage a war with his own mother and his Prot- 
 estant subjects. This party, which had been kept quiet by 
 Henry's enlightened policy, now seized the opportunity 
 to take up arms, and under the command of some adven- 
 turous leaders, began to form themselves into a party 
 within the state, and to fix on the strong and powerful 
 town of Rochelle as the capital of their intended kingdom. 
 Too little of a statesman to suppress by a prudent toler- 
 ation this civil commotion in its birth, and too little
 
 92 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 
 
 master of the resources of his kingdom to direct them 
 with energy, Louis XIII. was reduced to the degradation 
 of purchasing the submission of the rebels by large sums 
 of money. Though policy might incline him in one point 
 of view to assist the Bohemian insurgents against Austria, 
 the son of Henry IV. was now compelled to be an inactive 
 spectator of their destruction, happy enough if the Cal- 
 vinists in his own dominions did not unseasonably bethink 
 them of their confederates beyond the Rhine. A great 
 mind at the helm of state would have reduced the Prot- 
 estants in France to obedience, while it employed them 
 to fight for the independence of their German brethren. 
 But Henry IV. was no more, and Richelieu had not yet 
 revived his system of policy. 
 
 While the glory of France was thus upon the wane, the 
 emancipated republic of Holland was completing the 
 fabric of its greatness. The enthusiastic courage had not 
 yet died away which, enkindled by the House of Orange, 
 had converted this mei'cantile people into a nation of 
 heroes, and had enabled them to maintain their independ- 
 ence in a bloody war against the Spanish monarchy. 
 Aware how much they owed their own liberty to foreign 
 support, these republicans were ready to assist their Ger- 
 man brethren in a similar cause, and the more so as both 
 were opposed to the same enemy, and the liberty of Ger- 
 many was the best warrant for that of Holland. But a 
 republic which had still to battle for its very existence, 
 which, with all its wonderful exertions, was scarce a 
 match for the formidable enemy within its own territories, 
 could not be expected to withdraw its troops from the 
 necessary work of self-defence to employ them with a 
 magnanimous policy in protecting foreign states. 
 
 England, too, though now united with Scotland, no 
 longer possessed, under the weak James, that influence 
 in the affairs of Europe which the governing mind of 
 Elizabeth had procured for it. Convinced that the wel- 
 fare of her dominions depended on the security of the 
 Protestants, this politic princess had never swerved from 
 the principle of promoting every enterprise which had 
 for its object the diminution of the Austrian power. 
 Her successor was no less devoid of capacity to compre-
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 93 
 
 hend, than of vigor to execute, her views. While the 
 economical Elizabeth spared not her treasures to support 
 the Flemings against Spain, and Henry IV. against the 
 League, James abandoned his daughter, his son-in-law, 
 and his grandchild to the fury of their enemies. While 
 he exhausted his learning to establish the divine right of 
 kings, he allowed his own dignity to sink into the dust; 
 while lie exerted his rhetoric to prove the absolute 
 authority of kings, he reminded the people of theirs ; and 
 by a useless profusion, sacrificed the chief of his sover- 
 eign rights that of dispensing with his parliament, and 
 thus depriving liberty of its organ. An innate horror at 
 the sight of a naked sword averted him from the most 
 just of wars; while his favorite Buckingham practised 
 on his weakness, and his own complacent vanity ren- 
 dered him an easy dupe of Spanish artifice. While his 
 son-in-law was ruined, and the inheritance of his grand- 
 son given to others, this weak prince was imbibing, with 
 satisfaction, the incense which was offered to him by 
 Austria and Spain. To divert his attention from the 
 German war, he was amused with the proposal of a 
 Spanish marriage for his son, and the ridiculous parent 
 encouraged the romantic youth in the foolish project of 
 paying his addresses in person to the Spanish princess. 
 But his son lost his bride, as his son-in-law lost the crown 
 of Bohemia and the Palatine Electorate ; and death alone 
 saved him from the danger of closing his pacific reign by 
 a war at home, which he never had courage to maintain, 
 even at a distance. 
 
 The domestic disturbances which his misgovernment 
 had gradually excited burst forth under his unfortunate 
 son, and forced him, after some unimportant attempts, to 
 renounce all further participation in the German war, in 
 order to stem within his own kingdom the rage of 
 faction. 
 
 Two illustrious monai'chs, far unequal in personal 
 reputation, but equal in power and desire of fame, made 
 the North at this time to be respected. Under the long 
 and active reign of Christian IV., Denmark had risen 
 into importance. The personal qualifications of this 
 prince, an excellent navy, a formidable army, well-
 
 94 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 
 
 ordered finances, and prudent alliances, had combined to 
 give her prosperity at home and influence abroad. Gus- 
 tavus Vasa had rescued Sweden from vassalage, reformed 
 it by wise laws, and had introduced, for the first time, 
 this newly-organized state into the field of European 
 politics. What this great prince had merely sketched 
 in rude outline was filled up by Gustavus Adolphus, his 
 still greater grandson. 
 
 These two kingdoms, once unnaturally united and 
 enfeebled by their union, had been violently separated at 
 the time of the Reformation, and this separation was the 
 epoch of their prosperity. Injurious as this compulsory 
 union had proved to both kingdoms, equally necessary to 
 each apart were neighborly friendship and harmony. 
 On both the evangelical church leaned ; both had the 
 same seas to protect a common interest ought to unite 
 them against the same enemy. But the hatred which 
 had dissolved the union of these monarchies continued 
 long after their separation to divide the two nations. 
 The Danish kings could not abandon their pretensions to 
 the Swedish crown, nor the Swedes banish the remem- 
 brance of Danish oppression. The contiguous boundaries 
 of the two kingdoms constantly furnished materials for 
 international quarrels, while the watchful jealousy of 
 both kings, and the unavoidable collision of their com- 
 mercial interests in the North Seas, were inexhaustible 
 sources of dispute. 
 
 Among the means of which Gustavus Vasa, the founder 
 of the Swedish monarchy, availed himself to strengthen 
 his new edifice, the Reformation had been one of the 
 principal. A fundamental law of the kingdom excluded 
 the adherents of popery from all offices of the state, and 
 prohibited every future sovereign of Sweden from alter- 
 ing the religious constitution of the kingdom. But the 
 second son and second successor of Gustavus had re- 
 lapsed into popery, and his son Sigismund, also King of 
 Poland, had been guilty of measures which menaced 
 both the constitution and the established church. Headed 
 by Charles, Duke of Sudermania, the third son of Gus- 
 tavus, the Estates made a courageous resistance, which 
 terminated, at last, in an open civil war between the
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 95 
 
 uncle and nephew, and between the King and the people. 
 Duke Charles, administrator of the kingdom during the 
 absence of the king, had availed himself of Sigismund's 
 long residence in Poland, and the just displeasure of the 
 states, to ingratiate himself with the nation, and grad- 
 ually to prepare his way to the throne. His views were 
 not a little forwarded by Sigismund's imprudence. A 
 general Diet ventured to abolish, in favor of the Pro- 
 tector, the rule of primogeniture which Gustavus had 
 established in the succession, and placed the Duke of 
 Sudermania on the throne, from which Sigisrnund, with 
 his whole posterity, were solemnly excluded. The son 
 of the new king (who reigned under the name of Charles 
 IX.) was Gustavus Adolphus, whom, as the son of a 
 usurper, the adherents of Sigismund refused to recog- 
 nize. But if the obligations between monarchy and 
 subjects are reciprocal, and states are not to be trans- 
 mitted, like a lifeless heirloom, from hand to hand, a 
 nation acting with unanimity must have the power of 
 renouncing their allegiance to a sovereign who has 
 violated his obligations to them, and of filling his place 
 by a worthier object. 
 
 Gustavus Adolphus had not completed his seventeenth 
 year when the Swedish throne became vacant by the 
 death of his father. But the early maturity of his genius 
 enabled the Estates to abridge in his favor the legal 
 period of minority. With a glorious conquest over him- 
 self he commenced a reign which was to have victory for 
 its constant attendant, a career which was to begin and 
 end in success. The young Countess of Brahe, the 
 daughter of a subject, had gained his early affections, 
 and he had resolved to share with her the Swedish throne. 
 But, constrained by time and circumstances, he made his 
 attachment yield to the higher duties of a king, and 
 heroism again took exclusive possession of a heart which 
 was not destined by nature to confine itself within the 
 limits of quiet domestic happiness. 
 
 Christian IV. of Denmark, who had ascended the 
 throne before the birth of Gustavus, in an inroad upon 
 Sweden, had gained some considerable advantages over 
 the father of that hero. Gustavus Adolphus hastened to
 
 96 THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 
 
 put an end to this destructive war, and by prudent 
 sacrifices obtained a peace in order to turn his arms 
 against the Czar of Muscovy. The questionable fame of 
 a conqueror never tempted him to spend the blood of his 
 subjects in unjust wars; but he never shrunk from a just 
 one. His arms were successful against Russia, and 
 Sweden was augmented by several important provinces 
 on the east. 
 
 In the meantime, Sigismund of Poland retained against 
 the son the same sentiments of hostility which the father 
 had provoked, and left no artifice untried to shake the 
 allegiance of his subjects, to cool the ardor of his friends, 
 and to embitter his enemies. Neither the great qualities 
 of his rival, nor the repeated proofs of devotion which 
 Sweden gave to her loved monarch, could extinguish in 
 this infatuated prince the foolish hope of regaining his 
 lost throne. All Gustavus' overtures were haughtily 
 rejected. Unwillingly was this really peaceful king 
 involved in a tedious war with Poland, in which the 
 whole of Livonia and Polish Prussia were successively 
 conquered. Though constantly victorious, Gustavus 
 Adolphus was always the first to hold out the hand of 
 peace. 
 
 This contest between Sweden and Poland falls some- 
 where about the beginning of the Thirty Years' War in 
 Germany, with which it is in some measure connected. 
 It was enough that Sigismund, himself a Roman Catholic, 
 was disputing the Swedish crown with a Protestant 
 prince, to assure him the active support of Spain and 
 Austria ; while a double relationship to the Emperor 
 gave him a still stronger claim to his protection. It was 
 his reliance on this powerful assistance that chiefly 
 encouraged the King of Poland to continue the war, 
 which had hitherto turned out so unfavorably for him, 
 and the courts of Madrid and Vienna failed not to 
 encourage him by high-sounding promises. While Sigis- 
 mund lost one place after another in Livonia, Courland, 
 and Prussia, he saw his ally in Germany advancing from 
 conquest after conquest to unlimited power. No wonder 
 then if his aversion to peace kept pace with his losses. 
 The vehemence with which he nourished his chimerical
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. D7 
 
 hopes blinded him to the artful policy of his confederates, 
 who at his expense were keeping the Swedish hero 
 employed, in order to overturn, without opposition, the 
 liberties of Germany, and then to seize on the exhausted 
 North as an easy conquest. One circumstance which had 
 not been calculated on the magnanimity of Gustavus 
 overthrew this deceitful policy. An eight years' war in 
 Poland, so far from exhausting the poAver of Sweden, 
 had only served to mature the military genius of Gustavus, 
 to inure the Swedish army to warfare, and insensibly to 
 perfect that system of tactics by which they were after- 
 wards to perform such wonders in Germany. 
 
 After this necessary digression on the existing circum- 
 stances of Europe, I now resume the thread of my history. 
 
 Ferdinand had regained his dominions, but had not 
 indemnified himself for the expenses of recovering them. 
 A sum of forty millions of florins, which the confiscations 
 in Bohemia and Moravia had produced, would have 
 sufficed to reimburse both himself and his allies ; but the 
 Jesuits and his favorites soon squandered this sum, large 
 as it was. Maximilian, Duke of Bavaria, to whose vic- 
 torious arm, principally, the Emperor owed the recovery 
 of his dominions; who, in the service of religion and the 
 Emperor, had sacrificed his near relation, had the 
 strongest claims on his gratitude ; and, moreover, in a 
 treaty which, before the war, the duke had concluded 
 with the Emperor, he had expressly stipulated for the 
 reimbursement of all expenses. Ferdinand felt the full 
 weight of the obligation imposed upon him by this treaty 
 and by these services, but he was not disposed to discharge 
 it at his own cost. His purpose was to bestow a brilliant 
 reward upon the duke, but without detriment to himself. 
 How could this be done better than at the expense of the 
 unfortunate prince who, by his revolt, had given the 
 Emperor a right to punish him, and whose offences 
 might be painted in colors strong enough to justify the 
 most violent measures under the appearance of law. 
 That, then, Maximilian may be rewarded, Frederick 
 must be further persecuted and totally ruined ; and to 
 defray the expenses of the old war a new one must be 
 commenced.
 
 98 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 
 
 But a still stronger motive combined to enforce the 
 first. Hitherto Ferdinand had been contending for 
 existence alone ; he had been fulfilling no other duty 
 than that of self-defence. But now, when victory gave 
 him freedom to act, a higher duty occurred to him, and 
 he remembered the vow which he had made at Loretto 
 and at Rome, to his generalissimo, the Holy Virgin, to 
 extend her worship even at the risk of his crown and 
 life. With this object the oppression of the Protestants 
 was inseparably connected. More favorable circum- 
 stances for its accomplishment could not offer than those 
 which presented themselves at the close of the Bohemian 
 war. Neither the power, nor a pretext of right, were 
 now wanting to enable him to place the Palatinate in the 
 hands of the Catholics, and the importance of this change 
 to the Catholic interests in Germany would be incalcul- 
 able. Thus, in rewarding the Duke of Bavaria with the 
 spoils of his relation, he at once gratified his meanest 
 passions and fulfilled his most exalted duties ; he crushed 
 an enemy whom he hated, and spared his avarice a 
 painful sacrifice, while he believed he was winning an 
 heavenly crown. 
 
 In the Emperor's cabinet the ruin of Frederick had 
 been resolved upon long before fortune had decided 
 against him ; but it was only after this event that they 
 ventured to direct against him the thunders of arbitrary 
 power. A decree of the Emperor, destitute of all the 
 formalities required on such occasions by the laws of the 
 Empire, pronounced the Elector, and three other princes 
 who had borne arms for him at Silesia and Bohemia, as 
 offenders against the imperial majesty, and disturbers of 
 the public peace, under the ban of the empire, and 
 deprived them of their titles and territories. The execu- 
 tion of this sentence against Frederick, namely, the seizure 
 of his lands, was, in further contempt of law, committed 
 to Spain as Sovereign of the circle of Burgundy, to the 
 Duke of Bavaria, and the League. Had the Evangelic 
 Union been worthy of the name it bore, and of the cause 
 which it pretended to defend, insuperable obstacles might 
 have prevented the execution of the sentence ; but it was 
 hopeless for a power which was far from a match even
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 99 
 
 for the Spanish troops in the Lower Palatinate, to con- 
 tend against the united strength of the Emperor, Bavaria, 
 and the League. The sentence of proscription pronounced 
 upon the Elector soon detached the free cities from the 
 Union ; and the princes quickly followed their example. 
 Fortunate in preserving their own dominions, they aban- 
 doned the Elector, their former chief, to the Emperor's 
 mercy, renounced the Union, and vowed never to revive 
 it again. 
 
 But while thus ingloriously the German princes deserted 
 the unfortunate Frederick, and while Bohemia, Silesia, 
 and Moravia submitted to the Emperor, a single man, a 
 soldier of fortune, whose only treasure was his sword, 
 Ernest Count Mansfeld, dared, in the Bohemian town of 
 Pilsen, to defy the whole power of Austria. Left without 
 assistance after the battle of Prague by the Elector, to 
 whose service he had devoted himself, and even uncertain 
 whether Frederick would thank him for his perseverance, 
 he alone for some time held out against the imperialists, 
 till the garrison, mutinying for want of pay, sold the town 
 to the Emperor. Undismayed by this reverse, he imme- 
 diately commenced new levies in the Upper Palatinate, 
 and enlisted the disbanded troops of the Union. A new 
 army of twenty thousand men was soon assembled 
 under his banners, the more formidable to the provinces 
 which might be the object of its attack, because it must sub- 
 sist by plunder. Uncertain where this swarm might light, 
 the neighboring bishops trembled for their rich posses- 
 sions, which offered a tempting prey to its ravages. But, 
 pressed by the Duke of Bavaria, who now entered the 
 Upper Palatinate, Mansfeld was compelled to retire. 
 Eluding, by a successful stratagem, the Bavarian general, 
 Tilly, who was in pursuit of him, he suddenly appeared 
 in the Lower Palatinate, and there wreaked upon the 
 bishoprics of the Rhine the severities he had designed for 
 those of Franconia. While the imperial and Bavarian 
 allies thus overran Bohemia, the Spanish general, Spinola, 
 had penetrated with a numerous army from the Nether- 
 lands, into the Lower Palatinate, which, however, the 
 pacification of Ulm permitted the Union to defend. But 
 their measures were so badly concerted that one place
 
 100 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 
 
 after another fell into the hands of the Spaniards ; and at 
 last, when the Union broke up, the greater part of the 
 country was in the possession of Spain. The Spanish 
 general, Corduba, who commanded these troops after the 
 recall of Spinola, hastily raised the siege of Frankenthal, 
 when Mansfeld entered the Lower Palatinate. But 
 instead of driving the Spaniards out of this province, he 
 hastened across the Rhine to secure for his needy troops 
 shelter and subsistence in Alsace. The open countries 
 on which this swarm of maurauders threw themselves 
 were converted into frightful deserts, and only by enor- 
 mous contributions could the cities purchase an exemption 
 from plunder. Reinforced by this expedition, Mansfeld 
 again appeared on the Rhine to cover the Lower Pala- 
 tinate. 
 
 So long as such an arm fought for him the cause of the 
 Elector Frederick was not irretrievably lost. Xew 
 prospects began to open, and misfortune raised up friends 
 who had been silent during his prosperity. King James 
 of England, who had looked on with indifference while 
 his son-in-law lost the Bohemian crown, was aroused from 
 his insensibility when the very existence of his daughter 
 and grandson was at stake, and the victorious enemy 
 ventured an attack upon the Electorate. Late enough, 
 he at last opened his treasures, and hastened to afford 
 supplies of money and troops, first to the L^nion, which 
 at that time was defending the Lower Palatinate, 
 and afterwards, when they retired, to Count Mansfeld. 
 By his means his near relation, Christian, King of Den- 
 mark, was induced to afford his active support. At the 
 same time, the approaching expiration of the truce 
 between Spain and Holland deprived the Emperor of all 
 the supplies which otherwise he might expect from the 
 side of the Netherlands. More important still was the 
 assistance which the Palatinate received from Transyl- 
 vania and Hungary. The cessation of hostilities between 
 Gabor and the Emperor was scarcely at an end, when 
 this old and formidable enemy of Austria overran Hun- 
 gary anew, and caused himself to be crowned king in 
 Presburg. So rapid was his progress that, to protect 
 Austria and Hungary, Boucquoi was obliged to evacuate
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 101 
 
 Bohemia. This brave general met his death at the siege 
 of Neuhausel, as, shortly before, the no less valiant 
 Dampierre had fallen before Presburg. Gabor's march 
 into the Austrian territory was irresistible ; the old 
 Count Thurn, and several other distinguished Bohemians, 
 had united their hatred and their strength with this 
 irreconcilable enemy of Austria. A vigorous attack on 
 the side of Germany, while Gabor pressed the Emperor 
 on that of Hungary, might have retrieved the fortunes of 
 Frederick ; but, unfortunately, the Bohemians and Ger- 
 mans had always laid down their arms when Gabor took 
 the field ; and the latter was always exhausted at the very 
 moment that the former began to recover their vigor. 
 
 Meanwhile Frederick had not delayed to join his pro- 
 tector, Mansfeld. In disguise he entered the Lower Pala- 
 tinate, of which the possession was at that time disputed 
 betwen Mansfeld and the Bavarian general, Tilly, the 
 Upper Palatinate having been long conquered. A ray of 
 hope shone upon him as, from the wreck of the Union, 
 new friends came forward. A former member of the 
 Union, George Frederick, Margrave of Baden, had for 
 some time been engaged in assembling a military force, 
 which soon amounted to a considerable army. Its des- 
 tination was kept a .secret till he suddenly took the 
 field and joined Mansfeld. Before commencing the war, 
 he resigned his Margravate to his son, in the hope of 
 eluding, by this precaution, the Emperor's revenge, if his 
 enterprise should be unsuccessful. His neighbor, the 
 Duke of Wirtemberg, likewise began to augment his 
 military force. The courage of the Palatine revived, 
 and he labored assiduously to renew the Protestant 
 Union. It was now time for Tilly to consult for his own 
 safety, and he hastily summoned the Spanish troops, 
 under Corduba, to his assistance. But while the enemy 
 was uniting his strength, Mansfeld and the Margrave 
 separated, and the latter was defeated by the Bavarian 
 general near Wimpfen (1622). 
 
 To defend a king whom his nearest relation persecuted, 
 and who was deserted even by his own father-in-law, 
 there had come forward an adventurer without money, 
 and whose very legitimacy was questioned. A sovereign
 
 102 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 
 
 had resigned possessions over which he reigned in peace 
 to hazard the uncertain fortune of war in behalf of a 
 stranger. And now another soldier of fortune, poor in 
 territorial possessions, but rich in illustrious ancestry, 
 undertook the defence of a cause which the former des- 
 paired of. Christian, Duke of Brunswick, administrator 
 of Halberstadt, seemed to have learnt from Count Mans- 
 feld the secret of keeping in the field an army of twenty 
 thousand men without money. Impelled by youthful pre- 
 sumption, and influenced partly by the wish of establish- 
 ing his reputation at the expense of the Roman Catholic 
 priesthood, whom he cordially detested, and partly by 
 a thirst for plunder, he assembled a considerable army in 
 Lower Saxony, under the pretext of espousing the defence 
 of Frederick, and of the liberties of Germany. " God's 
 Friend, Priests' Foe," was the motto he chose for his 
 coinage, which was struck out of church plate ; and his 
 conduct belied one-half at least of the device. 
 
 The progress of these banditti was, as usual, marked 
 by the most frightful devastation. Enriched by the 
 spoils of the chapters of Lower Saxony and Westphalia, 
 they gathered strength to plunder the bishoprics upon 
 the L T pper Rhine. Driven from thence, both by friends 
 and foes, the Administrator approached the town of 
 Hoechst on the Maine, which he crossed after a murderous 
 action with Tilly, who disputed with him the passage of 
 the river. With the loss of half his army he reached the 
 opposite bank, where he quickly collected his shattered 
 troops, and formed a junction with Mansfeld. Pursued 
 by Tilly, this united host threw itself again into Alsace, 
 to repeat their former ravages. While the Elector Fred- 
 erick followed, almost like a fugitive mendicant, this 
 swarm of plunderers, which acknowledged him as its lord, 
 and dignified itself with his name, his friends .were 
 busily endeavoring to effect a reconciliation between 
 him and the Emperor. Ferdinand took care not to 
 deprive them of all hope of seeing the Palatine restored 
 to his dominion. Full of artifice and dissimulation, he 
 pretended to be willing to enter into a negotiation, hoping 
 thereby to cool their ardor in the field, and to prevent 
 them from driving matters to extremity. James I., ever
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAK. 103 
 
 the dupe of Spanish cunning, contributed not a little, by 
 his foolish intermeddling, to promote the Emperor's 
 schemes. Ferdinand insisted that Frederick, if he would 
 appeal to his clemency, should, first of all, lay down his 
 arms, and James considered this demand extremely 
 reasonable. At his instigation the Elector dismissed 
 his only real defenders, Count Mansfeld and the Adminis- 
 trator, and in Holland awaited his own fate from the 
 mercy of the Emperor. 
 
 Mansfeld and Duke Christian were now at a loss for 
 some new name ; the cause of the Elector had not set 
 them in motion, so his dismissal could not disarm them. 
 War was their object ; it was all the same to them in 
 whose cause or name it was waged. After some vain 
 attempts on the part of Mansfeld to be received into the 
 Emperor's service, both marched into Lorraine, where 
 the excesses of their troops spread terror even to the 
 heart of France. Here they long waited in vain for a 
 master willing to purchase their services ; till the Dutch, 
 pressed by the Spanish General Spinola, offered to take 
 them into pay. After a bloody fight at Fleurus with 
 the Spaniards, who attempted to intercept them, they 
 reached Holland, where their appearance compelled the 
 Spanish general forthwith to raise the siege of Bergen- 
 op-Zoom. But even Holland was soon weary of these 
 dangerous guests, and availed herself of the first moment 
 to get rid of their unwelcome assistance. Mansfeld 
 allowed his troops to recruit themselves for new enter- 
 prises in the fertile province of East Friezeland. Duke 
 Christian, passionately enamoured of the Electress Pala- 
 tine, with whom he had become acquainted in Holland, 
 and more disposed for war than ever, led back his army 
 into Lower Saxony, bearing that princess's glove in his 
 hat, and on his standards the motto, " All for God and 
 Her." Neither of these adventurers had as yet run their 
 career in this war. 
 
 All the imperial territories were now free from the 
 enemy ; the Union was dissolved ; the Margrave of 
 Baden, Duke Christian, and Mansfeld driven from the 
 field, and the Palatinate overrun by the executive troops 
 of the empire. Manheim and Heidelberg were in possession
 
 104 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 
 
 of Bavaria, and Frankenthal was shortly afterwards ceded 
 to the Spaniards. The Palatine, in a distant corner of 
 Holland, awaited the disgraceful permission to appease, 
 by abject submission, the vengeance of the Emperor; 
 and an Electoral Diet was at last summoned to decide 
 his fate. That fate, however, had been long before 
 decided at the court of the Emperor ; though now, for 
 the first time, were circumstances favorable for giving 
 publicity to the decision. After his past measures 
 towards the Elector, Ferdinand believed that a sincere 
 reconciliation was not to be hoped for. The violent 
 course he had once begun must be completed sucessfully, 
 or recoil upon himself. What was already lost was 
 irrecoverable ; Frederick could never hope to regain his 
 dominions ; and a prince without territory and without 
 subjects had little chance of retaining the electoral crown. 
 Deeply as the Palatine had offended against the House 
 of Austria, the services of the Duke of Bavaria were no 
 less meritorious. If the House of Austria and the Roman 
 Catholic church had much to dread from the resentment 
 and religious rancor of the Palatine family, they had as 
 much to hope from the gratitude and religious zeal of 
 the Bavarian. Lastly, by the cession of the Palatine 
 Electorate to Bavaria, the Roman Catholic religion would 
 obtain a decisive preponderance in the Electoral College, 
 and secure a permanent triumph in Germany. 
 
 The last circumstance was sufficient to win the support 
 of the three Ecclesiastical Electors to this innovation ; 
 and among the Protestants the vote of Saxony was alone 
 of any importance. But could John George be expected 
 to dispute with the Emperor a right, without which he 
 would expose to question his own title to the electoral 
 dignity? To a prince whom descent, dignity, and 
 political power placed at the head of the Protestant 
 church in Germany, nothing, it is true, ought to be more 
 sacred than the defence of the rights of that church 
 against all the encroachments of the Roman Catholics. 
 But the question here was not whether the interests of 
 the Protestants were to be supported against the Roman 
 Catholics, but which of two religions equally detested, 
 the Calvinistic and the Popish, was to triumph over the
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 105 
 
 other ; to which of the two enemies, equally dangerous, 
 the Palatinate was to be assigned ; and in this clashing 
 of opposite duties, it was natural that private hate and 
 private gain should determine the event. The born 
 protector of the liberties of Germany, and of the Prot- 
 estant religion, encouraged the Emperor to dispose of the 
 Palatinate by his imperial prerogative ; and to apprehend 
 no resistance on the part of Saxony to his measures on 
 the mere ground of form. If the Elector was afterwards 
 disposed to retract this consent, Ferdinand himself, by 
 driving the Evangelical preachers from Bohemia, was the 
 cause of this change of opinion; and, in the eyes of the 
 Elector, the transference of the Palatine Electorate to 
 Bavaria ceased to be illegal as soon as Ferdinand was 
 prevailed upon to cede Lusatia to Saxony, in consideration 
 of six millions of dollars, as the expenses of the war. 
 
 Thus, in defiance of all Protestant Germany, and in 
 mockery of the fundamental laws of the empire, which, 
 at his election, he had sworn to maintain, Ferdinand at 
 Ratisbon solemnly invested the Duke of Bavaria with the 
 Palatinate, without prejudice, as the form ran, to the 
 rights which the relations or descendants of Frederick 
 might afterwards establish. That unfortunate prince 
 thus saw himself irrevocably driven from his possessions, 
 without having been even heard before the tribunal which 
 condemned him a privilege which the law allows to the 
 meanest subject, and even to the most atrocious criminal. 
 
 This violent step at last opened the eyes of the King 
 of England ; and as the negotiations for the marriage of 
 his son with the Infanta of Spain were now broken off, 
 James began seriously to espouse the cause of his son-in- 
 law. A change in the French ministry had placed Cardi- 
 nal Richelieu at the head of affairs, and this fallen 
 kingdom soon began to feel that a great mind was at the 
 helm of state. The attempts of the Spanish Viceroy in 
 Milan to gain possession of the Valtelline, and thus to 
 form a junction with the Austrian hereditary dominions, 
 revived the olden dread of this power, and with it the 
 policy of Henry the Great. The marriage of the Prince 
 of Wales with Henrietta of France established a close 
 union between the two crowns; and to this alliance,
 
 106 THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 
 
 Holland, Denmark, and some of the Italian states presently 
 acceded. Its object was to expel, by force of arms, 
 Spain from the Valtelline. and to compel Austria to 
 reinstate Frederick ; but only the first of these designs 
 was prosecuted with vigor. James I. died, and Charles 
 I., involved in disputes with his Parliament, could not 
 bestow attention on the affairs of Germany. Savoy and 
 Venice withheld their assistance ; and the French min- 
 ister thought it necessary to subdue the Huguenots at 
 home before he supported the German Protestants 
 against the Emperor. Great as were the hopes which 
 had been formed from this alliance, they were yet equalled 
 by the disappointment of the event. 
 
 Mansfeld, deprived of all support, remained inactive on 
 the Lower Rhine; and Duke Christian of Brunswick, 
 after an unsuccessful campaign, was a second time driven 
 out of Germany. A fresh irruption of Bethlen Gabor 
 into Moravia, frustrated by the want of support from the 
 Germans, terminated, like all the rest, in a formal peace 
 with the Emperor. The Union was no more ; no Prot- 
 estant prince was in arms ; and on the frontiers of Lower 
 Germany, the Bavarian General Tilly, at the head of a 
 victorious army, encamped in the Protestant territory. 
 The movements of the Duke of Brunswick had drawn 
 him into this quarter, and even into the circle of Lower 
 Saxony, when he made himself master of the Adminis- 
 trator's magazines at Lippstadt. The necessity of observ- 
 ing this enemy, and preventing him from new inroads, 
 was the pretext assigned for continuing Tilly's stay in 
 the country. But, in truth, both Mansfeld and Duke 
 Christian had, from want of money, disbanded their 
 armies, and Count Tilly had no enemy to dread. Why, 
 then, still burden the country with his presence? 
 
 It is difficult, amidst the uproar of contending parties, 
 to distinguish the voice of truth ; but certainly it was 
 matter for alarm that the League did not lay down its 
 arms. The premature rejoicings of the Roman Catholics, 
 too, were calculated to increase apprehension. The 
 Emperor and the League stood armed and victorious in 
 Germany without a power to oppose them, should they 
 venture to attack the Protestant states and to annul the
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 107 
 
 religious treaty. Had Ferdinand been in reality far 
 from disposed to abuse his conquests, still the defence- 
 less position of the Protestants was most likely to sug- 
 gest the temptation. Obsolete conventions could not 
 bind a prince who thought that he owed all to religion, 
 and believed that a religious creed would sanctify any 
 deed, however violent. Upper Germany was already 
 overpowered. Lower Germany alone could check his 
 despotic authority. Here the Protestants still predomi- 
 nated ; the church had been forcibly deprived of most of 
 its endowments ; and the present appeared a favorable 
 moment for recovering these lost possessions. A great 
 part of the strength of the Lower German princes con- 
 sisted in these Chapters, and the plea of restoring its 
 own to the church afforded an excellent pretext for 
 weakening these princes. 
 
 Unpardonable would have been their negligence had 
 they remained inactive in this danger. The remem- 
 brance of the ravages which Tilly's army had committed 
 in Lower Saxony was too recent not to arouse the 
 Estates to measures of defence. With all haste the 
 circle of Lower Saxony began to arm itself. Extraor- 
 dinary contributions were levied, troops collected, and 
 magazines filled. Negotiations for subsidies were set on 
 foot with Venice, Holland, and England. They deliber- 
 ated, too, what power should be placed at the head of 
 the confederacy. The kings of the Sound and the Baltic, 
 the natural allies of this circle, would not see with indif- 
 ference the Emperor treating it as a conqueror, and 
 establishing himself as their neighbor on the shores of the 
 North Sea. The twofold interests of religion and policy 
 urged them to put a stop to his progress in Lower Ger- 
 many. Christian IV., of Denmark, as Duke of Holstein, 
 was himself a prince of this circle, and by considerations 
 equally powerful Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden was 
 induced to join the confederacy. 
 
 These two kings vied with each other for the honor of 
 defending Lower Saxony, and of opposing the formidable 
 power of Austria. Each offered to raise a well-disciplined 
 army, and to lead it in person. His victorious campaigns 
 against Moscow and Poland gave weight to the promises
 
 108. THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 
 
 of the King of Sweden. The shores of the Baltic were 
 full of the name of Gustavus. But the fame of his rival 
 excited the envy of the Danish monarch ; and the more 
 success he promised himself in this campaign the less 
 disposed was he to show any favor to his envied neigh- 
 bor. Both laid their conditions and plans before the 
 English ministry, and Christian IV. finally succeeded in 
 outbidding his rival. Gustavus Adolphus, for his own 
 security, had demanded the cession of some places of 
 strength in Germany, where he himself had no territorial 
 to afford, in case of need, a place of refuge for his troops. 
 Christian IV. possessed Holstein and Jutland, through 
 which, in the event of a defeat, he could always secure a 
 retreat. 
 
 Eager to get the start of his competitor, the King of 
 Denmark hastened to take the field. Appointed general- 
 issimo of the circle of Lower Saxony, he soon had an 
 army of sixty thousand men in motion ; the administrator 
 of Magdeburg, and the Dukes of Brunswick and Meck- 
 lenburgh entered into an alliance with him. Encouraged 
 by the hope of assistance from England, and the posses- 
 sion of so large a force, he flattered himself he should be 
 able to terminate the war in a single campaign. 
 
 At Vienna it was officially notified that the only object 
 of these preparations was the protection of the circle, and 
 the maintenance of the peace. But the negotiations with 
 Holland, England, and even France, the extraordinary 
 exertions of the circle, and the raising of so formidable 
 an army, seemed to have something more in view than 
 defensive operations, and to contemplate nothing less than 
 the complete restoration of the Elector Palatine, and the 
 humiliation of the dreaded power of Austria. 
 
 After negotiations, exhortations, commands, and threats 
 had in vain been employed by the Emperor in order to 
 induce the King of Denmark and the circle of Lower 
 Saxony to lay down their arms, hostilities commenced, 
 and Lower Germany became the theatre of war. Count 
 Tilly, marching along the left bank of the Weser, 
 made himself master of all the passes as far as Minden. 
 After an unsuccessful attack on Nieuburg, he crossed the 
 river and overran the principality of Calemberg, in which
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 109 
 
 he quartered his troops. The king conducted his oper- 
 ations on the right bank of the river, and spread his 
 forces over the territories of Brunswick, but having 
 weakened his main body by too powerful detachments, 
 he could not engage in any enterprise of importance. 
 Aware of his opponent's superiority, he avoided a decisive 
 action as anxiously as the general of the League sought it. 
 
 With the exception of the troops from the Spanish 
 Netherlands, which had poured into the Lower Palatinate, 
 the Emperor had hitherto made use only of the arms of 
 Bavaria and the League in Germany. Maximilian con- 
 ducted the war as executor of the ban of the empire, and 
 Tilly, who commanded the army of execution, was in the 
 Bavarian service. The Emperor owed superiority in the 
 field to Bavaria and the League, and his fortunes were in 
 their hands. This dependence on their good-will but ill 
 accorded with the grand schemes which the brilliant 
 commenceimnt of the war had led the imperial cabinet 
 to form. 
 
 However active the League had shown itself in the 
 Emperior's defence, while thereby it secured its own 
 welfare, it could not be expected that it would enter as 
 readily into his views of conquest. Or, if they still con- 
 tinued to lend their armies for that purpose, is was too 
 much to be feared that they would share with the Em- 
 peror nothing but general odium, while they appropriated 
 to themselves all advantages. A strong army under his 
 own orders could alone free him from this debasing de- 
 pendence upon Bavaria, and restore to him his former 
 pre-eminence in Germany. But the war had already ex- 
 hausted the imperial dominions, and they were unequal 
 to the expense of such an armament. In these circum- 
 stances nothing could be more welcome to the Emperor 
 than the proposal with which one of his officers surprised 
 him. 
 
 This was Count Wallenstein, an experienced officer, 
 and the richest nobleman in Bohemia. From his earliest 
 youth he had been in the service of the House of Austria, 
 and several campaigns against the Turks, Venetians, 
 Bohemians, Hungarians, and Transylvanians had estab- 
 lished his reputation. He was present as colonel at the
 
 110 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 
 
 battle of Prague, and afterwards, as major-general, had 
 defeated a Hungarian force in Moravia. The Emperor's 
 gratitude was equal to his services, and a large share of 
 the confiscated estates of the Bohemian insurgents was 
 their reward. Possessed of immense property, excited by 
 ambitious views, confident in his own good fortune, and 
 still more encouraged by the existing state of circum- 
 stances, he offered, at his own expense and that of his 
 friends, to raise and clothe an army for the Emperor, and 
 even undertook the cost of maintaining it, if he were 
 allowed to augment it to fifty thousand men. The project 
 was universally ridiculed as the chimerical offspring of a 
 visionary brain ; but the offer was highly valuable, if its 
 promises should be but partially fulfilled. Certain circles 
 in Bohemia were assigned to him as depots, with au- 
 thority to appoint his own officers. In a few months he 
 had twenty thousand men under arms, with which, quit- 
 ting the Austrian territories, he soon afterwards appeared 
 on the frontiers of Lower Saxony with thirty thousand. 
 The Emperor had lent this armament nothing but his 
 name. The reputation of the general, the prospect of 
 rapid promotion, and the hope of plunder, attracted to 
 his standard adventurers from all quarters of Germany ; 
 and even sovereign princes, stimulated by the desire of 
 glory or of gain, offered to raise regiments for the service 
 of Austria. 
 
 Now, therefore, for the first time in this war, an impe- 
 rial army appeared in Germany ; an event which, if it was 
 menacing to the Protestants, was scarcely more accept- 
 able to the Catholics. Wallenstein had orders to unite 
 his army with the troops of the League, and in conjunc- 
 tion with the Bavarian general to attack the King of 
 Denmark. Bat, long jealous of Tilly's fame, he showed 
 no disposition to share with him the laurels of the cam- 
 paign or in the splendors of his rival's achievements to 
 dim the lustre of his own. His plan of operations was to 
 support the latter, but to act entirely independently of 
 him. As he had not resources, like Tilly, for supplying 
 the wants of his army, he was obliged to march his troops 
 into fertile countries which had not as yet suffered from 
 war. Disobeying, therefore, the order to form a June-
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' AVAR. Ill 
 
 tion with the general of the League, he inarched into 
 the territories of Halberstadt and Magdeburg, and at 
 Dessau made himself master of the Elbe. All the lands 
 on either bank of this river were at his command, and 
 from them he could either attack the King of Denmark 
 in the rear, or, if prudent, enter the territories of that 
 prince. 
 
 Christian IV. was fully aware of the danger of his situa- 
 tion between two such powerful armies. He had already 
 been joined by the administrator of Halberstadt, who 
 had lately returned from Holland ; he now also acknowl- 
 edged Mansfeld, whom previously he had refused to 
 recognize, and supported him to the best of his ability. 
 Mansfeld amply requited this service. He alone kept 
 at bay the army of Wallenstein upon the Elbe, and pre- 
 vented its junction with that of Tilly, and a combined 
 attack on the King of Denmark. Notwithstanding the 
 enemy's superiority, this intrepid general even ap- 
 proached the bridge of Dessau and ventured to entrench 
 himself in the presence of the imperial lines. But 
 attacked in the rear by the whole force of the Imperial- 
 ists, he was obliged to yield to superior numbers, and to 
 abandon his post with the loss of three thousand killed. 
 After this defeat Mansfeld withdrew into Brandenburg, 
 where he soon recruited and reinforced his army, and 
 suddenly turned into Silesia, with the view of marching 
 from thence into Hungary, and, in conjunction with 
 Bethlen Gabor, carrying the war into the heart of Aus- 
 tria. As the Austrian dominions in that quarter were 
 entirely defenceless, Wallenstein received immediate 
 orders to leave the King of Denmark, and if possible to 
 intercept Mansfeld's progress through Silesia. 
 
 The diversion which this movement of Mansfeld had 
 made in the plans of Wallenstein enabled the king to 
 detach a part of his force into Westphalia, to seize the 
 bishoprics of Munster and Osnaburg. To check this 
 movement, Tilly suddenly moved from theWeser; but 
 the operations of Duke Christian, who threatened the 
 territories of the League with an inroad in the direction 
 of Hesse, and to remove thither the seat of war, recalled 
 him as rapidly from Westphalia. In order to keep open
 
 112 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 
 
 his communications with these provinces, and to prevent 
 the junction of the enemy with the Landgrave of Hesse, 
 Tilly hastily seized all the tenable posts on the Werha 
 and Fulda, and took up a strong position in Minden, at 
 the foot of the Hessian Mountains, and at the confluence 
 of these rivers with the Weser. He soon made himself 
 master of Gottingen, the key of Brunswick and Hesse, 
 and was meditating a similar attack upon Nordheim, 
 when the king advanced upon him with his whole army. 
 After throwing into this place the necessary supplies for 
 a long siege, the latter attempted to open a new passage 
 through Eichsfield and Thuringia into the territories of 
 the League. He had already reached Dnnderstadt when 
 Tilly, by forced marches, came up with him. As the 
 army of Tilly, which had been reinforced by some of 
 Wallenstein's regiments, was superior in numbers to his 
 own, the king, in order to avoid a battle, retreated 
 towards Brunswick. But Tilly incessantly harassed his 
 retreat, and after three days' skirmishing he was at 
 length obliged to await the enemy near the village of 
 Lutter in Barenberg. The Danes began the attack with 
 great bravery, and thrice did their intrepid monarch lead 
 them in person against the enemy ; but at length the 
 superior numbers and discipline of the Imperialists pre- 
 vailed, and the general of the League obtained a com- 
 plete victory. The Danes lost sixty standards and their 
 whole artillery, baggage, and ammunition. Several offi- 
 cers of distinction and about four thousand men were 
 killed in the field of battle, and several companies of 
 foot in the flight, who had thrown themselves into the 
 town-house of Lutter, laid down their arms and surren- 
 dered to the conqueror. 
 
 The king fled with his cavalry and soon collected the 
 wreck of his army which had survived this serious 
 defeat. Tilly pursued his victory, made himself master 
 of the Weser and Brunswick, and forced the king to 
 retire into Bremen. Rendered more cautious by defeat, 
 the latter now stood upon the defensive, and determined 
 at all events to prevent the enemy from crossing the 
 Elbe. But while he threw garrisons into every tenable 
 place, he reduced his own diminished army to inactivity;
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 113 
 
 and one after another his scattered troops were either 
 defeated or dispersed. The forces of the League in 
 command of the Weser spread themselves along the Elbe 
 and Havel, and everywhere drove the Danes before 
 them. Tilly, himself ci-ossing the Elbe, penetrated with 
 his victorious army into Brandenburg, while Wallenstein 
 entered Holstein to remove the seat of war to the king's 
 own dominions. 
 
 This general had just returned from Hungary, whither 
 he had pursued Mansfeld, without being able to obstruct 
 his march or prevent his junction with Bethlen Gabor. 
 Constantly persecuted by fortune, but always superior to 
 his fate, Mansfeld had made his way against countless 
 difficulties through Silesia and Hungary to Transylvania, 
 where, after all, he was not very welcome. Relying upon 
 the assistance of England, and a powerful diversion in 
 Lower Saxony, Gabor had again broken the truce with 
 the Emperor. But in place of the expected diversion in 
 his favor, Mansfeld had drawn upon himself the whole 
 strength of Wallenstein, and instead of bringing, re- 
 quired pecuniary assistance. The want of concert in the 
 Protestant counsels cooled Gabor's ardor ; and he has- 
 tened, as usual, to avert the coming storm by a speedy 
 peace. Firmly determined, however, to break it, with 
 the first ray of hope, he directed Mansfeld in the mean- 
 time to apply for assistance to Venice. 
 
 Cut off from Germany, and unable to support the 
 weak remnant of his troops in Hungary, Mansfeld sold 
 his artillery and baggage train and disbanded his soldiers. 
 With a few followers he proceeded through Bosnia and 
 Dalmatia towards Venice. New schemes swelled his 
 bosom ; but his career was ended. Fate, which had so 
 restlessly sported with him throughout, now prepared 
 for him a peaceful grave in Dalmatia. Death overtook 
 him in the vicinity of Zara in 1626 ; and a short time 
 before him died the faithful companion of his fortunes, 
 Christian, Duke of Brunswick two men worthy of 
 immortality had they but been as superior to their times 
 as they were to their adversities. 
 
 The King of Denmark, with his whole army, was 
 unable to cope with Tilly alone ; much less, therefore,
 
 114 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 
 
 with a shattered force could he hold his ground against 
 the two imperial generals. The Danes retired from all 
 their posts on the Weser, the Elbe, and the Havel, and 
 the array of Wallenstein poured like a torrent into 
 Brandenburg, Mecklenburgh, Holstein, and Sleswick. 
 That general, too proud to act in conjunction with 
 another, had despatched Tilly across the Elbe to watch, 
 as he gave out, the motions of the Dutch in that quarter, 
 but in reality that he might terminate the war against 
 the king, and reap for himself the fruits of Tilly's con- 
 quests. Christian had now lost all his fortresses in the 
 German States, with the exception of Gluckstadt; his 
 armies were defeated or dispersed ; no assistance came 
 from Germany ; from England little consolation*; while 
 his confederates in Lower Saxony were at the mercy of 
 the conqueror. The Landgrave of Hesse Cassel had been 
 forced by Tilly, soon after the battle of Lutter, to re- 
 nounce the Danish alliance. Wallenstein's formidable 
 appearance before Berlin reduced the Elector of Bran- 
 denburg to submission, and compelled him to recognize 
 as legitimate Maximilian's title to the Palatine Elector- 
 ate. The greater part of Mecklenburgh was now overrun 
 by imperial troops, and both dukes, as adherents of the 
 King of Denmark, placed under the ban of the empire 
 and driven from their dominions. The defence of the 
 German liberties against illegal encroachments was pun- 
 ished as a crime deserving the loss of all dignities 
 and territories ; and yet this was but the prelude to the 
 still more crying enormities which shortly followed. 
 
 The secret how Wallenstein had purposed to fulfil his 
 extravagant designs was now manifest. He had learned 
 the lesson from Count Mansfeld ; but" the scholar sur- 
 passed his master. On the principle that war must sup- 
 port war, Mansfeld and the Duke of Brunswick had 
 subsisted their troops by contributions levied indis- 
 criminately on friend and enemy ; but this predatory life 
 was attended with all the inconvenience and insecurity 
 which accompany robbery. Like a fugitive banditti, 
 they were obliged to steal through exasperated and 
 vigilant enemies ; to roam from one end of Germany to 
 another ; to watch their opportunity with anxiety, and
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 115 
 
 to abandon the most fertile territories whenever they 
 were defended by a superior army. If Mansfeld and 
 Duke Christian had done such great tilings in the face of 
 these difficulties, what might not be expected if the 
 obstacles were removed; when the army raised was 
 numerous enough to overawe in itself the most powerful 
 states of the empire; when the name of the Emperor 
 insured impunity to every outrage ; and when, under the 
 highest authority, and at the head of an overwhelming 
 force, the same system of warfare was pursued which 
 these two adventurers had adopted at their own risk, 
 and with only an untrained multitude ? 
 
 Wallenstein had all this in view when he made his 
 bold offer to the Emperor, which now seemed extrava- 
 gant to no one. The more his ai'my was augmented the 
 less cause was there to fear for its subsistence, because it 
 could irresistibly bear down on the refractory states ; the 
 more violent its outrages the more probable was im- 
 punity. Towards hostile states it had the plea of right ; 
 towards the favorably disposed it could allege necessity. 
 The inequality, too, with which it dealt out its oppres- 
 sions prevented any dangerous union among the states, 
 while the exhaustion of their territories deprived them 
 of the power of vengeance. Thus the whole of Ger- 
 many became a kind of magazine for the imperial army, 
 and the Emperor was enabled to deal with the other 
 states as absolutely as with his own hereditary domin- 
 ions. Universal was the clamor for redress before the 
 imperial throne ; but there was nothing to fear from the 
 revenge of the injured princes so long as they appealed 
 for justice. The general discontent was directed equally 
 against the Emperor, who had lent his name to these bar- 
 barities, and the general who exceeded his power and 
 openly abused the authority of his master. They ap- 
 plied to the Emperor for protection against the outrages 
 of his generals, but Wallenstein had no sooner felt him- 
 self absolute in the army than he threw off his obedience 
 to his sovereign. 
 
 The exhaustion of the enemy made a speedy peace 
 probable; yet Wallenstein continued to augment the 
 imperial annies until they were at least one hundred
 
 116 THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 
 
 thousand men strong. Numberless commissions to colo- 
 nelcies and inferior commands, the regal pomp of the 
 commander-in-chief, immoderate largesses to his favor- 
 ites (for he never gave less than a thousand florins), 
 enormous sums lavished in corrupting the court at 
 Vienna all this had been effected without burdening 
 the Emperor. These immense sums were raised by the 
 contributions levied from the lower German provinces, 
 where no distinction was made between friend and foe ; 
 and the territories of all princes were subjected to the 
 same system of marching and quartering, of extortion 
 and outrage. If credit is to be given to an extravagant 
 contemporary statement, Wallenstein, during his seven 
 years command, had exacted not less than sixty thousand 
 millions of dollars from one-half of Germany. The 
 greater his extortions the greater the rewards of his 
 soldiers, and the greater the concourse to his standard, 
 for the world always follows fortune. His armies flour- 
 ished while all the states through which they passed 
 withered. What cared he for the detestation of the 
 people and the complaints of princes ? His army adored 
 him, and the very enormity of his guilt enabled him to 
 bid defiance to its consequences. 
 
 It would be unjust to Ferdinand were we to lay all 
 these irregularities to his charge. Had he foreseen that 
 he was abandoning the German states to the mercy of 
 his officer, he would have been sensible how dangerous 
 to himself so absolute a general would prove. The 
 closer the connection became between the army and the 
 leader from whom flowed favor and fortune, the more 
 the ties which united both to the Emperor were relaxed. 
 Everything, it is true, was done in the name of the 
 latter ; but Wallenstein only availed himself of the su- 
 preme majesty of the Emperor to crush the authority of 
 other states. His object was to depress the princes of 
 the empire, to destroy all gradation of rank between 
 them and the Emperor, and to elevate the power of the 
 latter above all competition. If the Emperor was abso- 
 lute in Germany who then would be equal to the man 
 entrusted with the execution of his will? The height to 
 which Wallenstein had raised the imperial authority
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 117 
 
 astonished even the Emperor himself ; but as the great- 
 ness of the master was entirely the work of the servant, 
 the creation of Wallenstein would necessarily sink again 
 into nothing upon the withdrawal of its creative hand. 
 Not without an object, therefore, did Wallenstein labor 
 to poison the minds of the German princes against the 
 Emperor. The more violent their hatred of Ferdinand, 
 the more indispensable to the Emperor would become 
 the man who alone could render their ill-will powerless. 
 His design unquestionably was that his sovereign should 
 stand in fear of no one in all Germany besides himself, 
 the source and engine of this despotic power. 
 
 As a step towards this end, Wallenstein now demanded 
 the cession of Mecklenburgh, to be held in pledge till the 
 repayment of his advances for the war. Ferdinand had 
 already created him Duke of Friedland, apparently with 
 the view of exalting his own general over Bavaria; but 
 an ordinary recompense would not satisfy Wallenstein's 
 ambition. In vain was this new demand, which could 
 be granted only at the expense of two princes of the 
 empire, actively resisted in the Imperial Council. In 
 vain did the Spaniards, who had long been offended by 
 his pride, oppose his elevation. The powerful support 
 which Wallenstein had purchased from the imperial 
 councillors prevailed, and Ferdinand was determined, at 
 whatever cost, to secure the devotion of so indispensable 
 a minister. For a slight offence one of the oldest Ger- 
 man houses was expelled from their hereditary domin- 
 ions, that a creature of the Emperor might be enriched 
 by their spoils (1628). 
 
 Wallenstein now began to assume the title of general- 
 issimo of the Emperor by sea and land. Wismar was 
 taken, and a firm footing gained on the Baltic. Ships 
 were required from Poland and the Hans towns to carry 
 the war to the other side of the Baltic ; to pursue the 
 Danes into the heart of their own country, and to com- 
 pel them to a peace which might prepare the way to 
 more 'important conquests. The communication between 
 the Lower German States and the Northern powers would 
 be broken could the Emperor place himself between 
 them, and encompass Germany from the Adriatic to the
 
 118 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 
 
 Sound (the intervening kingdom of Poland being already 
 dependent on him) with an unbroken line of territory. 
 If such was the Emperor's plan, Wallenstein had a pe- 
 culiar interest in its execution. These possessions on 
 the Baltic should, he intended, form the first foundation 
 of a power which had long been the object of his ambi- 
 tion, and which should enable him to throw off his de- 
 pendence on the Emperor. 
 
 To effect this object it was of extreme importance to 
 gain possession of Stralsund, a town on the Baltic. Its 
 excellent harbor, and the short passage from it to the 
 Swedish and Danish coasts, peculiarly fitted it for a naval 
 station in a war with these powers. This town, the 
 sixth of the Hanseatic League, enjoyed great privileges 
 under the Duke of Pomerania, and, totally independent 
 of Denmark, had taken no share in the war. But neither 
 its neutrality nor its privileges could protect it against 
 the encroachments of Wallenstein when he had once cast 
 a longing look upon it. 
 
 The request he made, that Stralsund should receive an 
 imperial garrison, had been firmly and honorably rejected 
 by the magistracy, who also refused his cunningly de- 
 manded permission to march his troops through the 
 town. Wallenstein therefore now proposed to be- 
 siege it. 
 
 The independence of Stralsund, as securing the free 
 navigation of the Baltic, was equally important to the 
 two Northern kings. A common danger overcame at 
 last the private jealousies which had long divided these 
 princes. In a treaty concluded at Copenhagen in 1628 
 they bound themselves to assist Stralsund with their 
 combined force, and to oppose in common every foreign 
 power which should appear in the Baltic with hostile 
 views. Christian IV. also threw a sufficient garrison 
 into Stralsund, and by his personal presence animated 
 the courage of the citizens. Some ships-of-war which 
 Sigismund, King of Poland, had sent to the assistance of 
 the imperial general were sunk by the Danish fleet ; and 
 as Lubeck refused him the use of its shipping, this im- 
 perial generalissimo of the sea had not even ships enough 
 to blockade this single harbor.
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 119 
 
 Nothing could appear more adventurous than to attempt 
 the conquest of a strongly fortified seaport without first 
 blockading its harbor. Wallenstein, however, who as yet 
 had never experienced a check, wished to conquer nature 
 itself, and to perform impossibilities. Stralsuud, open to 
 the sea, continued to be supplied with provisions and 
 reinforcements ; yet Wallenstein maintained his blockade 
 on the land side, and endeavored, by boasting menaces, 
 to supply his want of real strength. "I will take this 
 town," said he, " though it were fastened by a chain to 
 the heavens." The Emperor himself, who might have 
 cause to regret an enterprise which promised no very 
 glorious result, joyfully availed himself of the apparent 
 submission and acceptable propositions of the inhabitants, 
 to order the general to retire from the town. Wallen- 
 stein despised the command, and continued to harass the 
 besieged by incessant assaults. As the Danish garrison, 
 already much reduced, was unequal to the fatigue of 
 this prolonged defence, and the king was unable to 
 detach any further troops to their support, Stralsund, 
 with Christian's consent, threw itself under the protection 
 of the King of Sweden. The Danish commander left the 
 town to make way for a Swedish governor, who gloriously 
 defended it. Here Wallenstein's good fortune forsook 
 him; and, for the first time, his pride experienced the 
 humiliation of relinquishing his prey, after the loss of 
 many months and of twelve thousand men. The neces- 
 sity to which he reduced the town of applying for 
 protection to Sweden laid the foundation of a close 
 alliance between Gustavus Adolphus and Stralsund, 
 which greatly facilitated the entrance of the Swedes 
 into Germany. 
 
 Hitherto invariable success had attended the arms of 
 the Emperor and the League, and Christian IV., defeated 
 in Germany, had sought refuge in his own island ; but 
 the Baltic checked the further progress of the conquerors. 
 The want of ships not only stopped the pursuit of the 
 king, but endangered their previous acquisitions. The 
 union of the two northern monarchs was not to be 
 dreaded, because, so long as it lasted, it effectually 
 prevented the Emperor and his general from acquiring a
 
 120 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 
 
 footing on the Baltic, or effecting a landing in Sweden. 
 But if they could succeed in dissolving this union, and 
 especially in securing the friendship of the Danish king, 
 they might hope to overpower the insulated force of 
 Sweden. The dread of the interference of foreign 
 powers, the insubordination of the Protestants in his own 
 states, and still more the storin which was gradually 
 darkening along the whole of Protestant Germany, 
 inclined the Emperor to peace, which his general, from 
 opposite motives, was equally desirous to effect. Far 
 from wishing for a state of things which would reduce 
 him from the meridian of greatness and glory to the 
 obscurity of private life, he only wished to change 
 the theatre of war, and by a partial peace to prolong the 
 general confusion. The friendship of Denmark, whose 
 neighbor he had become as Duke of Mecklenburgh, was 
 most important for the success of his ambitious views ; 
 and he resolved, even at the sacrifice of his sovereign's 
 interests, to secure its alliance. 
 
 By the treaty of Copenhagen, Christian IV., had ex- 
 pressly engaged not to conclude a separate peace with 
 the Emperor without the consent of Sweden. Notwith- 
 standing, Wallenstein's proposition was readily received 
 by him. In a conference at Lubeck in 1629, from which 
 Wallenstein, with studied con,tempt, excluded the Swedish 
 ambassadors who came to intercede for Mecklenburgh, 
 all the conquests taken by the imperialists were restored 
 to the Danes. ' The conditions imposed upon the king 
 were, that he should interfere no farther with the affairs 
 of Germany than was called for by his character of Duke 
 of Holstein ; that he should on no pretext harass the 
 Chapters of Lower Germany, and should leave the Dukes 
 of Mecklenbargh to their fate. By Christian himself had 
 these princes been involved in the war with the Emperor ; 
 he now sacrificed them to gain the favor of the usurper of 
 their territories. Among the motives which had engaged 
 him in a war with the Emperor, not the least was the 
 restoration of his relation, the Elector Palatine yet 
 the name of that unfortunate prince was not even men- 
 tioned in the treaty ; while in one of its articles the 
 legitimacy of the Bavarian election was expressly recog-
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 121 
 
 nized. Thus meanly and ingloriously did Christian IV. 
 retire from the field. 
 
 Ferdinand had it now in his power, for the second 
 time, to secure the tranquillity of Germany ; and it 
 depended solely on his will whether the treaty with 
 Denmark should or should not be the basis of a general 
 peace. From every quarter arose the cry of the unfortu- 
 nate, petitioning for an end of their sufferings; the 
 cruelties of his soldiers, and the rapacity of his generals, 
 had exceeded all bounds. Germany, laid waste by the 
 desolating bands of Mansfeld and the Duke of Bruns- 
 wick, and by the still more terrible hordes of Tilly and 
 Wallenstein, lay exhausted, bleeding, wasted, and sighing 
 for repose. An anxious desire for peace was felt by all 
 conditions, and by the Emperor himself, involved as lie 
 was in a war with France in Upper Italy, exhausted by 
 his past warfare in Germany, and apprehensive of the 
 day of reckoning which was approaching. But, unfortu- 
 nately, the conditions on which alone the two religious 
 parties were willing respectively to sheath the sword 
 were irreconcilable. The Roman Catholics wished to 
 terminate the war to their own advantage ; the Prot- 
 estants advanced equal pretensions. The Emperor, 
 instead of uniting both parties by a prudent moderation, 
 sided with one ; and thus Germany was again plunged in 
 the horrors of a bloody war. 
 
 From the very close of the Bohemian troubles, Ferdi- 
 nand had carried on a counter reformation in his heredi- 
 tary dominions, in which, however, from regard to some 
 of the Protestant Estates, he proceeded, at first, with 
 moderation. But the victories of his generals in Lower 
 Germany encouraged him to throw off all reserve. Ac- 
 cordingly he had it intimated to all the Protestants in 
 these dominions that they must either abandon their 
 religion or their native country, a bitter and dreadful 
 alternative, which excited the most violent commotions 
 among his Austrian subjects. In the Palatinate, immedi- 
 ately after the expulsion of Frederick, the Protestant 
 religion had been suppressed, and its professors expelled 
 from the University of Heidelberg. 
 
 All this was but the prelude to greater changes. In
 
 122 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 
 
 the Electoral Congress held at Miihlhausen, the Roman 
 Catholics had demanded of the Emperor that all the 
 archbishoprics, bishoprics, mediate and immediate, ab- 
 bacies and monasteries, which, since the Diet of Augsburg, 
 had been secularized by the Protestants, should be 
 restored to the church, in order to indemnify them for 
 the losses and sufferings in the war. To a Roman 
 Catholic prince so zealous as Ferdinand was, such a hint 
 was not likely to be neglected ; but he still thought it 
 would be premature to arouse the whole Protestants of 
 Germany by so decisive a step. Not a single Protestant 
 prince but would be deprived, by this revocation of the 
 religious foundations, of a part of his lands ; for where 
 these revenues had not actually been diverted to secular 
 purposes they had been made over to the Protestant church. 
 To this source many princes owed the chief part of their 
 revenues and importance. All, without exception, would 
 be irritated by this demand for restoi-ation. The religious 
 treaty did not expressly deny their right to these chapters, 
 although it did not allow it. But a possession which had 
 now been held for nearly a century, the silence of four 
 preceding emperors, and the law of equity, which gave 
 them an equal right with the Roman Catholics to the 
 foundations of their common ancestors, might be strongly 
 pleaded by them as a valid title. Besides the actual loss 
 of power and authority, which the surrender of these 
 foundations would occasion, besides the inevitable confu- 
 sion which would necessarily attend it, one important 
 disadvantage to which it would lead, was, that the 
 restoration of the Roman Catholic bishops would increase 
 the strength of that party in the Diet by so many addi- 
 tional votes. Such grievous sacrifices likely to fall on 
 the Protestants made the Emperor apprehensive of a 
 formidable opposition ; and until the military ardor should 
 have cooled in Germany, he had no wish to provoke a 
 party formidable by its union, and which in the Elector 
 of Saxony had a powerful leader. He resolved, therefore, 
 to try the experiment at first on a small scale, in order to 
 ascertain how it was likely to succeed on a larger one. 
 Accordingly, some of the free cities in Upper Germany, 
 and the Duke of Wirtemberg, received orders to sur-
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 123 
 
 render to the Roman Catholics several of the confiscated 
 chapters. 
 
 The state of affairs in Saxony enabled the Emperor to 
 make some bolder experiments in that quarter. In the 
 bishoprics of Magdeburg and Halberstadt the Protestant 
 canons had not hesitated to elect bishops of their own 
 religion. Both bishoprics, with the exception of the town 
 of Magdeburg itself, were overrun by the troops of 
 Wallenstein. It happened, moreover, that by the death 
 of the Administrator, Duke Christian of Brunswick, Hal- 
 berstadt was vacant, as was also the Archbishopric of 
 Magdeburg by the deposition of Christian William, a 
 prince of the House of Brandenburg. Ferdinand took 
 advantage of the circumstance to restore the see of Hal- 
 berstadt to a Roman Catholic bishop, and a prince of his 
 own house. To avoid a similar coercion, the Chapter of 
 Magdeburg hastened to elect a son of the Elector of 
 Saxony as archbishop. But the pope, who with his arro- 
 gated authority interfered in this matter, conferred the 
 Archbishopric of Magdeburg also on the Austrian prince. 
 Tims, with all his pious zeal for religion, Ferdinand never 
 lost sight of the interests of his family. 
 
 At length, when the peace of Lubeck had delivered the 
 Emperor from all apprehensions on the side of Denmark, 
 and the German Protestants seemed entirely powerless, 
 the League becoming louder and more urgent in its 
 demands, Ferdinand, in 1629, signed the Edict of Restitu- 
 tion (so famous by its disastrous consequences), which 
 he had previously laid before the four Roman Catholic 
 electors for their approbation. In the preamble, he 
 claimed the prerogative, in right of his imperial authority, 
 to interpret the meaning of the religious treaty, the am- 
 biguities of which had already caused so many disputes, 
 and to decide as supreme arbiter and judge between the 
 contending parties. This prerogative he founded upon 
 the practice of his ancestors, and its previous recognition 
 even by Protestant states. Saxony had actually ac- 
 knowledged this right of the Emperor ; and it now be- 
 came evident how deeply this court had injured the 
 Protestant cause by its dependence on the House of Aus- 
 tria. But though the meaning of the religious treaty was
 
 124 THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 
 
 really ambiguous, as a century of religious disputes suf- 
 ficiently proved, yet for the Emperor, who must be either 
 a Protestant or a Roman Catholic, and therefore an inter- 
 ested party, to assume the right of deciding between the 
 disputants, was clearly a violation of an essential article 
 of the pacification. He could not be judge in his own 
 cause without reducing the liberties of the empire to an 
 empty sound. 
 
 And now, in virtue of this usurpation, Ferdinand de- 
 cided, " That every secularization of a religious founda- 
 tion, mediate or immediate, by the Protestants, subsequent 
 to the date of the treaty, was contrary to its spirit, and 
 must be revoked as a breach of it." He further decided, 
 "That, by the religious peace, Catholic proprietors' of 
 estates were no further bound to their Protestant subjects 
 than to allow them full liberty to quit their territories." 
 In obedience to this decision, all unlawful possessors of 
 benefices the Protestant states in short without excep- 
 tion were ordered, under pain of the ban of the empire, 
 immediately to surrender their usurped possessions to 
 the imperial commissioners. 
 
 This sentence applied to no less than two archbishoprics 
 and twelve bishoprics, besides innumerable abbacies. 
 The edict came like a thunderbolt on the whole of Prot- 
 estant Germany; dreadful even in its immediate conse- 
 quences ; but yet more so from the further calamities it 
 seemed to threaten. The Protestants were now convinced 
 that the suppression of their religion had been resolved 
 on by the Emperor and the League, and that the over- 
 throw of German liberty would soon follow. Their re- 
 monstrances were unheeded ; the commissioners were 
 named, and an army assembled to enforce obedience. 
 The edict was first put in force in Augsburg, where the 
 treaty was concluded ; the city was again placed under 
 the government of its bishop, and six Protestant churches 
 in the town were closed. The Duke of Wirtemberg was, 
 in like manner, compelled to surrender his abbacies. 
 These severe measures, though they alarmed the Protest- 
 ant states, were yet insufficient to rouse them to an active 
 resistance. Their fear of the Emperer was too strong, 
 and many were disposed to quiet submission. The hope
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 125 
 
 of attaining their end by gentle measures induced the 
 Roman Catholics likewise to delay for a year the execu- 
 tion of the edict, and this saved the Protestants ; before 
 the end of that period the success of Swedish arras had 
 totally changed the state of affairs. 
 
 In a Diet held at Ratisbon, at which Ferdinand was 
 present in person (in 1630), the necessity of taking some 
 measures for the immediate restoration of a general peace 
 to Germany, and for the removal of all grievances, was 
 debated. The complaints of the Roman Catholics were 
 scarcely less numerous than those of the Protestants, 
 although Ferdinand had flattered himself that by the 
 Edict of Restitution he had secured the members of the 
 League, and its leader by the gift of the electoral dignity, 
 and the cession of great part of the Palatinate. But the 
 good understanding between the Emperor and the princes 
 of the League had rapidly declined since the employment 
 of Wallenstein. Accustomed to give law to Germany, 
 and even to sway the Emperor's own destiny, the haughty 
 Elector of Bavaria now at once saw himself supplanted 
 by the imperial general, and with that of the League, his 
 own importance completely undermined. Another had 
 now stepped in to reap the fruits of his victories, and to 
 bury his past services in oblivion. Wallenstein's impe- 
 rious character, whose dearest triumph was in degrading 
 the authority of the princes, and giving an odious latitude 
 to that of the Emperor, tended not a little to augment 
 the irritation of the Elector. Discontented with the 
 Emperor, and distrustful of his intentions, he had entered 
 into an alliance with France, which the other members of 
 the League were suspected of favoring. A fear of the 
 Emperor's plans of aggrandizement, and discontent with 
 existing evils, had extinguished among them all feelings of 
 gratitude. Wallenstein's exactions had become altogether 
 intolerable. Brandenburg estimated its losses at twenty, 
 Pomerania at ten, Hesse Cassel at seven millions of dol- 
 lars, and the rest in proportion. The cry of redress was 
 loud, urgent, and universal; all prejudices were hushed ; 
 Roman Catholics and Protestants were alike on this 
 point. The terrified Emperor was assailed on all sides 
 by petitions against Wallenstein, and his ear filled with
 
 126 THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 
 
 the most fearful descriptions of his outrages. Ferdinand 
 was not naturally cruel. If not totally innocent of the 
 atrocities which were practised in Germany under the 
 shelter of his name, he was ignorant of their extent ; and 
 he was not long in yielding to the representation of the 
 princes, and reduced his standing army by eighteen 
 thousand cavalry. While this reduction took place, the 
 Swedes were actively preparing an expedition into Ger- 
 many, and the greater part of the disbanded Imperialists 
 enlisted under their banners. 
 
 The Emperor's concessions only encouraged the Elector 
 of Bavaria to bolder demands. So long as the Duke of 
 Friedland retained the supreme command his triumph 
 over the Emperor was incomplete. The princes of the 
 League were meditating a severe revenge on Wallenstein 
 for that haughtiness with whicli he had treated them all 
 alike. His dismissal was demanded by the whole college 
 of electors, and even by Spain, with a degree of unanim- 
 ity and urgency which astonished the Emperor. The 
 anxiety with which "VVallenstein's enemies pressed for his 
 dismissal ought to have convinced the Emperor of the 
 importance of his services. Wallenstein, informed of the 
 cabals which were forming against him in Ratisbon, lost 
 no time in opening the eyes of the Emperor to the real 
 views of the Elector of Bavaria. He himself appeared in 
 Ratisbon, with a pomp which threw his master into the 
 shade, and increased the hatred of his opponents. 
 
 Long was the Emperor undecided. The sacrifice de- 
 manded was a painful one. To the Duke of Friedland 
 alone he owed his preponderance ; he felt how much he 
 would lose in yielding him to the indignation of the 
 princes. But at this moment, unfortunately, he was un- 
 der the necessity of conciliating the Electors. His son 
 Ferdinand had already been chosen King of Hungary, 
 and he was endeavoring to procure his election as his 
 successor in the empire. For this purpose the support 
 of Maximilian was indispensable. This consideration was 
 the weightiest, and to oblige the Elector of Bavaria he 
 scrupled not to sacrifice his most valuable servant. 
 
 At the Diet at Ratisbon there were present ambassa- 
 dors from France, empowered to adjust the differences
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 127 
 
 which seemed to menace a war in Italy between the Em- 
 peror and their sovereign. Vincent, Duke of Mantua 
 and Montferrat, dying without issue, his next relation, 
 Charles Duke of Nevers, had taken possession of this 
 inheritance, without doing homage to the Emperior as 
 liege lord of the principality. Encouraged by the support 
 of France and Venice, he refused to surrender these 
 territories into the hands of the imperial commissioners, 
 until his title to them should be decided. On the other 
 hand, Ferdinand had taken up arms at the instigation of 
 the Spaniards, to whom, as possessors of Milan, the near 
 neighborhood of a vassal of France was peculiarly alarm- 
 ing, and who welcomed this prospect of making, with the 
 assistance of the Emperor, additional conquests in Italy. 
 In spite of all the exertions of Pope Urban VIII. to avert 
 a war in that country, Ferdinand marched a German 
 army across the Alps, and threw the Italian states into a 
 general consternation. His arms had been successful 
 throughout Germany, and exaggerated fears revived the 
 olden apprehension of Austria's projects of universal 
 monarchy. All the horrors of the German war now 
 spread like a deluge over those favored countries which 
 the Po waters ; Mantua was taken by storm, and the sur- 
 rounding districts given up to the ravages of a lawless 
 soldiery. The curse of Italy was thus added to the male- 
 dictions upon the Emperor which resounded through Ger- 
 many ; and even in the Roman Conclave, silent prayers 
 were offered for the success of the Protestant arms. 
 
 Alarmed by the universal hatred which this Italian 
 campaign had drawn upon him, and wearied out by the 
 urgent remonstrances of the Electors, who zealously sup- 
 ported the application of the French ambassador, the 
 Emperor promised the investiture to the new Duke of 
 Mantua. 
 
 This important service on the part of Bavaria of course 
 required an equivalent from France. The adjustment of 
 the treaty gave the envoys of Richelieu, during their 
 residence in Ratisbon, the desired opportunity of entang- 
 ling the Emperor in dangerous intrigues, of inflaming the 
 discontented princes of the League still more strongly 
 against him, and of turning to his disadvantage all the
 
 128 THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 
 
 transactions of the Diet. For this purpose Richelieu had 
 chosen an admirable instrument in Father Joseph, a 
 Capuchin friar, who accompanied the ambassadors with- 
 out exciting the least suspicion. One of his principal 
 instructions was assiduously to bring about the dismissal 
 of Wallenstein. With the general who had led it to vic- 
 tory the army of Austria would lose its principal strength; 
 many armies could not compensate for the loss of this in- 
 dividual. It would therefore be a master-stroke of policy, 
 at the very moment when a victorious monarch, the ab- 
 solute master of his operations, was arming against the 
 E nperor, to remove from the head of the imperial armies 
 the only general who, by ability and military experience, 
 was able to cope with the French king. Father Joseph, in 
 the interests of Bavaria, undertook to overcome the irreso- 
 lution of the Emperor, who was now in a manner besieged 
 by the Spaniards and the .Electoral Council. " It would 
 be expedient," he thought, " to gratify the Electors on 
 this occasion, and thereby facilitate his son's election to 
 the Roman Crown. This object once gained Wallen- 
 stein could at any time resume his former station." The 
 artful Capuchin was too sure of his man to touch upon 
 this ground of consolation. 
 
 The voice of a monk was to Ferdinand II. the voice of 
 God. "Nothing on earth," writes his own confessor, 
 " was more sacred ip his eyes than a priest. If it could 
 happen, he used to say, that an angel and a Regular were 
 to meet him at the same time and place, the Regular 
 should receive his first, and the angel his second obei- 
 sance." Wallenstein's dismissal was determined upon. 
 
 In return for this pious concession, the Capuchin dex- 
 terously counteracted the Emperor's scheme to procure 
 for the King of Hungary the further dignity of King of 
 the Romans. In an express clause of the treaty just con- 
 cluded, the French ministers engaged in the name of 
 their sovereign to observe a complete neutrality between 
 the Emperor and his enemies ; while at the same time, 
 Richelieu was actually negotiating with the King of 
 Sweden to declare war, and pressing upon him the alli- 
 ance of his master. The latter, indeed, disavowed the 
 lie as soon as it had served its purpose, and Father Joseph,
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 129 
 
 confined to a convent, must atone for the alleged offence 
 of exceeding his instructions. Ferdinand perceived, when 
 too late, that he had been imposed upon. " A wicked 
 Capuchin," he was heard to say, " has disarmed me with 
 his rosary, and thrust nothing less than six electoral 
 crowns into his cowl." 
 
 Artifice and trickery thus triumphed over the Emperor 
 at the moment when he was believed to be omnipotent 
 in Germany, and actually was so in the field. With the 
 loss of eighteen thousand men, and of a general who alone 
 was worth whole armies, he left Ratisbon without gain- 
 ing the end for which he had made such sacrifices. Be- 
 fore the Swedes had vanquished him in the field, Maxi- 
 milian of Bavaria and Father Joseph had given him a 
 mortal blow. At this memorable Diet at Ratisbon the 
 war with Sweden was resolved upon, and that of Mantua 
 terminated. Vainly had" the princes present at it inter- 
 ceded for the Dukes of Mecklenburgh ; and equally fruit- 
 less had been an application by the English ambassadors 
 for a pension to the Palatine Frederick. 
 
 Wallenstein was at the head of an army of nearly 
 a hundred thousand men who adored him when the 
 sentence of his dismissal arrived. Most of the officers 
 were his creatures : with the common soldiers his hint 
 was law. His ambition was boundless, his pride indomi- 
 table, his imperious spirit could not brook an injury 
 unavenged. One moment would now precipitate him 
 from the height of grandeur into the obscurity of a private 
 station. To execute such a sentence upon such a delin- 
 quent seemed to require more address than it cost to 
 obtain it from the judge. Accordingly, two of Wal- 
 lenstein's most intimate friends were selected as heralds 
 of these evil tidings, and instructed to soften them as 
 much as possible by flattering assurances of the continu- 
 ance of the Emperor's favor. 
 
 Wallenstein had ascertained the purport of their 
 message before the imperial ambassadors arrived. He 
 had time to collect himself, and his countenance exhibited 
 an external calmness, while grief and rage were storming 
 in his bosom. He had made up his mind to obey. The 
 Emperor's decision had taken him by surprise before
 
 130 THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 
 
 circumstances were ripe, or his preparations complete, for 
 the bold measures he had contemplated. His extensive 
 estates were scattered over Bohemia and Moravia ; and 
 by their confiscation the Emperor might at once destroy 
 the sinews of his power. He looked, therefore, to the 
 future for revenge ; and in this hope he was encouraged 
 by the predictions of an Italian astrologer, who led 
 his imperious spirit like a child in leading-strings. Seni 
 had read in the stars that his master's brilliant career 
 was not yet ended ; and that bright and glorious pros- 
 pects still awaited him. It was, indeed, unnecessary to 
 consult the stars to foretell that an enemy, Gustavus 
 Adolphus, would ere long render indispensable the services 
 of such a general as Wallenstein. 
 
 " The Emperor is betrayed," said Wallenstein to the 
 messengers ; " I pity but forgive him. It is plain that 
 the grasping spirit of the Bavarian dictates to him. I 
 grieve that, with so much weakness, he has sacrificed me, 
 but I will obey." He dismissed the emissaries with 
 princely presents ; and in an humble letter besought the 
 continuance of the Emperor's favor, and of the dignities 
 he had bestowed upon him. 
 
 The murmurs of the army were universal on hearing 
 of the dismissal of their general ; and the greater part of 
 his officers immediately quitted the imperial service. 
 Many followed him to his estates in Bohemia and Moravia ; 
 others he attached to his interests by pensions, in order 
 to command their services when the opportunity should 
 offer. 
 
 But repose was the last thing that Wallenstein contem- 
 plated when he returned to private life. In his retreat 
 he surrounded himself with a regal pomp which seemed 
 to mock the sentence of degradation. Six gates led to 
 the palace he inhabited in Prague, and a hundred houses 
 were pulled down to make way for his courtyard. Sim- 
 ilar palaces were built on his other numerous estates. 
 Gentlemen of the noblest houses contended for the 
 honor of serving him, and even imperial chamberlains 
 resigned the golden key to the Emperor to fill a similar 
 office under Wallenstein. He maintained sixty pages, 
 who were instructed by the ablest masters. His ante-
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 131 
 
 chamber was protected by fifty life-guards. His table 
 never consisted of less than one hundred covers, and his 
 seneschal was a person of distinction. When he travelled, 
 his baggage and suite accompanied him in a hundred 
 wagons, drawn by six or four horses; his court followed 
 in sixty carriages, attended by fifty led horses. The 
 pomp of his liveries, the splendor of his equipages, and 
 the decorations of his apartments, were in keeping with 
 all the rest. Six barons and as many knights were in 
 constant attendance about his person, and ready to 
 execute his slightest order. Twelve patrols went their 
 rounds about his palace to prevent any disturbance. 
 His busy genius required silence. The noise of coaches 
 was to be kept away from his residence, and the streets 
 leading to it were frequently blocked up with chains. 
 His own circle was as silent as the approaches to his 
 palace ; dark, reserved and impenetrable, he was more 
 sparing of his words than of his gifts ; while the little 
 that he spoke was harsh and imperious. He never 
 smiled, and the coldness of his temperament was proof 
 against sensual seductions. Ever occupied with grand 
 schemes, he despised all those idle amusements in which 
 so many waste their lives. The correspondence he kept 
 up with the whole of Europe was chiefly managed by 
 himself, and, that as little as possible might be trusted to 
 the silence of others, most of the letters were written by 
 his own hand. He was a man of large stature, thin, of a 
 sallow complexion, with short red hair, and small spark- 
 ling eyes. A gloomy and forbidding seriousness sat 
 upon his brow ; and his magnificent presents alone 
 retained the trembling crowd of his dependents. 
 
 In this stately obscurity did Wallenstein silently but 
 not inactively await the hour of revenge. The victorious 
 career of Gustavus Adolphus soon gave him a presenti- 
 ment of its approach. Not one of his lofty schemes had 
 been abandoned ; and the Emperor's ingratitude had 
 loosened the curb of his ambition. The dazzling splendor 
 of his private life bespoke high-soaring projects; and, 
 lavish as a king, he seemed already to reckon among 
 his certain possessions those which he contemplated 
 with hope.
 
 132 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 
 
 After Wallenstein's dismissal, and the invasion of 
 Gustavus Adolphus, a new generalissimo was to be 
 appointed ; and it now appeared advisable to unite both 
 the imperial army and that of the League under one 
 general. Maximilian of Bavaria sought this appointment, 
 which would have enabled him to dictate to the Emperor, 
 who, from a conviction of this, wished to procure the 
 command for his eldest son, the King of Hungary. At 
 last, in order to avoid offence to either of the competi- 
 tors, the appointment was given to Tilly, who now 
 exchanged the Bavarian for the Austrian service. The 
 imperial army in Germany, after the retirement of Wal- 
 lenstein, amounted to about forty thousand men ; that of 
 the League to nearly the same number, both commanded 
 by excellent officers, trained by the experience of several 
 campaigns, and proud of a long series of victories. "With 
 such a force little apprehension was felt at the invasion 
 of the King of Sweden, and the less so as it commanded 
 both Pomerania and Mecklenburgh, the only countries 
 through which he could enter Germany. 
 
 After the unsuccessful attempt of the King of Denmark 
 to check the Emperor's progress, Gustavus Adolphus was 
 the only prince in Europe from whom oppressed liberty 
 could look for protection the only one who, while he 
 was personally qualified to conduct such an enterprise, 
 had both political motives to recommend and wrongs to 
 justify it. Before the commencement of the war in 
 Lower Saxony, important political interests induced him, 
 as well as the King of Denmark, to offer his services and 
 his army for the defence of Germany; but the offer of 
 the latter had, to his own misfortune, been preferred. 
 Since that time Wallenstein and the Emperor had 
 adopted measures which must have been equally offensive 
 to him as a man and as a king. Imperial troops had 
 been despatched to the aid of the Polish king, Sigismund, 
 to defend Prussia against the Swedes. When the king 
 complained to Wallenstein for this act of hostility, he 
 received for answer, " The Emperor has more soldiers 
 than he wants for himself, he must help his friends." 
 The Swedish ambassadors had been insolently ordered 
 by Wallenstein to withdraw from the conference at
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 133 
 
 Lubeck ; and when, unawed by this command, they were 
 courageous enough to remain, contrary to the law of 
 nations, he had threatened them with violence. Fer- 
 dinand had also insulted the Swedish flag, and intercepted 
 the king's despatches to Transylvania. He also threw 
 every obstacle in the way of a peace betwixt Poland and 
 Sweden, supported the pretensions of Sigismund to the 
 Swedish throne, and denied the right of Gustavus to the 
 title of king. Deigning no regard to the repeated remon- 
 strances of Gustavus, he rather aggravated the offence 
 by new grievances than acceded the required satis- 
 faction. 
 
 So many personal motives, supported by important 
 considerations, both of policy and religion, and seconded 
 by pressing invitations from Germany, had their full 
 weight with a prince, who was naturally the more jealous 
 of his royal prerogative the more it was questioned ; who 
 was flattered by the glory he hoped to gain as Protector 
 of the Oppressed, and passionately loved war as the 
 element of his genius. But until a truce or peace with 
 Poland should set his hands free, a new and dangerous 
 war was not to be thought of. 
 
 Cardinal Richelieu had the merit of effecting this truce 
 with Poland. This great statesman, who guided the 
 helm of Europe, while in France he repressed the rage 
 of faction and the insolence of the nobles, pursued 
 steadily, amidst the cares of a stormy administration, his 
 plan of lowering the ascendancy of the House of Austria. 
 But circumstances opposed considerable obstacles to the 
 execution of his designs ; and even the greatest minds 
 cannot, with impunity, defy the prejudices of the age. 
 The minister of a Roman Catholic king, and a Cardinal, 
 he was prevented by the purple he bore from joining the 
 enemies of that church in an open attack on a power 
 which had the address to sanctify its ambitious encroach- 
 ments under the name of religion. The external defer- 
 ence which Richelieu was obliged to pay to the narrow 
 views of his contemporaries limited his exertions to secret 
 negotiations, by which he endeavored to gain the hand 
 of others to accomplish the enlightened projects of his own 
 mind. After a fruitless attempt to prevent the peace
 
 134 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 
 
 between Denmark and the Emperor, he had recourse to 
 Gustavus Adolphtis, the hero of his age. No exertion 
 was spared to bring this monarch to a favorable decision, 
 and at the same time to facilitate the execution of it. 
 Charnasse, an unsuspected agent of the Cardinal, pro- 
 ceeded to Polish Prussia, where Gustavus Adolphus was 
 conducting the war against Sigisnumd, and alternately 
 visited these princes, in order to persuade them to a 
 truce or peace. Gustavus had been long inclined to it, 
 and the French minister succeeded at last in opening the 
 eyes of Sigismund to his true interests, and to the de- 
 ceitful policy of the Emperor. A truce for six years was 
 agreed on, Gustavus being allowed to retain all his con- 
 quests. This treaty gave him also what he had so long 
 desired, the liberty of directing his arms against the 
 Emperor. For this the French ambassador offered him 
 the alliance of his sovereign and considerable subsidies. 
 But Gustavus Adolphus was justly apprehensive lest the 
 acceptance of the assistance should make him dependent 
 upon France, and fetter him in his career of conquests, 
 while an alliance with a Roman Catholic power might 
 excite distrust among the Protestants. 
 
 If the war was just and necessary, the circumstances 
 under which it was-undertaken were not less promising. 
 The name of the Emperor, it is true, was formidable, his 
 resources inexhaustible, his power hitherto invincible. 
 So dangerous a contest would have dismayed any other 
 than Gustavus. He saw all the obstacles and dangers 
 which opposed his undertaking, but he knew also the 
 means by which, as he hoped, they might be conquered. 
 His army, though not numerous, was well disciplined, 
 inured to hardship by a severe climate and campaigns, 
 and trained to victory in the war with Poland. Sweden, 
 though poor in men and money, and overtaxed by an 
 eight years' war, was devoted to its monarch with an 
 enthusiasm which assured him of the ready support of 
 his subjects. In Germany the name of the Emperor 
 was at least as much hated as feared. The Protestant 
 princes only awaited the arrival of a deliverer to throw 
 off his intolerable yoke, and openly declare for the 
 Swedes. Even the Roman Catholic states would welcome
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 135 
 
 an antagonist to the Emperor, whose opposition might 
 control his overwhelming influence. The first victory 
 gained on German ground would be decisive. It would 
 encourage those princes who still hesitated to declare 
 themselves, strengthen the cause of his adherents, aug- 
 ment his troops, and open resources for the maintenance 
 of the campaign. If the greater part of the German 
 states were improverished by oppression the flourishing 
 Hanse towns had escaped, and they could not hesitate, 
 by a small voluntary sacrifice, to avert the general ruin. 
 As the imperialists should be driven from the different 
 provinces, their armies would diminish, since they were 
 subsisting on the countries in which they were encamped. 
 The strength, too, of the Emperor had been lessened by 
 ill-timed detachments to Italy and the Netherlands ; 
 while Spain weakened, by the loss of the Manila galleons, 
 and engaged in a serious war in the Netherlands, could 
 afford him little support. Great Britian, on the other 
 hand, gave the King of Sweden hope of considerable 
 subsidies; and France, now at peace with itself, came 
 forward with the most favorable offers. 
 
 But the strongest pledge for the success of his under- 
 taking Gustavus found in himself. Prudence de- 
 manded that he should embrace all the foreign assistance 
 he could in order to guard his enterprise from the impu- 
 tation of rashness ; but all his confidence and courage were 
 entirely derived from himself. He was indisputably the 
 greatest general of his age, and the bravest soldier in the 
 army which he had formed. Familiar with the tactics 
 of Greece and Rome, he had discovered a more effective 
 system of warfare, which was adopted as a model by the 
 most eminent commanders of subsequent times. He 
 reduced the unwieldy squadrons of cavalry, and rendered 
 their movements more light and rapid ; and, with the 
 same view, he widened the intervals between his bat- 
 talions. Instead of the usual array in a single line, 
 he disposed his forces in two lines, that the second might 
 advance in the event of the first giving way. 
 
 He made up for his want of cavalry by placing infantry 
 among the horse ; a practice which, frequently decided 
 the victory. Europe first learned from him the impor-
 
 136 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 
 
 tance of infantry. All Germany was astonished at the 
 strict discipline which, at the first, so creditably distin- 
 guished the Swedish army within their territories ; all 
 disorders were punished with the utmost severity, partic- 
 ularly impiety, theft, gambling, and duelling. The 
 Swedish articles of war enforced frugality. In the camp, 
 the King's tent not excepted, neither silver nor gold was 
 to be seen. The general's eye looked as vigilantly to the 
 morals as to the martial bravery of his soldiers; every 
 regiment was ordered to form round its chaplain for 
 morning and evening prayers. In all these points the 
 lawgiver was also an example. A sincere and ardent 
 piety exalted his courage. Equally free from the coarse 
 infidelity which leaves the passions of the barbarian with- 
 out a control, and from the grovelling superstition of 
 Ferdinand, who humbled himself to the dust before the 
 Supreme Being, while he haughtily trampled on his 
 fellow-creature in the height of his success he was ever 
 a man and a Christian in the height of his devotion, a 
 king and hero. The hardships of war he shared with the 
 meanest soldier in his army; maintained a calm serenity 
 amidst the hottest fury of battle ; his glance was omni- 
 present, and he intrepidly forgot the danger while he 
 exposed himself to the greatest peril. His natural 
 courage, indeed, too often made him forget the duty of a 
 general ; and the life of a king ended in the death of a 
 common soldier. But such a leader was followed to 
 victory alike by the coward and the brave, and his eagle 
 glance marked every heroic deed which his example had 
 inspired. The fame of their sovereign excited in the 
 nation an enthusiastic sense of their own importance ; 
 proud of their king, the peasant in Finland and Gothland 
 joyfully contributed his pittance ; the soldier willingly 
 shed his blood ; and the lofty energy which his single 
 mind had imparted to the nation long survived its 
 creator. 
 
 The necessity of the war was acknowledged, but the 
 best plan of conducting it was a matter of much ques- 
 tion. Even to the bold Chancellor Oxenstiern, an offen- 
 sive war appeared too daring a measure; the resources of 
 his poor and conscientious master appeared to him too
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 137 
 
 slender to compete with those of a despotic sovereign 
 who held all Germany at his command. But the minis- 
 ister's timid scruples were overruled by the hero's pene- 
 trating prudence. " If we await the enemy in Sweden," 
 said Gustavus, " in the event of a defeat everything 
 would be lost; by a fortunate commencement in Ger- 
 many everything would be gained. The sea is wide, and 
 we have a long line of coast in Sweden to defend. If 
 the enemy's fleet should escape us, or our own be de- 
 feated, it would, in either case, be impossible to prevent 
 the enemy's landing. Everything depends on the reten- 
 tion of Stralsund. So long as this harbor is open to us 
 we shall both command the Baltic and secure a retreat 
 from Germany. But to protect this port we must not 
 remain in Sweden, but advance at once into Pomerania. 
 Let us talk no more, then, of a defensive war, by which 
 we should sacrifice our greatest advantages. Sweden 
 must not be doomed to behold a hostile banner ; if we 
 are vanquished in Germany, it will be time enough to 
 follow your plan." 
 
 Gustavus resolved to cross the Baltic and attack the 
 Emperor. His preparations were made with the utmost 
 expedition, and his precautionary measures were not less 
 prudent than the resolution itself was bold and magnani- 
 mous. Before engaging in so distant a war it was neces- 
 sary to secure. Sweden against its neighbors. At a per- 
 sonal interview with the King of Denmark at Markaroed 
 Gustavus assured himself of the friendship of that mon- 
 arch ; his frontier on the side of Moscow was well guarded; 
 Poland might be held in check from Germany, if it 
 betrayed any design of infringing the truce. Falken- 
 berg, a Swedish ambassador, who visited the courts of 
 Holland and Germany, obtained the most flattering 
 promises from several Protestant princes, though none of 
 them yet possessed courage or self-devotion enough to 
 enter into a formal alliance with him. Lubeck and 
 Hamburg engaged to advance him money, and to accept 
 Swedish copper in return. Emissaries were also de- 
 spatched to the Prince of Transylvania to excite that 
 implacable enemy of Austria to arms. 
 
 In the meantime Swedish levies were made in Ger-
 
 138 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 
 
 many and the Netherlands, the regiments increased to 
 their full complement, new ones raised, transports pro- 
 vided, a fleet fitted out, provisions, military stores, and 
 money collected. Thirty ships-of-war were in a short 
 time prepared, fifteen thousand men equipped, and two 
 hundred transports were ready to convey them across 
 the Baltic. A greater force Gustavus Adolphus was 
 unwilling to carry into Germany, and even the mainte- 
 nance of this exceeded the revenues of his kingdom. But 
 however small his army, it was admirable in all points of 
 discipline, courage, and experience, and might serve as 
 the nucleus of a more powerful armament if it once 
 gained the German frontier and its first attempts were 
 attended with success. Oxenstiern, at once general and 
 chancellor, was posted with ten thousand men in Prussia 
 to protect that province against Poland. Some regular 
 troops, and a considerable body of militia, which served 
 as a nursery for the main body, remained in Sweden as a 
 defence against a sudden invasion by any treacherous 
 neighbor. 
 
 These were the measures taken for the external de- 
 fence of the kingdom. Its internal administration was 
 provided for with equal care. The government was 
 entrusted to the Council of State, and the finances to the 
 Palatine John Casimir, the brother-in law of the King, 
 while his wife, tenderly as he was attached to her, was 
 excluded from all share in the government, for which her 
 limited talents incapacitated her. He set his house in 
 order like a dying man. On the 20th May, 1630, when 
 all his measures were arranged, and all was ready for his 
 departure, the King appeared in the Diet at Stockholm 
 to bid the States a solemn farewell. Taking in his arms 
 his daughter Christina, then only four years old, who, in 
 the cradle had been acknowledged as his successor, he 
 presented her to the States as the future sovereign, 
 exacted from them a renewal of the oath of allegiance 
 to her, in case he should never more return, and then 
 read the ordinances for the government of the kingdom 
 during his absence or the minority of his daughter. 
 The whole assembly was dissolved in tears, and the 
 King himself was some time before he could attain
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 139 
 
 sufficient composure to deliver his farewell address to 
 the States. 
 
 k - Xot lightly or wantonly," said he, "am I about to 
 involve myself and you in this new and dangerous war ; 
 God is my witness that /do not fight to gratify my own 
 ambition. But the Emperor has wronged me most 
 shamefully in the person of my ambassadors. He has 
 supported my enemies, persecuted my friends and breth- 
 ren, trampled my religion in the dust, and even stretched 
 his revengeful arm against my crown. The oppressed 
 states of Germany call loudly for aid, which, by God's 
 help, we will give them. 
 
 " I am fully sensible of the dangers to which my life 
 will be exposed. I have never yet shrunk front them, 
 nor is it likely that I shall escape them all. Hitherto, 
 Providence has wonderfully protected me, but I shall at 
 last fall in defence of my country. I commend you to 
 the protection of Heaven. Be just, be conscientious, act 
 uprightly, and we shall meet again in eternity. 
 
 "To you, my Councillors of State, I address myself 
 first. May God enlighten you and fill you with wisdom 
 to promote the welfare of my people. You, toe^ my brave 
 nobles, I commend to the divine protection. Continue 
 to prove yourselves the worthy successors of those Gothic 
 heroes whose bravery humbled to the dust the pride of 
 ancient Rome. To you, ministers of religion, I recom- 
 mend moderation and unity ; be yourselves examples of 
 the virtues which you preach, and abuse not your influ- 
 ence over the minds of my people. On you, deputies of 
 the burgesses, and the peasantry, I entreat the blessing 
 of heaven ; may your industry be rewarded by a prosper- 
 ous harvest ; your stores plenteously filled, and may you 
 be crowned abundantly with all the blessings of this life. 
 For the prosperity of all my subjects, absent and pres- 
 ent, I offer my warmest prayers to Heaven. I bid you 
 all a sincere, it may be, an eternal farewell." 
 
 The embarkation of the troops took place at Elfskna- 
 ben, where the fleet lay at anchor. An immense con- 
 course flocked thither to witness this magnificent specta- 
 cle. The hearts of the spectators were agitated by 
 varied emotions as they alternately considered the vast-
 
 140 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 
 
 ness of the enterprise and the greatness of the leader. 
 Among the superior officers who commanded in this 
 army were Gustavus Horn, the Rhinegrave Otto Lewis, 
 Henry Matthias, Count Thurn, Ottenburg, Baudissen, 
 Banner, Teufel, Tott, Mutsenfahl, Falkenberg, Kniphau- 
 sen, and other distinguished names. Detained by con- 
 trary winds, the fleet did not sail till June, and on the 
 24th of that month reached the island of Rugen, in 
 Pomerania. 
 
 Gustavus Adolphus was the first who landed. In the 
 presence of his suite he knelt on the shore of Germany 
 to return thanks to the Almighty for the safe arrival of 
 his fleet and his army. He landed his troops on the 
 Island* of Wollin and Usedom; upon his approach the 
 imperial garrisons abandoned their intrenchments and fled. 
 He advanced rapidly on Stettin, to secure this important 
 place before the appearance of the Imperialists. Bogis- 
 laus XIV., Duke of Pomerania, a feeble and superannu- 
 ated prince, had been long tired out by the outrages 
 committed by the latter within his territories; but too 
 weak to resist he had contented himself with murmurs. 
 The appearance of his deliverer, instead of animating his 
 courage, increased his fear and anxiety. Severely as his 
 country had suffered from the Imperialists, the risk of 
 incurring the Emperor's vengeance prevented him from 
 declaring openly for the Swedes. Gustavus Adolphus, 
 who was encamped under the walls of the town, sum- 
 moned the city to receive a Swedish garrison. Bogislaus 
 appeared in person in the camp of Gustavus to deprecate 
 this condition. " I come to you," said Gustavus, " not as an 
 enemy but a friend. I wage no war against Pomeranin, 
 nor against the German empire, but against the enemies 
 of both. In my hands this duchy shall be sacred ; and it 
 shall be restored to you at the conclusion of the campaign, 
 by me, with more certainty than by any other. Look to 
 the traces of the imperial force within your territories, 
 and to mine in Usedom ; and decide whether you will 
 have the Emperor or me as your friend. What have you 
 to expect if the Emperor should make himself master of 
 your capital ? Will he deal with you more leniently than 
 I? Or is it your intention to stop my progress? The
 
 
 \~w//^ \ ^ ; /> fffi 
 
 V,%/y .' lt'//'/,lMr%
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 141 
 
 case is pressing ; decide at once, and do not compel me to 
 have recourse to more violent measures." 
 
 The alternative was a painful one. On the one side, 
 the King of Sweden was before his gates with a formid- 
 able army ; on the other, he saw the inevitable ven- 
 geance of the Emperor, and the fearful example of so 
 many German princes who were now wandering in misery, 
 the victims of that revenge. The more immediate danger 
 decided his resolution. The gates of Stettin were opened 
 to the king; the Swedish troops entered; and the Aus- 
 trians, who were advancing by rapid marches, anticipated. 
 The capture of this place procured for the king a firm 
 footing in Pomerania, the command of the Oder, and a 
 magazine for his troops. To prevent a charge of treach- 
 ery, Bogislaus was careful to excuse this step to the 
 Emperor on the plea of necessity; but aware of Ferdi- 
 nand's implacable disposition, he entered into a close 
 alliance with his new protector. By this league with 
 Pomerania, Gustavus secured a powerful friend in Ger- 
 many, who covered his rear, and maintained his com- 
 munication with Sweden. 
 
 As Ferdinand was already the aggressor in Prussia, 
 Gustavus Adolphus thought himself absolved from the 
 usual formalties, and commenced hostilities without any 
 declaration of war. To the other European powers he 
 justified his conduct in a manifesto, in which he detailed 
 the grounds which had led him to take up arms. Mean- 
 while he continued his progress in Pomerania, while he 
 saw his army daily increasing. The troops which had 
 fought under Mansfeld, Duke Christian of Brunswick, 
 the King of Denmark, and Wallenstein came in crowds, 
 both officers and soldiers, to join his victorious standard. 
 
 At the Imperial court the invasion of the King of 
 Sweden at first excited far less attention than it merited. 
 The pride of Austria, extravagantly elated by its unheard- 
 of successes, looked down with contempt upon a prince, 
 who, with a handful of men, came from an obscure corner 
 of Europe, and who owed his past successes, as they im- 
 agined, entirely to the incapacity of a weak opponent. 
 The depreciatory representation which Wallenstein had 
 artfully given of the Swedish power increased the Em-
 
 142 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 
 
 peror's security ; for what had he to fear from an enemy 
 whom his general undertook to drive with such ease 
 from Germany? Even the rapid progress of Gustavus 
 Adolphus in Pomerania could not entirely dispel this 
 prejudice, which the mockeries of the courtiers continued 
 to teed. He was called in Vienna the Snow King, whom 
 the cold of the north kept together, but who would 
 infallibly melt as he advanced southward. Even the 
 electors, assembled in Ratisbon, disregarded his repre- 
 sentations ; and, influenced by an abject complaisance to 
 Ferdinand, refused him even the title of king. But while 
 they mocked him in Ratisbon and Vienna, in Mecklen- 
 burgh and Pomerania one strong town after another fell 
 into his hands. 
 
 Notwithstanding this contempt the Emperor thought 
 it proper to offer to adjust his differences with Sweden 
 by negotiation, and for that purpose sent plenipotentiaries 
 to Denmark. But their instructions showed how little 
 he was in earnest in these proposals, for he still continued 
 to refuse to Gustavus the title of king. He hoped by 
 this means to throw on the King of Sweden the odium of 
 being the aggressor, and thereby to insure the support of 
 the States of the empire. The conference at Dantzic 
 proved, as might be expected, fruitless, and the animosity 
 of both parties was increased to its utmost by an intem- 
 perate correspondence. 
 
 An imperial general, Torquato Coriti, who commanded 
 in Pomerania, had, in the meantime, made a vain attempt 
 to wrest Stettin from the Swedes. The Imperialists were 
 driven out from one place after another ; Damm, Star- 
 gard, Camin, and Wolgast, soon fell in the hands of Gus- 
 tavus. To revenge himself upon the Duke of Pomerania, 
 the imperial general permitted his troops, upon his re- 
 treat, to exercise every barbarity on the unfortunate in- 
 habitants of Pomerania, who had already suffered but too 
 severely from his avarice. On pretence of cutting off the 
 resources of the Swedes, the whole country was laid 
 waste and plundered ; and often, when the Imperialists 
 were unable any longer to maintain a place, it was laid in 
 ashes, in order to leave the enemy nothing but ruins. 
 But these barbarities only served to place in a more fa-
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 143 
 
 vorable light the opposite conduct of the Swedes, and to 
 win all hearts to their humane monarch. The Swedish 
 soldier paid for all he required ; no private property was 
 injured on his march. The Swedes consequently were 
 received with open arms both in town and country, whilst 
 every Imperialist that fell into the hands of the Pomeran- 
 ian peasantry was ruthlessly murdered. Many Pomeran- 
 ians entered into the service of Sweden, and the estates 
 of this exhausted country willingly voted the king a con- 
 tribution of one hundred thousand florins. 
 
 Torquato Conti, who, with all his severity of character, 
 was a consummate general, endeavored to render Stettin 
 useless to the King of Sweden, as he could not deprive 
 him of it. He intrenched himself upon the Oder, at 
 Gratz, above Stettin, in order, by commanding that river, 
 to cut off the water communication of the town with the 
 rest of Germany. Nothing could induce him to attack 
 the King of Sweden, who was his superior in numbers, 
 while the latter was equally cautious not to storm the 
 strong intrenchments of the Imperialists. Torquato, too 
 deficient in troops and money to act upon the offensive 
 against the king, hoped by this plan of operations to give 
 time for Tilly to hasten to the defence of Pomerania, and 
 then, in conjunction with that general, to attack the 
 Swedes. Seizing the opportunity of the temporary 
 absence of Gustavus, he made a sudden attempt upon 
 Stettin, but the Swedes were not unprepared for him. 
 A vigorous attack of the Imperialists was firmly repulsed, 
 and Torquato was forced to retire with great loss. For 
 this auspicious commencement of the war, however, Gus- 
 tavus was, it must be owned, as much indebted to his 
 good fortune as to his military talents. The imperial 
 troops in Pomerania had been greatly reduced since Wal- 
 lenstein's dismissal ; moreover, the outrages they had 
 committed were now severely revenged upon them ; 
 wasted and exhausted, the country no longer afforded 
 them a subsistence. All discipline was at an end; the 
 orders of the officers were disregarded, while their num- 
 bers daily decreased by desertion, and by a general mor- 
 tality, which the piercing cold of a strange climate had 
 produced among them.
 
 144 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 
 
 Under these circumstances, the imperial general was 
 anxious to allow his troops the repose of winter quarters, 
 but he had to do with an enemy to whom the climate of 
 Germany had no winter. Gustavus had taken the pre- 
 caution of providing his soldiers with dresses of sheep- 
 skin, to enable them to keep the field even in the most 
 inclement season. The imperial plenipotentiaries, who 
 came to treat with him for a cessation of hostilities, 
 received this discouraging answer: "The Swedes are 
 soldiers in winter as well as in summer, and not disposed 
 to oppress the unfortunate peasantry. The Imperialists 
 may act as they think proper, but they need not expect 
 to remain undisturbed." Torquato Conti soon after 
 resigned a command in which neither riches nor reputa- 
 tion were to be gained. 
 
 In this inequality of the two armies the advantage was 
 necessarily on the side of the Swedes. The Imperialists 
 were incessantly harassed in their winter quarters ; 
 Greifenhagen, an important place upon the Oder, taken 
 by storm, and the towns of Grata and Piritz were at last 
 abandoned by the enemy. In the whole of Pomerania 
 Griefswald, Demmin, and Colberg alone remained in their 
 hands, and these the king made great preparations to 
 besiege. The enemy directed their retreat towards 
 Brandenburg, in which much of their artillery and bag- 
 gage, and many prisoners fell into the hands of the 
 pursuers. 
 
 By seizing the passes of Riebnitz and Damgarden Gus- 
 tavus had opened a passage into Mecklenburg, whose in- 
 habitants were invited to return to their allegiance under 
 their legitimate sovereigns, and to expel the adherents of 
 Wallenstein. The Imperialists, however, gained the im- 
 portant town of Rostock by stratagem, and thus prevented 
 the farther advance of the king, who was unwilling to di- 
 vide the forces. The exiled dukes of Mecklenburgh had 
 ineffectually employed the princes assembled at Ratisbon 
 to intercede with the Emperor ; in vain they had endeav- 
 ored to soften Ferdinand, by renouncing the alliance of 
 the king and every idea of resistance. But, driven to de- 
 spair by the Emperor's inflexibility, they openly espoused 
 the side of Sweden, and raising troops, gave the command
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 145 
 
 of them to Francis Charles, Duke of Saxe-Lauenburg. 
 That general made himself master of several strong places 
 on the Elbe, but lost them afterwards to the Imperial Gen- 
 eral Pappenheim, who was despatched to oppose him. 
 Soon afterwards, besieged by the latter in the town of 
 Ratzeburg, he was compelled to surrender with all his 
 troops. Thus ended the attempt which these unfortunate 
 princes made to recover their territories ; and it was re- 
 served for the victorious arm of Gustavus Adolphus to 
 render them that brilliant service. 
 
 The Imperialists had thrown themselves into Branden- 
 burg, which now became the theatre of the most barbarous 
 atrocities. These outrages were inflicted upon the sub- 
 jects of a prince who had never injured the Emperor, and 
 whom, moreover, he was at the very time inciting to take 
 up arms against the King of Sweden. The sight of the 
 disorders of their soldiers, which want of money compelled 
 them to wink at, and of authority over their troops, ex- 
 cited the disgust even of the Imperial generals, and, from 
 very shame, their commander-in-chief, Count Schaumburg, 
 wished to resign. 
 
 Without a sufficient force to protect his territories, and 
 left by the Emperor, in spite of the most pressing remon- 
 strances, without assistance, the Elector of Brandenburg 
 at last issued an edict, ordering his subjects to repel force 
 by force, and to put to death without mercy every Impe- 
 rial soldier who should henceforth be detected in plun- 
 dering. To such a height had the violence of outrage 
 and the misery of the government risen that nothing was 
 left to the sovereign but the desperate extremity of sanc- 
 tioning private vengeance by a formal law. 
 
 The Swedes had pursued the Imperialists into Branden- 
 burg ; and only the Elector's refusal to open to him the 
 fortress of Custrin for his march obliged the King to lay 
 aside his design of besieging Frankfort on the Oder. He 
 therefore returned to complete the conquest of Pome- 
 rania by the capture of Demmin and Colberg. In the 
 meantime, Field-Marshal Tilly was advancing to the de- 
 fence of Brandenburg. 
 
 This general, who could boast as yet of never having 
 suffered a defeat ; the conqueror of Mansfeld, of Duke
 
 146 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 
 
 Christian of Brunswick, of the Margrave of Baden, and 
 the King of Denmark, was now, in the Swedish monarch, 
 to meet an opponent worthy of his fame. Descended of a 
 noble family in Liege, Tilly had formed his military talents 
 in the wars of the Netherlands, which was then the great 
 school for generals. He soon found an opportunity of 
 distinguishing himself under Rodolph II. in Hungary, 
 where he rapidly rose from one step to another. After 
 the peace he entered into the service of Maximilian of 
 Bavarin, who made him commander-in-chief with absolute 
 powers. Here, by his excellent regulations, he was the 
 founder of the Bavarian army ; and to him, chiefly, Maxi- 
 milian was indebted for his superiority in the field. Upon 
 the termination of the Bohemian war he was appointed 
 commander of the troops of the League ; and, after Wal- 
 lenstein's dismissal, generalissimo of the Imperial armies. 
 Equally stern towards his soldiers and implacable towards 
 his enemies, and as gloomy and impenetrable as Wallen- 
 stein, he was greatly his superior in probity and disinter- 
 estedness. A bigoted zeal for religion and a bloody spirit 
 of persecution co-operated with the natural ferocity of 
 his character to make him the terror of the Protestants. 
 A strange and terrific aspect bespoke his character; of low 
 stature, thin, with hollow cheeks, a long nose, a broad and 
 wrinkled forehead, large whiskers and a pointed chin; he 
 was generally attired in a Spanish doublet of green satin, 
 with slashed sleeves, with a small high-peaked hat upon 
 his head, surmounted by a red feather, which hung down 
 to his back. His whole aspect recalled to recollection the 
 Duke of Alva, the scourge of the Flemings ; and his ac- 
 tions were far from effacing the impression. Such was 
 the general who was now to be opposed to the hero of 
 the north. 
 
 Tilly was far from undervaluing his antagonist. "The 
 King of Sweden," said he, in the Diet at Ratisbon, " is 
 an enemy both prudent and brave, inured to war, and in 
 the flower of his age. His plans are excellent, his re- 
 sources considerable, his subjects enthusiastically attached 
 to him. His army, composed of Swedes, Germans, 
 Livonians, Finlanders, Scots, and English, by its devoted 
 obedience to their leader, is blended into one nation ; he
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 147 
 
 is a gamester in playing with whom not to have lost is to 
 have won a great deal." 
 
 The progress of the King of Sweden in Brandenburg 
 and Pomerania left the new generalissimo no time to 
 lose ; and his presence was now urgently called for by 
 those who commanded in that quarter. With all expe- 
 dition he collected the imperial troops which were dis- 
 persed over the empire ; but it required time to obtain 
 from the exhausted and impoverished provinces the 
 necessary supplies. At last, about the middle of winter, 
 he appeared at the head of twenty thousand men before 
 Frankfort on the Oder, where he was joined by Sehaum- 
 burg. Leaving to this general the defence of Frankfort, 
 with a sufficient garrison, he hastened to Pomerania with 
 a view of saving Demrnin and relieving Colberg, which 
 was already hard pressed by the Swedes. But even 
 before he had left Brandenburg, Demmin, which was but 
 poorly defended by the Duke of Savelli, had surrendered 
 to the king, and Colberg, after a five months' siege, was 
 starved into a capitulation. As the passes in Upper 
 Pomerania were well guarded, and the king's camp 
 near Schwedt defied attack, Tilly abandoned his offen- 
 sive plan of operations and retreated towards the Elbe to 
 besiege Magdeburg. 
 
 The capture of Dernmin opened to the king a free 
 passage into Mecklenburg ; but a more important enter- 
 prise drew his arms into another quarter. Scarcely had 
 Tilly commenced his retrograde movement, when sud- 
 denly breaking up his camp at Schwedt, the king marched 
 his whole force against Frankfort on the Oder. This 
 town, badly fortified, was defended by a garrison of eight 
 thousand men, mostly composed of those ferocious bands 
 who had so cruelly ravaged Pomerania and Brandenburg. 
 It was now attacked with such impetuosity that on the 
 third day it was taken by storm. The Swedes, assured of 
 victory, rejected every offer of capitulation, as they 
 were resolved to exercise the dreadful right of retaliation. 
 For Tilly, soon after his arrival, had surrounded a Swed- 
 ish detachment, and, irritated by their obstinate resist- 
 ance, had cut them in pieces to a man. This cruelty was 
 not forgotten by the Swedes. "New Brandenburg
 
 148 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 
 
 Quarter," they replied to the Imperialists who begged 
 their lives, and slaughtered them without mercy. Several 
 thousands were either killed or taken, and many were 
 drowned in the Oder; the rest fled to Silesia. All their 
 artillery fell into the hands of the Swedes. To satisfy 
 the rage of his troops Gustavus Adolphus was under the 
 necessity of giving up the town for three hours to 
 plunder. 
 
 While the king was thus advancing from one conquest 
 to another, and by his success encouraging the Protest- 
 ants to active resistance, the Emperor proceeded to 
 enforce the Edict of Restitution, and by his exorbitant 
 pretensions to exhaust the patience of the states. Com- 
 pelled by necessity, he continued the violent course 
 which he had begun with such arrogant confidence ; the 
 difficulties into which his arbitrary conduct had plunged 
 him he could only extricate himself from by measures 
 still more arbitrary. But in so complicated a body as 
 the German empire despotism must always create the 
 most dangerous convulsions. With astonishment the 
 princes beheld the constitution of the empire overthrown, 
 and the state of nature to which matters were again 
 verging, suggested to them the idea of self-defence, the 
 only means of protection in such a state of things. The 
 steps openly taken by the Emperor against the Lutheran 
 church had at last removed the veil from the eyes of 
 John George, who had been so long the dupe of his 
 artful policy. Ferdinand, too, had personally offended 
 him by the exclusion of his son from the archbishopric 
 of Magdeburg ; and field-marshal Arnheim, his new favor- 
 ite and minister, spared no pains to increase the resent- 
 ment of his master. Arnheim had formerly been an 
 imperial general under Wallenstein, and being still zeal- 
 ously attached to him, he was eager to avenge his old 
 benefactor and himself on the Emperor by detaching 
 Saxony from the Austrian interests. Gustavus Adolphus, 
 supported by the Protestant states, would be invincible ; 
 a consideration which already filled the Emperor with 
 alarm. The example of Saxony would probably influ- 
 ence others, and the Emperor's fate seemed now in a 
 manner to depend upon the Elector's decision. The
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 149 
 
 artful favorite impressed upon his master this idea of his 
 own importance, and advised him to terrify the Emperor 
 by threatening an alliance with Sweden, and thus to 
 extort from his fears what he had sought in vain from his 
 gratitude. The favorite, however, was far from wishing 
 him actually to enter into the Swedish alliance, but, by 
 holding aloof from both parties, to maintain his own 
 importance and independence. Accordingly he laid be- 
 fore him a plan which only wanted a more able hand to 
 carry it into execution, and recommended him, by head- 
 ing the Protestant paVty, to erect a third power in Ger- 
 many, and thereby maintain the balance between Sweden 
 and Austria. 
 
 This project was peculiarly flattering to the Saxon 
 Elector, to whom the idea of being dependent on Sweden, 
 or of longer submitting to the tyranny of the Emperor, 
 was equally hateful. He could not, with indifference, 
 see the control of German affairs wrested from him by a 
 foreign prince ; and incapable as he was of taking a prin- 
 cipal part, his vanity would not condescend to act a 
 subordinate one. He resolved, therefore, to draw every 
 possible advantage from the progress of Gustavus, but to 
 pursue, independently, his own separate plans. With 
 this view, he consulted with the Elector of Brandenburg, 
 who, from similar causes, was ready to act against the 
 Emperor, but, at the same time, was jealous of Sweden. 
 In a Diet at Torgau, having assured himself of the sup- 
 port of his Estates, he invited the Protestant States of 
 the empire to a general convention, which took place at 
 Leipzig on the 6th February, 1631. Brandenburg, Hesse 
 Cassel, with several princes, counts, estates of the empire, 
 and Protestant bishops were present, either personally or 
 by deputy, at this assembly, which the chaplain to the 
 court, Dr. Hoe von Hohenegg, opened with a vehement 
 discourse from the pulpit. The Emperor had in vain 
 endeavored to prevent this self-appointed convention, 
 whose object was evidently to provide for its own de- 
 fence, and which the presence of the Swedes in the empire 
 rendered more than usually alarming. Emboldened by 
 the progress of Gustavus Adolphus the assembled princes 
 asserted their rights, and after a session of two months
 
 150 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 
 
 broke up with adopting a resolution which placed the 
 Emperor in no slight embarrassment. Its import was 
 to demand of the Emperor, in a general address, the 
 revocation of the Edict of Restitution, the withdrawal 
 of his troops from their capitals and fortresses, the 
 suspension of all existing proceedings, and the aboli- 
 tion of abuses ; and, in the meantime, to raise an army 
 of forty thousand men to enable them to redress their 
 own grievances if the Emperor should still refuse satis- 
 faction. 
 
 A further incident contributed not a little to increase 
 the firmness of the Protestant princes. The King of 
 Sweden had at last overcome the scruples which had 
 deterred him from a closer alliance with France, and, on 
 the 13th January, 1631, concluded a formal treaty with 
 this crown. After a serious dispute respecting the treat- 
 ment of the Roman Catholic princes of the empire, 
 whom France took under her protection, and against 
 whom Gustavus claimed the right of retaliation, and 
 after some less important differences with regard to the 
 title of majesty, which the pride of France was loth to 
 concede to the -King of Sweden, Richelieu yielded the 
 second, and Gustavus Adolphus the first point, and the 
 treaty was signed at Beerwald, in Neumark. The con- 
 tracting parties mutually covenanted to defend each other 
 with a military force, to protect their common friends, to 
 restore to their dominions the deposed princes of the em- 
 pire, and to replace everything, both on the frontier and 
 in the interior of Germany, on the same footing on which 
 it stood before the commencment of the war. For this 
 end Sweden engaged to maintain an army of thirty thou- 
 sand men in Germany, and France agreed to furnish the 
 Swedes with an annual subsidy of four hundred thousand 
 dollars. If the arms of Gustavus were successful he 
 was to respect the Catholic religion and the constitution 
 of the empire in all the conquered places, and to make 
 no attempt against either. All Estates and princes, 
 whether Protestant or Roman Catholic, either in Ger- 
 many or in other countries, were to be invited to become 
 parties to the treaty ; neither France nor Sweden was to 
 conclude a separate peace without the knowledge and
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 151 
 
 consent of the other ; and the treaty itself was to con- 
 tinue in force for five years. 
 
 Great as was the struggle to the King of Sweden to re- 
 ceive subsidies from France, and sacrifice his independ- 
 ence in the conduct of the war, this alliance with France 
 decided his cause in Germany. Protected as he now was by 
 the greatest power in Europe, the German states began 
 to feel confidence in his undertaking, for the issue of 
 which they had hitherto good reason to tremble. He 
 became truly formidable to the Emperor. The Roman 
 Catholic princes, too, who, though they were anxious to 
 humble Austria, had witnessed his progress with distrust, 
 were less alarmed now that an alliance with a Roman 
 Catholic power insured his respect for their religion. 
 And thus, while Gustavus Adolphus protected the Prot- 
 estant religion and the liberties of Germany against the 
 aggression of Ferdinand, France secured those liberties, 
 and the Roman Catholic religion, against Gustavus him- 
 self, if the intoxication of success should hurry him be- 
 yond the bounds of moderation. 
 
 The King of Sweden lost no time in apprizing the 
 members of the confederacy of Leipzig of the treaty con- 
 cluded with France, and inviting them to a closer union 
 with himself. The application was seconded by France, 
 who spared no pains to win over the Elector of Saxony. 
 Gustavus was willing to be content with secret support, 
 if the princes should deem it too bold a step as yet to de- 
 clare openly in his favor. Several princes gave him hopes 
 of his proposals being accepted on the first favorable 
 opportunity; but the Saxcn Elector, full of jealousy and 
 distrust towards the King of Sweden, and true to the 
 selfish policy he had pursued, could not be prevailed upon 
 to give a decisive answer. 
 
 The resolution of the confederacy of Leipzig, and the 
 alliance betwixt France and Sweden, were news equally 
 disagreeable to the Emperor. Against them he employed 
 the thunder of imperial ordinances, and the want of an 
 army saved France from the full weight of his displeasure. 
 Remonstrances were addressed to all the members of the 
 confederacy, strongly prohibiting them from enlisting 
 troops. They retorted with explanations equally vehe-
 
 152 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 
 
 ment, justified their conduct upon the principles of natural 
 right, and continued their preparations. 
 
 Meantime, the imperial generals, deficient both in 
 troops and money, found themselves reduced to the dis- 
 agreeable alternative of losing sight either of the King of 
 Sweden, or of the Estates of the empire, since with a 
 divided force they were not a match for either. The 
 movements of the Protestants called their attention to 
 the interior of the empire, while the ] rogress of the king 
 in Brandenburg, by threatening the hereditary possessions 
 of Austria, required them to turn their arms to that quar- 
 ter. After the conquest of Frankfort, the king had 
 advanced upon Landsberg on the Warta, and Tilly, after 
 a fruitless attempt to relieve it, had again returned to 
 Magdeburg, to prosecute with vigor the siege of that 
 town. 
 
 The rich archbishopric, of which Magdeburg was the 
 capital, had long been in the possession of princes of the 
 house of Brandenburg, who introduced the Protestant 
 religion into the province. Christian William, the last 
 administrator, had, by his alliance with Denmark, incurred 
 the ban of the empire, on which account the chapter, to 
 avoid the Emperor's displeasure, had formally deposed 
 him. In his place they had elected Prince John Augus- 
 tus, the second son of the Elector of Saxony, whom the 
 Emperor rejected, in order to confer the archbishopric on 
 his son Leopold. The Elector of Saxony complained 
 ineffectually to the imperial court ; but Christian William 
 of Brandenburg took more active measures. Relying on 
 the attachment of the magistracy and inhabitants of 
 Brandenburg, and excited by chimerical hopes, he thought 
 himself able to surmount all the obstacles which the vote 
 of the chapter, the competition of two powerful rivals, 
 and the Edict of Restitution opposed to his restoration. 
 He went to Sweden, and, by the promise of a diversion 
 in Germany, sought to obtain assistance from Gustavus. 
 He was dismissed by that monarch not without hopes 
 of effectual protection, but with the advice to act with 
 caution. 
 
 Scarcely had Christian William been informed of the 
 landing of his protector in Pomerania than he entered
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 153 
 
 Magdeburg in disguise. Appearing suddenly in the town 
 council, he reminded the magistrates of the ravages 
 which both town and country had suffered fror.i the im- 
 perial troops, of the pernicious designs of Ferdinand, and 
 the danger of the Protestant church. He then informed 
 them that the moment of deliverance was at hand, and 
 that Gustavus Adolphus offered them his alliance and 
 assistance. Magdeburg, one of the most flourishing 
 towns in Germany, enjoyed under the government of its 
 magistrates a republican freedom, which inspired its citi- 
 zens with a brave heroism. Of this they had already given 
 proofs, in the bold defence of their rights against Wallen- 
 8tein,who, tempted by their wealth, made on them the most 
 extravagant demands. Their territory had been given 
 up to the fury of his troops, though Magdeburg itself had 
 escaped his vengeance. It was not difficult, therefore, 
 for the Administrator to gain the concurrence of men in 
 whose minds the remembrance of these outrages was still 
 recent. An alliance was formed between the city and 
 the Swedish king, by which Magdeburg granted to the 
 king a free passage through its gates and territories, with 
 liberty of enlisting soldiers within its boundaries, and, on 
 the other hand, obtained promises of effectual protection 
 for its religion and its privileges. 
 
 The Administrator immediately collected troops and 
 commenced hostilities, before Gustavus Adolphus was 
 near enough to co-operate with him. He defeated some 
 imperial detachments in the neighborhood, made a few 
 conquests, and even surprised Halle. But the approach 
 of an imperial army obliged him to retreat hastily, and 
 not without loss, to Magdeburg. Gustavus Adolphus, 
 though displeased with his premature measures, sent 
 Dietrich Falkenberg, an experienced officer, to direct the 
 Administrator's military operations, and to assist him 
 with his counsel. Falkenberg was named by the magis- 
 trates governor of the town during the war. The Prince's 
 army was daily augmented by recruits from the neigh- 
 boring towns ; and he was able for some months to main- 
 tain a petty warfare with success. 
 
 At length Count Pappenheim, having brought his expe- 
 dition against the Duke of Saxe-Lauenburg to a close,
 
 154 THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 
 
 approached the town. Driving the troops of the Admin- 
 istrator from their entrenchments, he cut off his commun- 
 ication with Saxony, and closely invested the place. He 
 was soon followed by Tilly, who haughtily summoned the 
 Elector forthwith to comply with the Edict of Restitution, 
 to submit to the Emperor's orders, and surrender Magde- 
 burg. The Prince's answer was spirited and resolute, and 
 obliged Tilly at once to have recourse to arms. 
 
 In the meanwhile the siege was prolonged, by the pro- 
 gress of the King of Sweden, which called the Austrian 
 general from before the place; and the jealousy of the 
 officers who conducted the operations in his absence 
 delayed for some months the fall of Magdeburg. On the 
 30th March, 1631, Tilly returned, to push the siege with 
 vigor. 
 
 The outworks were soon carried, and Falkenberg, after 
 withdrawing the garrisons from the points which he could 
 no longer hold, destroyed the bridge over the Elbe. As 
 his troops were barely sufficient to defend the extensive 
 fortifications, the suburbs of Sudenburg and Neustadt 
 were abandoned to the enemy, who immediately laid 
 them in ashes. Pappenheim, now separated from Tilly, 
 crossed the Elbe at Schonenbeck, and attacked the town 
 from the opposite side. 
 
 The garrison, reduced by the defence of the outworks, 
 scarcely exceeded two thousand infantry and a few 
 hundred horse ; a small number for so extensive and 
 irregular a fortress. To supply this deficiency, the citi- 
 zens were armed, a desperate expedient, which produced 
 more evils than those it prevented. The citizens, at best 
 but indifferent soldiers, by their disunion threw the town 
 into confusion. The poor complained that they were 
 exposed to every hardship and danger, while the rich, by 
 hiring substitutes, remained at home in safety. These 
 rumors broke out at last in an open mutiny ; indifference 
 succeeded to zeal; weariness and negligence took the 
 place of vigilance and foresight. Dissension, combined 
 with growing scarcity, gradually produced a feeling of 
 despondency ; many began to tremble at the desperate 
 nature of their undertaking, and the magnitude of the 
 power to which they were opposed. But religious zeal,
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 155 
 
 an ardent love of liberty, an invincible hatred to the 
 Austrian yoke, and the expectation of speedy relief, ban- 
 ished as yet the idea of a surrender; and, divided as they 
 were in everything else, they were united in the resolve 
 to defend themselves to the last extremity. 
 
 Their hopes of succor were apparently well founded. 
 They knew that the confederacy of Leipzig was arming ; 
 they were aware of the near approach of Gustavus 
 Adolphus. Both were alike interested in the preservation 
 of Magdeburg; and a few days might bring the King of 
 Sweden before its walls. All this was also known to 
 Tilly, who, therefore, was anxious to make himself speed- 
 ily master of the place. With this view he had despatched 
 a trumpeter with letters to the Administrator, the com- 
 mandant, and the magistrates, offering terms of capitu- 
 lation ; but he received for answer, that they would 
 rather die than surrender. A spirited sally of the citizens 
 also convinced him that their courage was as earnest as 
 their words, while the king's arrival at Potsdam, with the 
 incursions of the Swedes as far as Zerbst, filled him with 
 uneasiness, but raised the hopes of the garrison. A 
 second trumpeter was now despatched ; but the more 
 moderate tone of his demands increased the confidence 
 of the besieged, and unfortunately their negligence also. 
 
 The besiegers had now pushed their approaches as far as 
 the ditch, and vigorously cannonaded the fortifications 
 from the abandoned batteries. One tower was entirely 
 overthrown, but this did not facilitate an assault, as it 
 fell sidewise upon the wall, and not into the ditch. 
 Notwithstanding the continual bombardment the walls 
 had not suffered much ; and the fire balls, which were 
 intended to set the town in flames, were deprived of 
 their effect by the excellent precautions adopted against 
 them. But the ammunition of the besieged was nearly 
 expended, and the cannon of the town gradually ceased 
 to answer the fire of the Imperialists. Before a new 
 supply could be obtained Magdeburg would be either 
 relieved or taken. The hopes of the besieged were on 
 the stretch, and all eyes anxiously directed towards the 
 quarter in which the Swedish banners were expected to 
 appear. Gustavus Adolphus was near enough to reacli
 
 156 THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 
 
 Magdeburg within three days ; security grew with hope, 
 which all things contributed to augment. On the 9th of 
 May, the fire of the Imperialists was suddenly stopped, 
 and the cannon withdrawn from several of the batteries. 
 A deathlike stillness reigned in the Imperial camp. The 
 besieged were convinced that deliverance was at hand. 
 Both citizens and soldiers left their posts upon the 
 ramparts early in the morning to indulge themselves, 
 after their long toils, with the refreshment of sleep, but 
 it was indeed a dear sleep, and a frightful awakening. 
 
 Tilly had abandoned the hope of taking the town, 
 before the arrival of the Swedes, by the means which he 
 had hitherto adopted ; he therefore determined to raise 
 the siege, but first to hazard a general assault. This 
 plan, however, was attended with great difficulties, as no 
 breach had been effected, and the works were scarcely 
 injured. But the council of war assembled on this occa- 
 sion declared for an assault, citing the example of Maes- 
 tricht, which had been taken early in the morning, while 
 the citizens and soldiers were reposing themselves. The 
 attack was to be made simultaneously on four points; 
 the night betwixt the 9th and 10th of May was employed 
 in the neccessary preparations. Everything was ready 
 and awaiting the signal, which was to be given by cannon 
 at five o'clock in the morning. The signal, however, was 
 not given for two hours later, during which Tilly, who 
 was still doubtful of success, again consulted the council 
 of war. Pappenheim was ordered to attack the works 
 of the new town, where the attempt was favored by a 
 sloping rampart, and a dry ditch of moderate depth. 
 The citizens and soldiers had mostly left the walls, and 
 the few who remained were overcome with sleep. This 
 general, therefore, found little difficulty in mounting the 
 wall at the head of his troops. 
 
 Falkenberg, roused by the report of musketry, hastened 
 from the town-house, where he was employed in despatch- 
 ing Tilly's second trumpeter, and hurried with all the 
 force he could hastily assemble towards the gate of the 
 new town, which was already in the possession of the 
 enemy. Beaten back, this intrepid general flew to 
 another quarter, where a second party of the enemy were
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 157 
 
 preparing to scale the walls. After an ineffectual resist- 
 ance he fell in the commencement of the action. The 
 roaring of musketry, the pealing of the alarm-bells, and 
 the growing tumult apprised the awakening citizens of 
 their danger. Hastily arming themselves, they rushed 
 in blind confusion against the enemy. Still some hope 
 of repulsing the besiegers remained ; but the governor 
 being killed, their efforts were without plan and co-opera- 
 tion, and at last their ammunition began to fail them. 
 In the meanwhile, two other gates, hitherto unattacked, 
 were stripped of their defenders, to meet the urgent 
 danger within the town. The enemy quickly availed 
 themselves of this confusion to attack these posts. The 
 resistance was nevertheless spirited and obstinate, until 
 four imperial regiments, at length, masters of the ram- 
 parts, fell upon the garrison in the rear, and completed 
 their rout. Amidst the general tumult, a brave captain, 
 named Schmidt, who still headed a few of the more reso- 
 lute against the enemy, succeeded in driving them to the 
 gates ; here he fell mortally wounded, and with him 
 expired the hopes of Magdeburg. Before noon all the 
 works were carried, and the town was in the enemy's 
 hands. 
 
 Two gates were now opened by the storming-party for 
 the main body, and Tilly marched in with part of his in- 
 fantry. Immediately occupying the principal streets, he 
 drove the citizens with pointed cannon into their dwell- 
 ings, there to await their destiny. They were not long 
 held in suspense ; a word from Tilly decided the fate of 
 Magdeburg. 
 
 Even a more humane general would in vain have 
 recommended mercy to such soldiers; but Tilly never 
 made the attempt. Left by their general's silence mas- 
 ters of the lives of all the citizens, the soldiery broke 
 into the houses to satiate their most brutal appetites. 
 The prayers of innocence excited some compassion in the 
 hearts of the Germans, but none in the rude breasts of 
 Pappenheim's Walloons. Scarcely had the savage cruelty 
 commenced when the other gates were thrown open, and 
 the cavalry, with the fearful hordes of the Croats, poured 
 in upon the devoted inhabitants.
 
 158 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 
 
 Here commenced a scene of horrors for which history 
 has no language, poetry no pencil. Neither innocent 
 childhood, nor helpless old age ; neither youth, sex, rank, 
 nor beauty could disarm the fury of the conquerors. 
 Wives were abused in the arms of their husbands, 
 daughters at the feet of their parents ; and the defence- 
 less sex exposed to the double sacrifice of virtue and life. 
 No situation, however obscure, or however sacred, escaped 
 the rapacity of the enemy. In a single church fifty-three 
 women were found beheaded. The Croats amused 
 themselves with throwing children into the flames ; Pap- 
 penheim's Walloons with stabbing infants at the mother's 
 breast. Some officers of the League, horror-struck at 
 this dreadful scene, ventured to remind Tilly that he had 
 it in his power to stop the carnage. " Return in an hour," 
 was his answer ; " I will see what I can do ; the soldier 
 must have some reward for his dangers and toils." These 
 horrors lasted with unabated fury, till at last the smoke 
 and flames proved a check to the plunderers. To aug- 
 ment the confusion, and to divert the resistance of the 
 inhabitants, the imperialists had, in the commencement of 
 the assault, fired the town in several places. The wind 
 rising rapidly, spread the flames, till the blaze became 
 universal. Fearful, indeed, was the tumult amid clouds 
 of smoke, heaps of dead bodies, the clash of swords, the 
 crash of falling ruins, and streams of blood. The atmos- 
 phere glowed ; and the intolerable heat forced at last 
 even the murderers to take refuge in their camp. In less 
 than twelve hours this strong, populous, and flourishing 
 city, one of the finest in Germany, was reduced to ashes, 
 with the exception of two churches and a few houses. 
 The Administrator, Christian William, after receiving 
 several wounds, was taken prisoner, with three of the 
 burgomasters ; most of the officers and magistrates had 
 already met an enviable death. The avarice of the officers 
 had saved four hundred of the richest citizens in the hope 
 of extorting from them an exorbitant ransom. But this 
 humanity was confined to the officers of the League, 
 whom the ruthless barbarity of the Imperialists caused to 
 be regarded as guardian angels. 
 
 Scarcely had the fury of the flames abated when the
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 159 
 
 Imperialists returned to renew the pillage amid the ruins 
 and ashes of the town. Many were suffocated by the 
 smoke ; many found rich booty in the cellars, where the 
 citizens had concealed their more valuable effects. On 
 the 13th of May Tilly himself appeared in the town, 
 after the streets had been cleared of ashes and dead 
 bodies. Horrible and revolting to humanity was the 
 scene that presented itself. The living crawling from 
 under the dead, children wandering about with heart- 
 rending cries, calling for their parents ; and infants still 
 sucking the breasts of their lifeless mothers. More than 
 six thousand bodies were thrown into the Elbe to clear 
 the streets ; a much greater number had been consumed 
 by the flames. The whole number of the slain was reck- 
 oned at not less than thirty thousand. 
 
 The entrance of the general, which took place on the 
 14th, put a stop to the plunder, and saved the few who 
 had hitherto contrived to escape. About a thousand 
 people were taken out of the cathedral, where they had 
 remained three days and two nights without food, and in 
 momentary fear of death. Tilly promised them quarter, 
 and commanded bread to be distributed among them. 
 The next day a solemn mass was performed in the cathe- 
 dral, and Te Deum sung amidst the discharge of artillery. 
 The imperial general rode through the streets, that he 
 might be able as an eye-witness to inform his master that 
 no such conquest had been made since the destruction of 
 Troy and Jerusalem. Nor was this an exaggeration, 
 whether we consider the greatness, importance, and pros- 
 perity of the city razed, or the fury of its ravagers. 
 
 In Germany the tidings of the dreadful fate of Magde- 
 burg caused triumphant joy to the Roman Catholics, 
 while it spread terror and consternation among the Prot- 
 estants. Loudly and generally they complained against 
 the King of Sweden, who, with so strong a force, and in 
 the very neighborhood, had left an allied city to its fate. 
 Even the most reasonable deemed his inaction inexplicable ; 
 and lest he should lose irretrievably the good-will of the 
 people, for whose deliverance he had engaged in this war, 
 Gustavus was under the necessity of publishing to the 
 world a justification of his own conduct.
 
 160 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 
 
 He had attacked, and on the 16th April, carried Lands- 
 berg, when ht was apprised of the danger of Magdeburg. 
 He resolved immediately to march to the relief of that 
 town ; and he moved with all his cavalry, and ten regi- 
 ments of infantry towards the Spree. But the position 
 which he held in Germany made it necessary that he 
 should not move forward without securing his rear. In 
 traversing a country where he was surrounded by sus- 
 picious friends and dangerous enemies, and where a single 
 premature movement might cut off his communication 
 with his own kingdom, the utmost vigilance and caution 
 were necessary. The Elector of Brandenburg had already 
 opened the fortress of Custrin to the flying Imperialists, 
 and closed the gates against their pursuers. If now Gus- 
 tavus should fail in his attack upon Tilly the Elector 
 might again open his fortresses to the Imperialists, and 
 the king, with an enemy both in front and rear, would be 
 irrecoverably lost. In order to prevent this contingency 
 he demanded that the Elector should allow him to hold 
 the fortresses of Custrin and Spandau till the siege of 
 Magdeburg should be raised. 
 
 Nothing could be rnoi-e reasonable than this demand. 
 The services which Gustavus had lately rendered the 
 Elector, by expelling the Imperialists from Brandenburg, 
 claimed his gratitude, while the past conduct of the 
 Swedes in Germany entitled them to confidence. But by 
 the surrender of his fortresses, the Elector would in some 
 measure make the King of Sweden master of his country ; 
 besides that, by such a step, he must at once break with 
 the Emperor, and expose his States to his future ven- 
 geance. The Elector's struggle with himself was long 
 and violent, pusillanimity and self-interest for awhile pre- 
 vailed. Unmoved by the fate of Magdeburg, cold in the 
 cause of religion and the liberties of Germany, he saw 
 nothing but his own danger; and this anxiety was greatly 
 stimulated by his minister Van Schwartzenburgh, who was 
 secretly in the pay of Austria. In the meantime the 
 Swedish troops approached Berlin, and the king took up 
 his residence with the Elector. When he witnessed the 
 timorous hesitation of that prince, he could not restrain 
 his indignation : " My road is to Magdeburg," said he ;
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS* WAE. 161 
 
 " not for ray. own advantage, but for that of the Protestant 
 religion. If no one will stand by me I shall immediately 
 retreat, conclude a peace with the Emperor, and return to 
 Stockholm. I am convinced that Ferdinand will readily 
 grant me whatever conditions I may require. But if 
 Magdeburg is once lost, and the Emperor relieved from 
 all fear of me, then it is for you to look to' yourselves and 
 the consequences." This timely threat, and perhaps, too, 
 the aspect of the Swedish army, which was strong enough 
 to obtain by force what was refused to entreaty, brought 
 at last the Elector to his senses, and Spandau was deliv- 
 ered into the hands of the Swedes. 
 
 The king had now two routes to Magdeburg; one west- 
 ward led through an exhausted country, and filled with 
 the enemy's troops, who might dispute with him the pas- 
 sage of the Elbe ; the other more to the southward, by 
 Dessau and Wittenberg, where bridges were to be found 
 for crossing the Elbe, and where supplies could easily be 
 drawn from Saxony. But he could not avail himself of 
 the latter without the consent of the Elector, whom Gus- 
 tavus had good reason to distrust. Before setting out on 
 his march, therefore, he demanded from that prince a free 
 passage and liberty for purchasing provisions for his 
 troops. His application was refused, and no remonstrances 
 could prevail on the Elector to abandon his system of 
 neutrality. While the point was still in dispute the news 
 of the dreadful fate of Magdeburg arrived. 
 
 Tilly announced its fall to the Protestant princes in 
 the tone of a conquerer, and lost no time in making the 
 most of the general consternation. The influence of the 
 Emperor, which had sensibly declined during the rapid 
 progress of Gustavus, after this decisive blow rose higher 
 than ever ; and the change was speedily visible in the 
 imperious tone he adopted towards the Protestant states. 
 The decrees of the Confederation of Leipzig were an- 
 nulled by a proclamation, the Convention itself suppressed 
 by an imperial decree, and all the refractory states threat- 
 ened with the fate of Magdeburg. As the executor of 
 this imperial mandate, Tilly immediately ordered troops 
 to march against the Bishop of Bremen, who was a mem- 
 ber of the Confederacy, and had himself enlisted soldiers.
 
 162 THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 
 
 The terrified bishop immediately gave up his forces to 
 Tilly, and signed the revocation of the acts of the Confed- 
 eration. An imperial army, which had lately returned 
 from Italy, under the command of Count Furstenberg, 
 acted in the same manner towards the Administrator of 
 Wirtemberg. The duke was compelled to submit to the 
 Edict of Restitution, and all the decrees of the Emperor, 
 and even to pay a monthly subsidy of one hundred thou- 
 sand dollars for the maintenance of the imperial troops. 
 Similar burdens were inflicted upon Ulm and Nuremberg, 
 and the entire circles of Franconia and Swabia. The hand 
 of the Emperor was stretched in terror over all Germany. 
 The sudden preponderance, more in appearance, perhaps, 
 than in reality, which he had obtained by this blow, 
 carried him beyond the bounds even of the moderation 
 which he had hitherto observed, and misled him into 
 hasty and violent measures, which at last turned the 
 wavering resolution of the German princes in favor of 
 Gustavus Adolphus. Injurious as the immediate conse- 
 quences of the fall of Magdeburg were to the Protestant 
 cause, its remoter effects were most advantageous. The 
 past surprise made way for active resentment, despair 
 inspired courage, and the German freedom rose, like a 
 phoenix, from the ashes of Magdeburg. 
 
 Among the princes of the Leipzig Confederation the 
 Elector of Saxony and the Landgrave of Hesse were the 
 most powerful ; and, until they were disarmed, the uni- 
 versal authority of the Emperor was unconfirmed. Against 
 the Landgrave, therefore, Tilly first directed his attack, 
 and marched straight from Magdeburg into Thuringia. 
 During this march the territories of Saxe, Ernest, and 
 Schwartzburg were laid waste, and Frankenhausen plun- 
 dered before the very eyes of Tilly, and laid in ashes with 
 impunity. The unfortunate peasant paid dear for his 
 master's attachment to the interests of Sweden. Erfurt, 
 the key of Saxony and Franconia, was threatened with a 
 siege, but redeemed itself by a voluntary contribution of 
 money and provisions. From thence Tilly despatched 
 his emissaries to the Landgrave, demanding of him the 
 immediate disbanding of his army, a renunciation of the 
 league of Leipzig, the reception of imperial garrisons into
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 163 
 
 his territories and fortresses, with the necessary contri- 
 butions, and the declaration of friendship or hostility. 
 Such was the treatment which a prince of the Empire 
 was compelled to submit to from a servant of the 
 Emperor. But these extravagant demands acquired a 
 formidable weight from the power which supported 
 them ; and the dreadful fate of Magdeburg, still fresh in 
 the memory of the Landgrave, tended still farther to 
 enforce them. Admirable, therefore, was the intrepidity 
 of the Landgrave's answer: "To admit foreign troops 
 into his capital and fortresses the Landgrave is not 
 disposed ; his troops he requires for his own purposes ; 
 as for an attack, he can defend himself. If General Tilly 
 wants money or provisions, let him go to Munich, where 
 there is plenty of both." The irruption of two bodies of 
 imperial troops into Hesse Cassel was the immediate 
 result of this spirited reply, but the Landgrave gave 
 them so warm a reception that they could effect nothing; 
 and just as Tilly was preparing to follow with his whole 
 army, to punish the unfortunate country for the firmness 
 of its sovereign, the movements of the King of Sweden 
 recalled him to another quarter. 
 
 Gustavus Adolphus had learned the fall of Magdeburg 
 with deep regret; and the demand now made by the 
 Elector, George William, in terms of their agreement, for 
 the restoration of Spandau, greatly increased this feeling. 
 The loss of Magdeburg had rather augmented than 
 lessened the reasons which made the possession of this 
 fortress so desirable; and the nearer became the necessity 
 of a decisive battle between himself and Tilly, the more 
 unwilling he felt to abandon the only place which, in the 
 event of a defeat, could insure him a refuge. After a 
 vain endeavor by entreaties and representations to bring 
 over the Elector to his views, whose coldness and luke- 
 warmness daily increased, he gave orders to his general to 
 evacuate Spandau, but at the same time declared to the 
 Elector that he would henceforth regard him as an 
 enemy. 
 
 To give weight to this declaration, he appeared with 
 his whole force before Berlin. "I will not be worse 
 treated that the imperial generals," was his reply to the
 
 1(>4 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 
 
 ambassadors whom the bewildered Elector despatched to 
 his camp. "Your master has received them into his 
 territories, furnished them with all necessary supplies, 
 ceded to them every place which they required, and yet, 
 by all these concessions he could not prevail upon them 
 to treat his subjects with common humanity. All that I 
 require of him is security, a moderate sum of money, and 
 provisions for my troops ; in return I promise to protect 
 his country, and to keep the war at a distance from him. 
 On these points, however, I must insist ; and my brother, 
 the Elector, must instantly determine to have me as a 
 friend, or to see his capital plundered." This decisive 
 tone produced a due impression ; and the cannon pointed 
 against the town put an end to the doubts of George 
 William. In a few days, a treaty was signed, by which 
 the Elector engaged to furnish a monthly subsidy of 
 thirty thousand dollars, to leave Spandau in the king's 
 hands, and to open Custrin at all times to the Swedish 
 troops. This now open alliance of the Elector of Bran- 
 denburg with the Swedes excited no less displeasure at 
 Vienna than did formerly the similar procedure of the 
 Duke of Pomerania; but the changed fortune which now 
 attended his arms obliged the Emperor to confine his 
 resentment to words. 
 
 The king's satisfaction, on this favorable event, was 
 increased by the agreeable intelligence that Griefswald, 
 the only fortress which the Imperialists still held in 
 Pomerania, had surrendered, and that the whole country 
 was now free of the enemy. He appeared once more in 
 this duchy, and was gratified at the sight of the general 
 joy which he had caused to the people. A year had 
 elapsed since Gustavus first entered Germany, and this 
 event was now celebrated by all Pomerania as a national 
 festival. Shortly before the Czar of Moscow had sent 
 ambassadors to congratulate him, to renew his alliance, 
 and even to offer him troops. He had great reason to 
 rejoice at the friendly disposition of Russia, as it was 
 indispensable to his interests that Sweden itself should 
 remain undisturbed by any dangerous neighbor during 
 the war in which he himself was engaged. Soon after 
 his queen, Maria Eleonora, landed in Pomerania, with a
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 165 
 
 reinforcement of eight thousand Swedes ; and the arrival 
 of six thousand English, under the Marquis of Hamilton, 
 requires more particular notice, because this is all that 
 history mentions of the English during the Thirty Year's 
 War. 
 
 During Tilly's expedition into Thuringia, Pappenheim 
 commanded in Magdeburg; but was unable to prevent 
 the Swedes from crossing the Elbe at various points, rout- 
 ing some imperial detachments, and seizing several posts. 
 He himself, alarmed at the approach of the King of 
 Sweden, anxiously recalled Tilly, and prevailed upon 
 him to return by rapid marches to Magdeburg. Tilly 
 encamped on this side of the river at Wolmerstadt; 
 Gustavus on the same side, near Werben, not far from 
 the confluence of the Havel and the Elbe. His very 
 arrival portended no good to Tilly. The Swedes routed 
 three of his regiments which were posted in villages at 
 some distance from the main body, carried off half their 
 baggage, and burned the remainder. Tilly in vain ad- 
 vanced within cannon-shot of the king's camp, and offered 
 him battle. Gustavus, weaker by one-half than his adver- 
 sary, prudently declined it; and his position was too 
 strong for an attack. Nothing more ensued but a distant 
 cannonade, and a few skirmishes, in which the Swedes 
 had invariably the advantage. In his retreat to Wolmer- 
 stadt, Tilly's army was weakened by numerous desertions. 
 Fortune seemed to have forsaken him since the carnage 
 of Magdeburg. 
 
 The King of Sweden, on the contrary, was followed by 
 uninterrupted success. While he himself was encamped 
 in Werben, the whole of Mecklenburg, with the exceptiou 
 of a few towns, was conquered by his General Tott and 
 the Duke Adolphus Frederick ; and he enjoyed the satis- 
 faction of reinstating both dukes in their dominions. He 
 proceeded in person to Gustrow, where the reinstatement 
 was solemnly to take place, to give additional dignity to 
 the ceremony by his presence. The two dukes, with 
 their deliverer between them, and attended by a splendid 
 train of princes, made a public entry into the city, which 
 the joy of their subjects converted into an affecting 
 solemnity. Soon after his return to Werben, the Land-
 
 166 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 
 
 grave of Hesse Cassel appeared in his camp, to conclude 
 an offensive and defensive alliance ; the first sovereign 
 prince in Germany who voluntary and openly declared 
 against the Emperor, though not wholly uninfluenced by 
 strong motives. The Landgrave bound himself to act 
 
 o o 
 
 against the king's enemies as his own, to open to him his 
 towns and territory, and to furnish his army with pro- 
 visions and necessaries. The king, on the other hand, 
 declared himself his ally and protector; and engaged to 
 conclude no peace with the Emperor without first obtain- 
 ing for the Landgrave a full redress of grievances. Both 
 parties honorably performed their agreement. Hesse 
 Cassel adhered to the Swedish alliance during the whole 
 of this tedious war; and at the peace of Westphalia had 
 no reason to regret the friendship of Sweden. 
 
 Tilly, from whom this bold step on the part of the 
 Landgrave was not long concealed, despatched Count 
 Fugger with several regiments against him ; and at the 
 same time endeavored to excite his subjects to rebellion 
 by inflammatory letters. But these made as little impres- 
 sion as his troops, which subsequently failed him so 
 decidedly at the battle of Breitenfeld. The Estates 
 of Hesse could not for a moment hesitate between their 
 oppressor and their protector. 
 
 But the imperial general was far more disturbed by 
 the equivocal conduct of the Elector of Saxony, who, in 
 defiance of the imperial prohibition, continued his prepa- 
 rations, and adhered to the confederation at Leipzig. 
 At this conjuncture, when the proximity of the King 
 of Sweden made a decisive battle ere long inevitable, it 
 appeared extremely dangerous to leave Saxony in arms, 
 and ready in a moment to declare for the enemy. Tilly 
 had just received a reinforcement of twenty-five thousand 
 veteran troops Tinder Furstenberg, and, confident in his 
 strength, he hoped either to disarm the Elector by the 
 mere terror of his arrival, or at least to conquer him 
 with little difficulty. Before quitting his camp at Wol- 
 merstadt, he commanded the Elector, by a special mes- 
 senger, to open his territories to the imperial troops ; 
 either to disband his own or to join them to the imperial 
 army ; and to assist, in conjunction with himself, in
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 167 
 
 driving the King of Sweden out of Germany. While 
 he reminded him that, of all the German states, Saxony 
 had hitherto been most respected, he threatened it, in 
 case of refusal, with the most destructive ravages. 
 
 But Tilly had chosen an unfavorable moment for so 
 imperious a requisition. The ill-treatment of his religious 
 and political confederates, the destruction of Magde- 
 burg, the excesses of the Imperialists in Lusatia, all com- 
 bined to incense the Elector against the Emperor. The 
 approach, too, of Gustavus Adolphus (however slender his 
 claims were to the protection of that prince) tended to 
 fortify his resolution. He accordingly forbade the quar- 
 tering of the imperial soldiers in his territories, and 
 announced his firm determination to persist in his warlike 
 preparations. However surprised he should be, he added, 
 " To see an imperial army on its march against his terri- 
 tories, when that army had enough to do in watching the 
 operations of the King of Sweden, nevertheless he did 
 not expect, instead of the promised and well-merited 
 rewards, to be repaid with ingratitude and the ruin of 
 his country." To Tilly's deputies, who were entertained 
 in a princely style, he gave a still plainer answer on the 
 occasion. " Gentlemen," said he, " I perceive that the 
 Saxon confectionery, which has been so long kept back, 
 is at length to be set upon the table. But as it is usual 
 to mix it with nuts and garnish of all kinds, take care 
 of your teeth." 
 
 Tilly instantly broke up his camp, and, with the most 
 frightful devastation, advanced upon Halle ; from this 
 place he renewed his demands on the Elector, in a tone 
 still more urgent and threatening. The previous policy 
 of this prince, both from his own inclination, and the 
 persuasions of his corrupt ministers, had been to promote 
 the interests of the Emperor, even at the expense of his 
 own sacred obligations, and but very little tact had 
 hitherto kept him inactive. All this but renders more 
 astonishing the infatuation of the Emperor or his minis- 
 ters in abandoning, at so critical a moment, the policy 
 they had hitherto adopted, and, by extreme measures, 
 incensing a prince so easily led. Was this the very 
 object which Tilly had in view? Was it his purpose
 
 168 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 
 
 to convert an equivocal friend into an open enemy, and 
 thus to relieve himself from the necessity of that indul- 
 gence in the treatment of this prince which the secret 
 instructions of the Emperor had hitherto imposed upon 
 him? Or was it the Emperor's wish, by driving the 
 Elector to open hostilities, to get quit of his obligations 
 to him, and so cleverly to break off at once the difficulty 
 of a reckoning? In either case we must be equally sur- 
 prised at the daring presumption of Tilly, who hesitated 
 not, in presence of one formidable enemy, to provoke 
 another; and at his negligence in permitting, without 
 opposition, the union of the two. 
 
 The Saxon Elector, rendered desperate by the entrance 
 of Tilly into his territories, threw himself, though not 
 without a violent struggle, under the protection of 
 Sweden. 
 
 Immediately after dismissing Tilly's first embassy, he 
 had despatched his field-marshal Arnheim in all haste to 
 the carnp of Gustavus, to solicit the prompt assistance of 
 that monarch whom he had so long neglected. The king 
 concealed the inward satisfaction he felt at this long 
 wished for result. " I am sorry for the Elector," said he, 
 with dissembled coldness, to the ambassador ; " had he 
 heeded my repeated remonstrances his country would 
 never have seen the face of an enemy, and Magdeburg 
 would not have fallen. Now, when necessity leaves him 
 no alternative, he has recourse to my assistance. But 
 tell him, that I cannot, for the sake of the Ekctor of 
 Saxony, ruin my own cause and that of my confederates. 
 What pledge have I for the sincerity of a prince whose 
 minister is in the pay of Austria, and who will abandon 
 me as soon as the Emperor flatters him, and withdraws 
 his troops from his frontiers ? Tilly, it is true, has 
 received a strong reinforcement ; but this shall not pre- 
 vent me from meeting him with confidence, as soon as I 
 have covered my rear." 
 
 The Saxon minister could make no other reply to these 
 reproaches than that it was best to bury the past in 
 oblivion. 
 
 He pressed the king to name the conditions on which he 
 would afford assistance to Saxony, and offered to guar-
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 169 
 
 antee their acceptance. "I require," said Gustavus, 
 " that the Elector shall cede to me the fortress of Wit- 
 tenberg, deliver to me his eldest sons as hostages, furnish 
 my troops with three months' pay, and deliver up to me 
 the traitors among his ministry." 
 
 "Not Wittenberg alone," said the Elector, when he 
 received this answer, and hurried back his minister to 
 the Swedish camp, "not Wittenberg alone, but Torgau, 
 and all Saxony, shall be open to him ; my whole family 
 shall be his hostages, and if that is insufficient, I will 
 place myself in his hands. Return and inform him I am 
 ready to deliver to him any traitors he shall name, to 
 furnish his army with the money he requires, and to 
 venture my life and fortune in the good cause. 
 
 The king had only desired to test the sincerity of the 
 Elector's new sentiments. Convinced of it, he now re- 
 tracted these harsh demands. " The distrust," he said, 
 " which was shown to myself when advancing to the relief 
 of Magdeburg had naturally excited mine ; the Elector's 
 present confidence demands a return. I am satisfied, 
 provided he grants my army one month's pay, and even for 
 his advance I hope to indemnify him." 
 
 Immediately upon the conclusion of the treaty, the 
 king crossed the Elbe, and next day joined the Saxons. 
 Instead of preventing this junction, Tilly had advanced 
 against Leipzig, which he summoned to receive an 
 imperial garrison. In hopes of speedy relief, Hans 
 Von der Pforta, the commandant, made preparations for 
 his defence, and laid the suburb towards Halle in ashes. 
 But the ill condition of the fortifications made resistance 
 vain, and on the second day the gates were opened. Tilly 
 had fixed his headquarters in the house of a grave-digger, 
 the only one still standing in the suburb' of Halle ; here 
 he signed the capitulation, and here, too, he arranged 
 his attack on the King of Sweden. Tilly grew pale at 
 the representation of the death's-head and cross-bones 
 with which the proprietor had decorated his house ; and, 
 contrary to all expectations, Leipzig experienced moderate 
 treatment. 
 
 Meanwhile, a council of war was held at Torgau 
 between the King of Sweden and the Elector of Saxony,
 
 170 THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 
 
 at which the Elector of Brandenburg was also present. 
 The resolution which should now be adopted was to 
 decide irrevocably the fate of Germany and the Prot- 
 estant religion, the happiness of nations and the destiny 
 of their princes. The anxiety of suspense which, before 
 every decisive resolve, oppresses even the hearts of 
 heroes, appeared now for a moment to overshadow the 
 great mind of Gustavus Adolphus. " If we decide upon 
 battle," said he, " the stake will be nothing less than a 
 crown and two electorates. Fortune is changeable, and 
 the inscrutable decrees of Heaven may, for our sins, give 
 the victory to our enemies. My kingdom, it is true, even 
 after the loss of. my life and my army, would still have a 
 hope left. Far removed from the scene of action, de- 
 fended by a powerful fleet, a well-guarded frontier, and a 
 warlike population, it would at least be safe from the 
 worst consequences of a defeat. But what chances of 
 escape are there for you, with an enemy so close at 
 hand?" Gustavus Ad'olphus displayed the modest dif- 
 fidence of a hero, whom an overweening belief of his own 
 strength did not blind to the greatness of his danger ; 
 John George, the confidence of a weak man, who knows 
 that he has a hero by his side. Impatient to rid his 
 territories as soon as possible of the oppressive presence 
 of two armies, he burned for a battle, in which he had 
 no former laurels to lose. He was ready to march with 
 his Saxons alone against Leipzig, and attack Tilly. At 
 last Gustavus acceded to his opinion ; and it was resolved 
 that the attack should be made without delay, before 
 the arrival of the reinforcements, which were on their 
 way, under Altringer and Tiefenbach. The united 
 Swedish and Saxon armies now crossed the Mulda, 
 while the Elector returned homeward. 
 
 Early on the morning of the 7th September, 1631, the 
 hostile armies came in sight of each other. Tilly, who, 
 since he had neglected the opportunity of overpowering 
 the Saxons before their union with the Swedes, was dis- 
 posed to await the arrival of the reinforcements, had 
 taken up a strong and advantageous position not far from 
 Leipzig, where he expected he should be able to avoid the 
 battle. But the impetuosity of Pappenheim obliged him,
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 171 
 
 as soon as the enemy were in motion, to alter his plans, 
 and to move to the left, in the direction of the hills which 
 run from the village of Wahren towards Lindenthal. At 
 the foot of these heights his army was drawn up in a sin- 
 gle line, and his artillery placed upon the heights behind, 
 from which it could sweep the whole extensive plain of 
 Breitenfeld. The Swedish and Saxon army advanced in 
 two columns, having to pass the Lober near Podelwitz, 
 in Tilly's front. 
 
 To defend the passage of this rivulet, Pappenheim ad- 
 vanced at the head of two thousand cuirassiers, though 
 after great reluctance on the part of Tilly, and with ex- 
 press orders not to commence a battle. But, in disobe- 
 dience to this command, Pappenheim attacked the van- 
 guard of the Swedes, and after a brief struggle was driven 
 to retreat. To check the progress of the enemy, he set 
 fire to Podelwitz, which, however, did not prevent the two 
 columns from advancing and forming in order of battle. 
 
 On the right, the Swedes drew up in a double line, the 
 infantry in the centre, divided into such small battalions 
 as could be easily and rapidly manoeuvred without breaking 
 their order ; the cavalry upon their wings, divided in the 
 same manner into small squadrons, interspersed with 
 bodies of musqueteers, so as both to give an appearance 
 of greater numerical force, and to annoy the enemy's 
 horse. Colonel Teufel commanded the centre, Gustavus 
 Horn the left, while the right was led by the king in 
 person, opposed to Count Pappenheim. 
 
 On the left, the Saxons formed at a considerable distance 
 from the Swedes, by the advice of Gustavus, which was 
 justified by the event. The order of battle had been ar- 
 ranged between the Elector and his field-marshal, and 
 the king was content with merely signifying his approval. 
 He was anxious apparently to separate the Swedish prow- 
 ess from that of the Saxons, and fortune did not confound 
 them. 
 
 The enemy Avas drawn up under the heights towards 
 the west, in one immense line, long enough to outflank the 
 Swedish army, the infantry being divided in large bat- 
 talions, the cavalry in equally unwieldly squadrons. The 
 artillery being on the heights behind, the range of its fire
 
 172 THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR 
 
 was over the heads of his men. From this position of his 
 artillery it was evident that Tilly's purpose was to await 
 rather than to attack the enemy ; since this arrangement 
 rendered it impossible for him to do so without exposing 
 his men to the fire of his own cannons. Tilly himself com- 
 manded the centre, Count Furstenberg the right wing, and 
 Pappenheim the left. The united troops of the Emperor 
 and the League on this day did not amqunt to thirty-four 
 thousand or thirty-five thousand men ; the Swedes and 
 Saxons were about the same number. But had a million 
 been confronted with a million it could only have ren- 
 dered the action more bloody, certainly not more impor- 
 tant and decisive. For this day Gustavus had crossed the 
 Baltic to court danger in a distant country, and expose 
 his crown and life to the caprice of fortune. The two 
 greatest generals of the time, both hitherto invincible, 
 were now to be matched against each other in a contest 
 which both had long avoided ; and on this field of battle 
 the hitherto untarnished laurels of one leader must droop 
 forever. The two parties in Germany had beheld the 
 approach of this day with fear and trembling; and the 
 whole age awaited with deep anxiety its issue, and pos- 
 terity was either to bless or deplore it forever. 
 
 Tilly's usual intrepidity and resolution seemed to for- 
 sake him on this eventful day. He had formed no reg- 
 ular plan for giving battle to the king, and he displayed 
 as little firmness in avoiding it. Contrary to his own 
 judgment, Pappenheim had forced him to action. Doubts 
 which he had never before felt struggled in his bosom ; 
 gloomy forebodings clouded his ever-open brow; the 
 shade of Magdeburg seemed to hover over him. 
 
 A cannonade of two hours commenced the battle ; the 
 wind, which was from the west, blew thick clouds of 
 smoke and dust from the newly-ploughed and parched 
 fields into the faces of the Swedes. This compelled the 
 king insensibly to wheel northwards, and the rapidity 
 with which this movement was executed left no time to 
 the enemy to prevent it. 
 
 Tilly at last left his heights, and began the first attack 
 upon the Swedes; but to avoid their hot fire, he filed off 
 towards the right, and fell upon the Saxons with such
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 173 
 
 impetuosity that their line was broken, and the whole 
 army thrown into confusion. The Elector himself retired 
 to Eilenburg, though a few regiments still maintained 
 their ground upon the field, and by a bold stand saved 
 the honor of Saxony. Scarcely had the confusion began 
 ere the Croats commenced plundering, and messengers 
 were despatched to Munich and Vienna with the news of 
 the victory. 
 
 Pappenheim had thrown himself with the whole force 
 of his cavalry upon the right wing of the Swedes, but 
 without being able to make it waver. The king com- 
 manded here in person, and under him General Banner. 
 Seven times did Pappenheim renew the attack, and seven 
 times was he repulsed. He fled at last with great loss, 
 and abandoned the field to his conqueroi*. 
 
 In the meantime, Tilly, having routed the remainder 
 of the Saxons, attacked with his victorious troops the left 
 wing of the Swedes. To this wing the king, as soon as 
 he perceived that the Saxons were thrown into disorder, 
 had, with a ready foresight, detached a reinforcement of 
 three regiments to cover its flank, which the flight of the 
 Saxons had left exposed. Gustavus Horn, who com- 
 manded here, showed the enemy's cuirassiers a spirited 
 resistance, which the infantry, interspersed among the 
 squadrons of horse, materially assisted. The enemy were 
 already beginning to relax the vigor of their attack, when 
 Gustavus Adolphus appeared to terminate the contest. 
 The left wing of the Imperialists had been routed ; and 
 the king's division, having no longer any enemy to 
 oppose, could now turn their arms wherever it would be 
 to the most advantage. "Wheeling, therefore, with his 
 right wing and main body to the left, he attacked the 
 heights on which the enemy's artillery was planted. 
 Gaining possession of them in a short time, he turned 
 upon the enemy the full fire of their own cannon. 
 
 The play of artillery upon their flank, and the terrible 
 onslaught of the Swedes in front, threw this hitherto in- 
 vincible army into confusion. A sudden retreat was the 
 only course left to Tilly, but even this was to be made 
 through the midst of the enemy. The whole army was 
 in disorder, with the exception of four regiments of
 
 174 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 
 
 veteran soldiers, who never as yet had fled from the field, 
 and were resolved not to do so now. Closing their ranks, 
 they broke through the thickest of the victorious army, 
 and gained a small thicket, where they opposed a new 
 front to the Swedes, and maintained their resistance till 
 night, when their number was reduced to six hundred 
 men. With them fled the wreck of Tilly's army, and the 
 battle was decided. 
 
 Amid the dead and the wounded, Gustavus Adolphus 
 threw himself on his knees ; and the first joy of his 
 victory gushed forth in fervent prayer. He ordered his 
 cavalry to pursue the enemy as long as the darkness of 
 the night would permit. The pealing of the alarm-bells 
 set the inhabitants of all the neighboring villages in 
 motion, and utterly lost was the unhappy fugitive who 
 fell into their hands. The king encamped with the rest 
 of his army between the field of battle and Leipzig, as it 
 was impossible to attack the town the same night. Seven 
 thousand of the enemy were killed in the field, and more 
 than five thousand either wounded or taken prisoners. 
 Their whole artillery and camp fell into the hands of the 
 Swedes, and more than a hundred standards and colors 
 were taken. Of the Saxons about two thousand had 
 fallen, while the loss of the Swedes did not exceed seven 
 hundred. The rout of the Imperialists was so complete 
 that Tilly, on his retreat to Halle and Halberstadt, could 
 not rally above six hundred men, or Pappenheim more 
 than one thousand four hundred so rapidly was this 
 formidable army dispersed which so lately was the terror 
 of Italy and Germany. 
 
 Tilly himself owed his escape merely to chance. Ex- 
 hausted by his wounds, he still refused to surrender to a 
 Swedish captain of horse, who summoned him to yield ; 
 but who, when he was on the point of putting him to 
 death, was himself stretched on the ground by a timely 
 pistol-shot. But more grievous than danger or wounds 
 was the pain of surviving his reputation, and of losing in 
 a single day the fruits of a long life. All former victories 
 were as nothing, since he had failed in gaining the one 
 that should have crowned them all. Nothing remained 
 of all his past exploits but the general execration which
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 175 
 
 had followed them. From this period he never recovered 
 his cheerfulness or his good fortune. Even his last con- 
 solation, the hope of revenge, was denied to him, by the 
 express command of the Emperor not to risk a decisive 
 battle. 
 
 The disgrace of this day is to be ascribed principally to 
 three mistakes : his planting the cannon on the hills 
 behind him, his afterwards abandoning these heights, and 
 his allowing the enemy, without opposition, to form in 
 order of battle. But how easily might those mistakes 
 have been rectified, had it not been for the cool presence 
 of mind and superior genius of his adversary ! 
 
 Tilly fled from Halle to Halberstadt, where he scarcely 
 allowed time for the cure of his wounds before he hurried 
 towards the Weser to recruit his force by the imperial 
 garrisons in Lower Saxony. 
 
 The Elector of Saxony'had not failed, after the danger 
 was over, to appear in Gustavus' camp. The king 
 thanked him for having advised a battle ; and the Elector, 
 charmed at his friendly reception, promised him, in the 
 first transports of joy, the Roman crown. Gustavus set 
 out next day for Merseburg, leaving the Elector to recover 
 Leipzig. Five thousand Imperialists, who had collected 
 together after the defeat, and whom he met on his march, 
 were either cut in pieces or taken prisoners, of whom again 
 the greater part entered into his service. Merseburg 
 quickly surrended ; Halle was soon after taken, whither 
 the Elector of Saxony, after making himself master of 
 Leipzig, repaired to meet the king, and to concert their 
 future plan of operations. 
 
 The victory was gained, but only a prudent use of it 
 could render it decisive. The imperial armies were 
 totally routed, Saxony free from the enemy, and Tilly 
 had retired into Brunswick. To have followed him 
 thither would have been to renew the war in Lower 
 Saxony, which had scarcely recovered from the ravages 
 of the 'last. It was therefore determined to carry the war 
 into the enemy's country, which, open and defenceless as 
 far as Vienna, invited attack. On their right, they 
 might fall upon the territories of the Roman Catholic 
 princes, or penetrate, on the left, into the hereditary do-
 
 176 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 
 
 minions of Austria, and make the Emperor tremble in his 
 palace. Both plans were resolved on ; and the question 
 that now remained was to assign its respective parts. 
 Gustavus Adolphus, at the head of a victorious army, had 
 little resistance to apprehend in his progress from Leipzig 
 to Prague, Vienna, and Presburg. As to Bohemia, 
 Moravia, Austria, and Hungary, they had been stripped 
 of their defenders, while the oppressed Protestants in 
 these countries were ripe for a revolt. Ferdinand was 
 no longer secure in his capital ; Vienna, on the first terror 
 of surprise, would at once open its gates. The loss of his 
 territories would deprive the enemy of the resources by 
 which alone the war could be maintained ; and Ferdinand 
 would, in all probability, gladly accede, on the hardest 
 conditions, to a peace which would remove a formidable 
 enemy from the heart of his dominions. This bold plan 
 of operations was flattering to a conqueror, and success 
 perhaps might have justified it. But Gustavus Adolphus, 
 as prudent as he was brave, and more a statesman than a 
 conqueror, rejected it, because he had a higher end in 
 view, and would not trust the issue either to bravery or 
 good fortune alone. 
 
 By marching towards Bohemia, Franconia and the 
 Upper Rhine would be left to the Elector of Saxony. 
 But Tilly had already began to recruit his shattered army 
 from the garrisons in Lower Saxony, and was likely to be 
 at the head of a formidable force upon the Weser, and 
 to lose no time in marching against the enemy. To so 
 experienced a general it would not do to oppose an 
 Arnheim, of whose military skill the battle of Leipzig 
 had afforded but equivocal proof; and of what avail 
 would be the rapid and brilliant career of the king in 
 Bohemia and Austria if Tilly should recover his su- 
 periority in the Empire, animating the courage of the 
 Roman Catholics, and disarming, by a new series of vic- 
 tories, the allies and confederates of the king? What 
 would he gain by expelling the Emperor from his heredi- 
 tary dominions if Tilly succeeded in conquering for that 
 Emperor the rest of Germany ? Could he hope to reduce 
 the Emperor moi'e than had been done, twelve years 
 before, by the insurrection of Bohemia, which had failed
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 177 
 
 to shake the firmness or exhaust the resources of that 
 prince, and from which lie had risen more formidable 
 than ever ? 
 
 Less brilliant, but more solid, were the advantages 
 which he had to expect from an incursion into the terri- 
 tories of the League. In this quarter his appearance in 
 arms would be decisive. At this very conjuncture the 
 princes were assembled in a Diet at Frankfort to deliber- 
 ate upon the Edict of Restitution, where Ferdinand 
 employed all his artful policy to persuade the intimidated 
 Protestants to accede to a speedy and disadvantageous 
 arrangement. The advance of their protector could 
 alone encourage them to a bold resistance and disappoint 
 the Emperor's designs. Gustavus Adolphus hoped by 
 his presence to unite the discontented princes, or by the 
 terror of his arms to detach them from the Emperor's 
 party. Here, in the centre of Germany, he could para- 
 lyze the nerves of the imperial power, which, without 
 the aid of the League, must soon fall ; here, in the neigh- 
 borhood of France, he could watch the movements of a 
 suspicious ally; and however important to his secret 
 views it was to cultivate the friendship of the Roman 
 Catholic electors, he saw the necessity of making himself 
 first of all master of their fate, in order to establish, by 
 his magnanimous forbearance, a claim to their gratitude. 
 
 He accordingly chose the route to Franconia and the 
 Rhine, and left the conquest of Bohemia to the Elector 
 of Saxony. 
 
 BOOK III. 
 
 THE glorious battle of Leipzig effected a great change 
 in the conduct of Gustavus Adolphus, as well as in the 
 opinion which both friends and foes entertained of him. 
 Successfully had he confronted the greatest general of 
 the age, and had matched the strength of his tactics and 
 the courage of his Swedes against the elite of the impe-
 
 178 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 
 
 rial army, the most experienced troops hi Europe. From 
 this moment he felt a firm confidence in his own powers; 
 self-confidence has always been the parent of great actions. 
 In all his subsequent operations more boldness and de- 
 cision are observable ; greater determination, even amidst 
 the most unfavorable circumstances, a more lofty tone 
 towards his adversaries, a more dignified bearing towards 
 his allies, and even in his clemency, something of the 
 forbearance of a conqueror. His natural courage was 
 farther heightened by the pious ardor of his imagination. 
 He saw in his own cause that of heaven, and in the defeat 
 of Tilly beheld the decisive interference of Providence 
 against his enemies, and in himself the instrument of 
 divine vengeance. Leaving his crown and his country 
 far behind lie advanced on the wings of victory into the 
 heart of Germany, which for centuries had seen no for- 
 eign conqueror within its bosom. The warlike spirit of 
 its inhabitants, the vigilance of its numerous princes, the 
 artful confederation of its states, the number of its 
 strong castles, its many and broad rivers had long re- 
 strained the ambition of its neighbors; and frequently as 
 its extensive frontier had been attacked, its interior had 
 been free from invasion. The empire had hitherto en- 
 joyed the equivocal privilege of being its own enemy, 
 though invincible from without. Even now it was 
 merely the disunion of its members and the intolerance 
 of religious zeal that paved the way for the Swedish 
 invader. The bond of union between the states, which 
 alone had rendered the empire invincible, was now dis- 
 solved ; and Gustavus derived from Germany itself the 
 power by which he subdued it. With as much courage 
 as prudence he availed himself of all that the favorable 
 moment afforded ; and, equally at home in the cabinet 
 and the field, he tore asunder the web of the artful 
 policy with as much ease as he shattered walls with the 
 thunder of his cannon. Uninterruptedly he pursued his 
 conquests from one end of Germany to the other without 
 breaking the line of posts which commanded a secure 
 retreat at any moment ; and whether on the banks of the 
 Rhine, or at the mouth of the Lech, alike maintaining his 
 communication with his hereditary dominions.
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. - 179 
 
 The consternation of the Emperor and the League at 
 Tilly's defeat at Leipzig was scarcely greater than the 
 surprise and embarrassment of the allies of the King of 
 Sweden at his unexpected success. It was beyond both 
 their expectations and their wishes. Annihilated in a 
 moment was that formidable army which, while it 
 checked his progress and set bounds to his ambition, ren- 
 dered him in some measure dependent on themselves. 
 He now stood in the heart of Germany alone without a 
 rival or without an adversary who was a match for him. 
 Nothing could stop his progress or check his pretensions 
 if the intoxication of success should tempt him to abuse 
 his victory. If formerly they had dreaded the Em- 
 peror's irresistible power, there was no less cause now to 
 fear everything for the Empire from the violence of a 
 foreign conqueror, and for the Catholic Church, from the 
 religious zeal of a Protestant king. The distrust and 
 jealousy of some of the combined powers, which a 
 stronger fear of the Emperor had for a time repressed, 
 now revived ; and scarcely had Gustavus Adolphus 
 merited by his courage and success their confidence, 
 when they began covertly to circumvent all his plans. 
 Through a continual struggle with the arts of enemies, 
 and the distrust of his own allies, must his victories 
 henceforth be won ; yet resolution, penetration, and pru- 
 dence made their way through all impediments. But 
 while his success excited the jealousy of his more power- 
 ful allies, France and Saxony, it gave courage to the 
 weaker, and emboldened them openly to declare their 
 sentiments and join his party. Those who could neither 
 vie with Gustavus Adolphus in importance, nor suffer 
 from his ambition, expected the more from the magna- 
 nimity of their powerful ally, who enriched them with 
 the spoils of their enemies and protected them against 
 the oppression of their stronger neighbors. His strength 
 covered their weakness, and, inconsiderable in them- 
 selves, they acquired weight and influence from their 
 union with the Swedish hero. This was the case with 
 most of the free cities, and particularly with the weaker 
 Protestant states. It was these that introduced the king 
 into the heart of Germany j these covered his rear, sup-
 
 180 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 
 
 plied his troops with necessaries, received them into their 
 fortresses, while they exposed their own lives in his bat- 
 tles. His prudent regard to their national pride, his 
 popular deportment, some brilliant acts of justice, and 
 his respect for the laws were so many ties by which he 
 bound the German Protestants to his cause; while the 
 crying atrocities of the Imperialists, the Spaniards, and 
 the troops of Lorraine powerfully contributed to set his 
 own conduct and that of his army in a favorable light. 
 
 If Gustavus Adolphus owed his success chiefly to his 
 own genius, at the same time, it must be owned, he was 
 greatly favored by fortune and by circumstances. Two 
 great advantages gave him a decided superiority over 
 the enemy. While he removed the scene of war into the 
 lands of the League, drew their youth as recruits, enriched 
 himself with booty, and used the revenues of their fugi- 
 tive princes as his own, he at once took from the enemy 
 the means of effectual resistance, and maintained an 
 expensive war with little cost to himself. And, more- 
 over, while his opponents, the princes of the League, 
 divided among themselves, and governed by different 
 and often conflicting interests, acted without unanimity, 
 and therefore without energy ; while their generals were 
 deficient in authority, their troops in obedience, the opera- 
 tions of their scattered armies without concert; while 
 the general was separated from the lawgiver and the 
 statesman ; these several functions were united in Gusta- 
 vus Adolphus, the only source from which authority 
 flowed, the sole object to which the eye of the warrior 
 turned ; the soul of his party, the inventor as well as the 
 executor of his plans. In him, therefore, the Protestants 
 had a centre of unity and harmony, which was altogether 
 wanting to their opponents. No wonder, then, if, favored 
 by such advantages, at the head of such an army, with 
 such a genius to direct it, and guided by such political 
 prudence, Gustavus Adolphus was irresistible. 
 
 With a sword in one hand and mercy in the other, he 
 traversed Germany as a conqueror, a lawgiver, and a 
 judge in as short a time almost as the tourist of pleasure. 
 The keys of towns and fortresses were delivered to him 
 as if to the native sovereign. Xo fortress was inacces-
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 181 
 
 sible ; no river checked his victorious career. He con- 
 quered by the very terror of his name. The Swedish 
 standards were planted along the whole stream of the 
 Maine; the Lower Palatinate was free, the troops of 
 Spain and Lorraine had fled across the Rhine and the 
 Moselle. The Swedes and Hessians poured like a torrent 
 into the territories of Mentz, of Wurtzburg, and Bam- 
 berg, and three fugitive bishops, at a distance from their 
 sees, suffered dearly for their unfortunate attachment to 
 the Emperor. It was now the turn for Maximilian, the 
 leader of the League, to feel in his own dominions the 
 miseries he had inflicted upon others. Neither the ter- 
 rible fate of his allies, nor the peaceful overtures of Gus- 
 tavus, who, in the midst of conquest, ever held out the 
 hand of friendship, could conquer the obstinacy of this 
 prince. The torrent of war now poured into Bavaria. 
 Like the banks of the Rhine, those of the Lecke and the 
 Donau were crowded with Swedish troops. Creeping 
 into his fortresses, the defeated Elector abandoned to 
 the ravages of the foe his dominions, hitherto unscathed 
 by war, and on which the bigoted violence of the Bavarians 
 seemed to invite retaliation. Munich itself opened its 
 
 fates to the invincible monarch, and the fugitive Palatine, 
 'rederick V., in the forsaken residence of his rival, con- 
 soled himself for a time for the loss of his dominions. 
 
 While Gustavus Adolphus was extending his conquests 
 in the south, his generals and allies were gaining similar 
 triumphs in the other provinces. Lower Saxony shook off 
 the yoke of Austria, the enemy abandoned Mecklenburg, 
 and the imperial garrisons retired from the banks of the 
 Weser and the Elbe. In Westphalia and the Upper 
 Rhine W T illiam, Landgrave of Hesse, rendered himself 
 formidable; the Duke of Weimar in Thuringia, and the 
 French in the Electorate of Treves ; while to the eastward 
 the whole kingdom of Bohemia was conquered by the 
 Saxons. The Turks were preparing to attack Hungary, 
 and in the heart of Austria a dangerous insurrection was 
 threatened. In vain did the Emperor look around to the 
 courts of Europe for support ; in vain did he summon the 
 Spaniards to his assistance, for the bravery of the Flem- 
 ings afforded them ample employment beyond the Rhine ;
 
 182 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 
 
 in vain did he call upon the Roman court and the whole 
 church to come to his rescue. The offended Pope sported, 
 in pompous processions and idle anathemas, with the em- 
 barrassments of Ferdinand, and instead of the desired 
 subsidy he was shown the devastation of Mantua. 
 
 On all sides of his extensive monarchy hostile arms 
 surrounded him. With the states of the League, now 
 overrun by the enemy, those ramparts were thrown down 
 behind which Austria had so long defended herself, and 
 the embers of war were now smouldering upon her 
 unguarded frontiers. His most zealous allies were dis- 
 armed ; Maximilian of Bavaria, his firmest support, was 
 scarce able to defend himself. His armies, weakened by 
 desertion and repeated defeat, and dispirited by continued 
 misfortunes, had unlearnt, under beaten generals, that 
 warlike impetuosity which as it is the consequence, so it 
 is the guarantee of success. The danger was extreme, 
 and extraordinary means alone could raise the imperial 
 power from the degradation into which it was fallen. 
 
 The most urgent want was that of a general ; and the 
 only one from whom he could hope for the revival of his 
 former splendor had been removed from his command 
 by an envious cabal. So low had the Emperor now fallen 
 that he was forced to make the most humiliating propo- 
 sals to his injured* subject and servant, and meanly to 
 press upon the imperious Duke of Friedland the accept- 
 ance of the powers which no less meanly had been taken 
 from him. A new spirit began from this moment to 
 animate the expiring body of Austria ; and a sudden 
 change in the aspect of affairs bespoke the firm hand 
 which guided them. To the absolute King of Sweden 
 a general equally absolute was now opposed ; and one 
 victorious hero was confronted with another. Both 
 armies were again to engage in the doubtful struggle ; 
 and the prize of victory, already almost secured in the 
 hands of Gustavus Adolphus, w r as to be the object of 
 another and a severer trial. The storm of war gathered 
 around Nuremberg; before its walls the hostile armies 
 encamped ; gazing on each other with dread and respect, 
 longing for, and yet shrinking from, the moment that 
 was to close them together in the shock of battle. The
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 183 
 
 eyes of Europe turned to the scene in curiosity and 
 alarm, while Nuremberg, in dismay, expected soon to 
 lend its name to a more decisive battle than that of Leip- 
 zig. Suddenly the clouds broke and the storm rolled 
 away from Franconia, to burst upon the plains of Saxony. 
 Near Lutzen fell the thunder that had menaced Nurem- 
 berg ; the victory, half lost, was purchased by the death 
 of the king. Fortune, which had never deserted him in 
 his lifetime, favored the King of Sweden even in his 
 death, with the rare privilege of falling in the fulness of 
 his glory and an untarnished fame. By a timely death 
 his protecting genius rescued him from the inevitable 
 fate of man that of forgetting moderation in the intox- 
 ication of success, and justice in the plenitude of power. 
 It may be doubted whether, had he lived longer, he would 
 still have deserved the tears which Germany shed over 
 his grave, or maintained his title to the admiration with 
 which posterity regards him, as the first and only just 
 conqueror that the world has produced. The untimely 
 fall of their great leader seemed to threaten the ruin of 
 his party ; but to the Power which rules the world, no 
 loss of a single man is irreparable. As the helm of war 
 dropped from the hand of the falling hero, it was seized 
 by two great statesmen, Oxenstiern and Richelieu. Des- 
 tiny still pursued its relentless course, and for full sixteen 
 years longer the flames of war blazed over the ashes of 
 the long-forgotten king and soldier. 
 
 I may now be permitted to take a cursory retrospect 
 of Gustavus Adolphus in his victorious career, glance at 
 the scene in which he alone was the great actor, and 
 then, when Austria becomes reduced to extremity by 
 the successes of the Swedes, and by a series of disasters 
 is driven to the most humiliating and desperate expedi- 
 ents, to return to the history of the Emperor. 
 
 As soon as the plan of operations had been concerted 
 at Halle between the King of Sweden and the Elector 
 of Saxony, as sooij as the alliance had been concluded 
 with the neighboring princes of Weimar and Anhalt, and 
 preparations made for the recovery of the bishopric of 
 Magdeburg, the king began his march into the empire. 
 He had here no despicable foe to contend with. Within
 
 184 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 
 
 the empire the Emperor was still powerful ; throughout 
 Franconia, Swabia, and the Palatinate imperial garrisons 
 were posted with whom the possession of every place of 
 importance must be disputed sword in hand. On the 
 Rhine he was opposed by the Spaniards,. who had over- 
 run the territory of the banished Elector Palatine, seized 
 all its strong places, and would everywhere dispute with 
 him the passage over that river. On his rear was Tilly, 
 who was fast recruiting his force, and would soon be 
 joined by the auxiliaries from Lorraine. Every Papist 
 presented an inveterate foe, while his connection with 
 France did not leave him at liberty to act with freedom 
 against the Roman Catholics. Gustavus had foreseen 
 all these obstacles, but at the same time the means by 
 which they were to be overcome. The strength of the 
 Imperialists was broken and divided among different 
 garrisons, while he would bring against them one by one 
 his whole united force. If he was to be opposed by the 
 fanaticism of the Roman Catholics, and the awe in which 
 the lesser states regarded the Emperor's power, he might 
 depend on the active support of the Protestants and 
 their hatred to Austrian oppression. The ravages of the 
 Imperialist and Spanish troops also powerfully aided 
 him in these quarters ; where the ill-treated husbandman 
 and citizen sighed alike for a deliverer, and where the 
 mere change of yoke seemed to promise a relief. Emissa- 
 ries were despatched to gain over to the Swedish side 
 the principal free cities, particularly Nuremburg and 
 Frankfort. The first that lay in the king's march, and 
 which he could not leave unoccupied in his rear, was 
 Erfurt. Here the Protestant party among the citizens 
 opened to him, without a blow, the gates of the town 
 and the citadel. From the inhabitants of this, as of 
 every -important place which afterwards submitted, he 
 exacted an oath of allegiance, while he secured its pos- 
 session by a sufficient garrison. To his ally, Duke Wil- 
 liam of Weimar, he entrusted the command of an army 
 to be raised in Thuringia. He also left his queen in 
 Erfurt, and promised to increase its privileges. The 
 Swedish army now crossed the Thuringian forest in two 
 columns, by Gotha and Arnstadt, and, having delivered
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 185 
 
 in its march the county of Henneberg from the Imperial- 
 ists, formed a junction on the third day near Koenigs- 
 hofen, on the frontiers of Franconia. 
 
 Francis, Bishop of Wurtzburg, the bitter enemy of 
 the Protestants, and the most zealous member of the 
 League, was the first to feel the indignation of Gustavus 
 Adolphus. A few threats gained for the Swedes posses- 
 sion of his fortress of Koenigshofen, and with it the key 
 of the whole province. At the news of this rapid con- 
 quest dismay seized all the Roman Catholic towns of the 
 circle. The Bishops of Wurtzburg and Bamberg trembled 
 in their castles; they already saw their sees tottering, 
 their churches profaned, and their religion degraded. 
 The malice of his enemies had circulated the most fright- 
 ful representations of the persecuting spirit and the 
 mode of warfare pursued by the Swedish king and his 
 soldiers, which neither the repeated assurances of the 
 king nor the most splendid examples of humanity and 
 toleration ever entirely effaced. Many feared to suffer at 
 the hands of another Avhat in similar circumstances they 
 were conscious of inflicting themselves. Many of the 
 richest Roman Catholics hastened to secure by flight 
 their property, their religion, and their persons from the 
 sanguinary fanaticism of the Swedes. The bishop him- 
 self set the example. In the midst of the alarm which 
 his bigotetl zeal had caused he abandoned his dominions 
 and fled to Paris to excite, if possible, the French minis- 
 try against the common enemy of religion. 
 
 The further progress of Gustavus Adolphus in the 
 ecclesiastical territories agreed witli this brilliant com- 
 mencement. Schweinfurt, and soon after Wurtzburg, 
 abandoned by their Imperial garrisons, surrendered ; but 
 Marienberg he was obliged to carry by storm. In this 
 place, which was believed to be impregnable, the enemy 
 had collected a large store of provisions and ammunition, 
 all of which fell into the hands of the Swedes. The king 
 found a valuable prize in the library of the Jesuits, 
 which he sent to Upsal, while his soldiers found a still 
 more agreeable one in the prelate's well-filled cellars ; 
 his treasures the bishop had in good time removed. 
 The whole bishopric followed the example of the capital
 
 186 THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 
 
 and submitted to the Swedes. The king compelled all 
 the bishop's subjects to swear allegiance to himself, and 
 in the absence of the lawful sovereign appointed a re- 
 gency, one-half of whose members were Protestants. In 
 every Roman Catholic town which Gustavus took he 
 opened the churches to the Protestant people, but with- 
 out retaliating on the Papists the cruelties which they 
 had practised on the former. On such only as sword in 
 hand refused to submit were the fearful rights of war 
 enforced ; and for the occasional acts of violence com- 
 mitted by a few of the more lawless soldiers, in the blind 
 rage of their first attack, their humane leader is not justly 
 responsible. Those who were peaceably disposed, or 
 defenceless, were treated with mildness. It was a sacred 
 principle with Gustavus to spare the blood of his enemies 
 as well as that of his own troops. 
 
 On the first news of the Swedish irruption the Bishop 
 of Wurtzburg, without regarding the treaty which he 
 had entered into with the King of Sweden, had earnestly 
 pressed the general of the League to hasten to the assist- 
 ance of the bishopric. That defected commander had, 
 in the meantime, collected on the "Weser the shattered 
 remnant of his army, reinforced himself from the garri- 
 sons of Lower Saxony, and effected a junction in Hesse 
 with Altringer and Fugger, who commanded under him. 
 Again at the head of a considerable force Tilly burned 
 with impatience to wipe out the stain of his first defeat 
 by a splendid victory. From his camp at Fulda, whither 
 he had marched with his army, he earnestly requested 
 permission from the Duke of Bavaria to give battle 
 to Gustavus Adolphus. But, in the event of Tilly's 
 defeat, the League had no second army to fall back 
 upon, and Maximilian was too cautious to risk again the 
 fate of las party on a single battle. With tears in his 
 eyes Tilly read the commands of his superior which com- 
 pelled him to inactivity. Thus his march to Franconia 
 was delayed, and Gustavus Adolphus gained time to over- 
 run the whole bishopric. It was in vain that Tilly, rein- 
 forced at Aschaffenburg by a body of twelve thousand 
 men from Lorraine, marched with an overwhelming force 
 to the relief of Wurtzbum'. The town and citadel were
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 187 
 
 already in the hands of the Swedes, and Maximilian of 
 Bavaria was generally blamed (and not without cause, 
 perhaps) for having by his scruples occasioned the loss of 
 the bishopric. Commanded to avoid a battle, Tilly con- 
 tented himself with checking the farther advance of the 
 enemy ; but he could save only a few of the towns from 
 the impetuosity of the Swedes. Baffled in an attempt to 
 reinforce the weak garrison of Hanau, which it was 
 highly important for the Swedes to gain, he crossed the 
 Maine near Seligenstadt and took the direction of the 
 Bergestrasse, to protect the Palatinate from the con- 
 queror. 
 
 Tilly, however, was not the sole enemy whom Gustavus 
 Adolphus met in Franconia and drove before him. 
 Charles, Duke of Lorraine, celebrated in the annals of 
 the time for his unsteadiness of character, his vain pro- 
 jects, and his misfortunes, ventured to raise a weak arm 
 against the Swedish hero in the hope of obtaining from 
 the Emperor the electoral dignity. Deaf to the sugges- 
 tions of a rational policy, he listened only to the dictates 
 of heated ambition ; by supporting the Emperor he ex- 
 asperated France, his formidable neighbor, and in pursuit 
 of a visionary phantom in another country left unde- 
 fended his own dominions, which were instantly overrun 
 by a French army. Austria willingly conceded to him, 
 as well as to the other princes of the League, the honor 
 of being ruined in her cause. Intoxicated with vain hopes 
 this prince collected a force of seventeen thousand men 
 which he proposed to lead in person against the Swedes. If 
 these troops were deficient in discipline and courage they 
 were at least attractive by the splendor of their accoutre- 
 'ments ; and however sparing they were of their prowess 
 against the foe, they were liberal enough with it against 
 the defenceless citizens and peasantry whom they were 
 summoned to defend. Against the bravery and the 
 formidable discipline of the Swedes this splendidly 
 attired army, however, made no long stand. On the 
 first advance of the Swedish cavalry a panic seized them, 
 and they were driven without difficulty from their can- 
 tonments in Wurtzburg ; the defeat of a few regiments 
 occasioned a general rout, and the scattered remnant
 
 188 THE THIRTY YEARS 5 WAR. 
 
 sought a covert from the Swedish valor in the towns 
 beyond the Rhine. Loaded with shame and ridicule the 
 duke hurried home by Strasburg, too fortunate in 
 escaping, by a submissive written apology, the indigna- 
 tion of his conqueror, who had first beaten him out of 
 the field, and then called upon him to account for his 
 hostilities. It is related upon this occasion that in a vil- 
 lage on the Rhine a peasant struck the horse of the duke 
 as he rode past, exclaiming, " Haste, sir ; you must go 
 quicker to escape the gi-eat King of Sweden." 
 
 The example of his neighbors' misfortunes had taught 
 the Bishop of Bamberg prudence. To avert the plunder- 
 ing of his territories he made offers of peace, though 
 these were intended only to delay the kirig's course till 
 the arrival of assistance. Gustavus Adolphus, too hon- 
 orable himself to suspect dishonesty in another, readily 
 accepted the bishop's proposals and named the conditions 
 on which he was willing to save his territories from hos- 
 tile treatment. He was the more inclined to peace, as he 
 had no time to lose in the conquest of Bamberg, and his 
 other designs called him to the Rhine. The rapidity 
 with which he followed up these plans cost him the loss 
 of those pecuniary supplies which, by a longer residence 
 in Franconia, he might easily have extorted from the 
 weak and terrified bishop. This artful pi-elate broke off 
 the negotiation the instant the storm of war passed away 
 from his own territories. No sooner had Gustavus 
 inarched onwards than he threw himself under the pro- 
 tection of Tilly, and received the troops of the Emperor 
 into the very towns and fortresses which shortly before 
 he had shown himself ready to open to the Swedes. By 
 this stratagem, however, he only delayed for a brief, 
 interval the ruin of his bishopric. A Swedish general 
 who had been left in Franconia undertook to punish the 
 perfidy of the bishop, and the ecclesiastical territory 
 became the seat of war and was ravaged alike by friends 
 and foes. 
 
 The formidable presence of the Imperialists had hith- 
 erto been a check upon the Franconian States ; but their 
 retreat, and the humane conduct of the Swedish king, 
 emboldened the nobility and other inhabitants of this
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 189 
 
 circle to declare in his favor. Nuremberg joyfully com- 
 mitted itself to his protection, and the Frauconian nobles 
 were won to his cause by flattering proclamations in 
 which he condescended to apologize for his hostile ap- 
 pearance in their dominions. The fertility of Franconia, 
 and the rigorous honesty of the Swedish soldiers in their 
 dealings with the inhabitants, brought abundance to the 
 camp of the king. The high esteem which the nobility 
 of the circle felt for Gustavus, the respect and admira- 
 tion with which they regarded his brilliant exploits, the 
 promises of rich booty which the service of this mon- 
 arch held out, greatly facilitated the recruiting of his 
 troops ; a step which was made necessary by detaching 
 so many garrisons from the main body. At the sound 
 of his drums recruits flocked to his standard from all 
 quarters. 
 
 The king had scarcely spent more time in conquering 
 Franconia than he would have required to cross it. He 
 now left behind him Gustavus Horn, one of his best 
 generals, with a force of eight thousand men, to complete 
 and retain his conquest. He himself with his main army, 
 reinforced by the late recruits, hastened towards the 
 Rhine in order to secure this frontier of the empire from 
 the Spaniards, to disarm the ecclesiastical electors, and 
 to obtain from their fertile territories new resources for 
 the prosecution of the war. Following the course of the 
 Maine, he subjected in the course of his march Seligen- 
 stadt, Aschaffenburg, Steinheim, the whole territory on 
 both sides of the river. The imperial garrisons seldom 
 awaited his approach, and never attempted resistance. 
 In the meanwhile one of his colonels had been fortunate 
 enough to take by suprise the town and citadel of Hanau, 
 for whose preservation Tilly had shown such anxiety. 
 Eager to be free of the oppressive burden of the Impe- 
 rialists, the Count of Hanau gladly placed himself under 
 the milder yoke of the King of Sweden. 
 
 Gustavus Adolphus now turned his whole attention to 
 Frankfort, for it was his constant maxim to cover his 
 rear by the friendship and possession of the more impor- 
 tant towns. Frankfort was among the free cities which, 
 even from Saxony, he had endeavored to prepare for his
 
 190 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 
 
 reception ; and he now called upon it, by a summons 
 from Offenbach, to allow him a free passage, and to 
 admit a Swedish garrison. Willingly would this city 
 have dispensed with the necessity of choosing between 
 the King of Sweden and the Emperor, for, whatever 
 party they might embrace, the inhabitants had a like rea- 
 son to fear for their privileges and trade. The Emperor's 
 vengeance would certainly fall heavily upon them if they 
 were in a hurry to submit to the King of Sweden, and 
 afterwards he should prove unable to protect his adher- 
 ents in Germany. But still more ruinous for them would 
 be the displeasure of an irresistible conqueror who, with 
 a formidable army, was already before their gates, and 
 who might punish their opposition by the ruin of their 
 commerce and prosperity. In vain did their deputies 
 plead the danger which menaced their fairs, their privi- 
 leges, perhaps their constitution itself, if by espousing 
 the party of the Swedes they were to incur the Emperor's 
 displeasure. Gustavus Adolphus expressed to them his 
 astonishment that when the liberties of Germany and the 
 Protestant religion were at stake the citizens of Frank- 
 fort should talk of their annual fairs, and postpone for 
 temporal interests the great cause of their country and 
 their conscience. He had, he continued in a menacing 
 tone, found the keys of every town and fortress from the 
 Isle of Rugen to the Maine, and knew also where to find 
 a key to Frankfort. The safety of Germany and the 
 freedom of the Protestant Church were, he assured them, 
 the sole objects of his invasion ; conscious of the justice 
 of his cause, he was determined not to allow any obstacle 
 to impede his progress. " The inhabitants of Frankfort, 
 he was well aware, wished to stretch out only a finger to 
 him, but he must have the whole hand in order to have 
 something to grasp." At the head of the army he closely 
 followed the deputies as they carried back his answer, 
 and in order of battle awaited near Saxenhausen the 
 decision of the council. 
 
 If Frankfort hesitated to submit to the Swedes it was 
 solely from fear of the Emperor ; their own inclinations 
 did not allow them a moment to doubt between the 
 oppressor of Germany and its protector. The menacing
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS* AVAR. 191 
 
 preparations amidst which Gustavus Adolphus now com- 
 pelled them to decide would lessen the guilt of their 
 revolt in the eyes of the Emperor, and by an appearance 
 of compulsion justify the step which they willingly took. 
 The gates were therefore opened to the King of Sweden, 
 who marched his army through this imperial town in 
 magnificent procession and in admirable order. A gar- 
 rison of six hundred men was left in Saxenhausen, while 
 the king himself advanced the same evening with the 
 rest of his army against the town of Hochst, in Mentz, 
 which surrendered to him before night. 
 
 While Gustavus was thus extending his conquests along 
 the Maine, fortune crowned also the efforts of his gen- 
 erals and allies in the North of Germany. Rostock, 
 Wistnar, and Doemitz, the only strong places in the 
 Duchy of Mecklenburg which still sighed under the yoke 
 of the Imperialists, were recovered by their legitimate 
 sovereign, the Duke John Albert, under the Swedish 
 General Achatius Tott. In vain did the Imperial general, 
 Wolf Count von Mansfeld, endeavor to recover from the 
 Swedes the territories of Halberstadt, of which they had 
 taken possession immediately upon the victory of Leip- 
 zig ; he was even compelled to leave Magdeburg itself in 
 their- hands. The Swedish general, Banner, who with 
 eight thousand men r-emained upon the Elbe, closely 
 blockaded that city, and had defeated several imperial 
 regiments which had been sent to its relief. Count 
 Mansfeld defended it in person with great resolution, but 
 his garrison being too weak to oppose for any length of 
 time the numerous force of the besiegers, he was already 
 about to surrender on conditions when Pappenheim ad- 
 vanced to his assistance and gave employment elsewhere 
 to the Swedish arms. Magdeburg, however, or rather 
 the wretched huts that peeped out miserably from among 
 the ruins of that once great town, was afterwards volun- 
 tarily abandoned by the Imperialists and immediately 
 taken possession of by the Swedes. 
 
 Even Lower Saxony, encouraged by the progress of 
 the king, ventured to raise its head from the disasters of 
 the unfortunate Danish war. They held a congress at 
 Hamburg and resolved upon raising three regiments,
 
 192 THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 
 
 which they hoped would be sufficient to free them 
 from the oppressive garrisons of the Imperialists. The 
 Bishop of Bremen, a relation of Gustavus Adolphus, was 
 not content even with this, but assembled troops of his 
 own, and terrified the unfortunate monks and priests of 
 the neighborhood, but was quickly compelled by the 
 imperial general, Count Gronsfeld, to lay down his arms. 
 Even George, Duke of Lunenburg, formerly a colonel in 
 the Emperor's service, embraced the party of Gustavus, 
 for whom he raised several regiments, and, by occupying 
 the attention of the Imperialists in Lower Saxony, 
 materially assisted him. 
 
 But more important service was rendered to the king 
 by the Landgrave William of Hesse Cassel, whose vic- 
 torious arms struck with terror the greater part of 
 Westphalia and Lower Saxony, the bishopric of Fulda, 
 and even the Electorate of Cologne. It has been already 
 stated that immediately after the conclusion of the alli- 
 ance between the Landgrave and Gustavus Adolphus at 
 Werben, two imperial generals, Fugger and Altringer, 
 were ordered by Tilly to march into Hesse, to punish the 
 Landgrave for his revolt from the Emperor. But this 
 prince had as firmly withstood the arms of his enemies 
 as his subjects had the proclamations of Tilly inciting 
 them to rebellion, and the battle of Leipzig presently 
 relieved him of their presence. He availed himself of 
 their absence with courage and resolution ; in a short 
 time, Vach, Miinden, and Hoexter surrendered to him, 
 while his rapid advance alarmed the bishoprics of Fulda, 
 Paderborn, and the ecclesiastical territories which bor- 
 dered on Hesse. The terrified states hastened by a 
 speedy submission to set limits to his progress, and by 
 considerable contributions to purchase exemption from 
 plunder. After these successful enterprises, the Land- 
 grave united his victorious army with that of Gustavus 
 Adolphus, and concerted with him at Frankfort their 
 future plan of operations. 
 
 In this city a number of princes and ambassadors were 
 assembled to congratulate Gustavus on his success, and 
 either to conciliate his favor or to appease his indignation. 
 Among them was the fugitive King of Bohemia, Palatine
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 193 
 
 Frederick V., who had hastened from Holland to throw 
 himself into the arms of his avenger and protector. Gus- 
 tavus gave him the- unprofitable honor of greeting him as 
 a crowned head, and endeavored by a respectful sympathy 
 to soften his sense of his misfortunes. But great as the 
 advantages were which Frederick had promised himself 
 from the power and good fortune of his" protector, and 
 high as were the expectations he had built on his justice 
 and magnanimity, the chance of this unfortunate prince's 
 reinstatement in his kingdom was as distant as ever. The 
 inactivity and contradictory politics of the English court 
 had abated the zeal of Gustavus Adolphus, and an irrita- 
 bility, which he could not always repress, made him on 
 this occasion forget the glorious vocation of protector of 
 the oppressed, in which on his invasion of Germany he 
 had so loudly announced himself. 
 
 The terrors of the king's irresistible strength, and the 
 near prospect of his vengeance, had also compelled 
 George, Landgrave of Hesse Darmstadt, to a timely 
 submission. His connection with the Emperor, and his 
 indifference to the Protestant cause, were no secret to the 
 king, but he was satisfied with laughing at so impotent 
 an enemy. As the Landgrave knew his own strength and 
 the political situation of Germany so little, as to offer 
 himself as mediator between the contending parties, Gus- 
 tavus used jestingly to call him the peacemaker. He was 
 frequently heard to say, when at play he was winning 
 from the Landgrave, "that the money afforded double 
 satisfaction, as it was Imperial coin." To his affinity with 
 the Elector of Saxony, whom Gustavus had cause to treat 
 with forbearance, the Landgrave was indebted for the 
 favorable terms he obtained from the king, who contented 
 himself with the surrender of his fortress of Russelheim, 
 and his promise of observing a strict neutrality during 
 the war. The Counts of Westerwald and Wetterau also 
 visited the King in Frankfort, to offer him their assistance 
 against the Spaniards, and so conclude an alliance, which 
 was afterwards of great service to him. The town of 
 Frankfort itself had reason to rejoice at the presence of this 
 monarch, who took their commerce under his protection, 
 and by the most effectual measures restored the fairs, which 
 had been greatly interrupted by the war.
 
 194 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 
 
 The Swedish army was now reinforced by ten thousand 
 Hessians, which the Landgrave of Casse commanded. 
 Gustavus Adolphus had already invested Konigstein; 
 Kostheim and Florsheim surrendered after a short siege ; 
 he was in command of the Maine ; and transports were 
 preparing with all speed at Hoechst to carry his troops 
 across the Rhine. These preparations filled the Elector 
 of Mentz, Anselm Casimir, with consternation ; and he no 
 longer doubted but that the storm of war would next fall 
 upon him. As a partisan of the Emperor, and one of the 
 most active members of the League, he could expect no 
 better treatment than his confederates, the Bishops of 
 Wurtzburg and Bamberg, had already experienced. The 
 situation of his territories upon the Rhine made it neces- 
 sary for the enemy to secure them, while the fertility 
 afforded an irresistible temptation to a necessitous army. 
 Miscalculating his own strength and that of his adversa- 
 ries, the Elector flattered himself that he was able to 
 repel force by force, and weary out the valor of the 
 Swedes by the strength of his fortresses. He ordered 
 the fortifications of his capital to be repaired with all 
 diligence, provided it with every necessary for sustaining 
 a long siege, and received into the town a garrison of 
 two thousand Spaniards, under Don Philip de Sylva. 
 To prevent the approach of the Swedish transports, he 
 endeavored to close the mouth of the Maine by driving 
 piles, and sinking large heaps of stones and vessels. He 
 himself, however, accompanied by the Bishop of Worms, 
 and carrying with him his mot precious effects, took 
 refuge in Cologne, and abandoned his capital and terri- 
 tories to the rapacity of a tyrannical garrison. But these 
 preparations, which bespoke less of true courage than of 
 weak and overweening confidence, did not prevent the 
 Swedes from marching against Mentz, and making serious 
 preparations for an attack upon the city. While one 
 body of their troops poured into the Rheingau, routed the 
 Spaniards who remained there, and levied contributions 
 on the inhabitants, another laid the Roman Catholic 
 towns in Westerwald and Wetterau under similar con- 
 tributions. The main army had encamped at Cassel, 
 opposite Mentz; and Bernhard, Duke of Weimar, made
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 195 
 
 himself master of the Mausethurm and the castle of 
 Ehrenfels, on the other side of the Rhine. Gustavus was 
 now actively preparing to cross the river, and to blockade 
 the town on the land side, when the movements of Tilly 
 in Franconia suddenly called him from the siege, and 
 obtained for the Elector a short repose. 
 
 The danger of Nuremburg, which, during the absence 
 of Gustavus Adolphus on the Rhine, Tilly had made a 
 show of besieging, and, in the event of resistance, threat- 
 ened with the cruel fate of Magdeburg, occasioned the 
 king suddenly to retire from before Mentz. Lest he 
 should expose himself a second time to the reproaches of 
 Germany, and the disgrace of abandoning a confederate 
 city to a ferocious enemy, he hastened to its relief by 
 forced marches. On his arrival at Frankfort, however, 
 he heard of its spirited resistance, and of the retreat of 
 Tilly, and lost not a moment in prosecuting his designs 
 against Mentz. Failing in an attempt to cross the Rhine 
 at Cassel, under the cannon of the besieged, he directed 
 his march towards the Bergstrasse, with a view of ap- 
 proaching the town from an opposite quarter. Here he 
 quickly made himself master of all the places of impor- 
 tance, and at Stockstadt, between Gernsheim and Oppen- 
 heim, appeared a second time upon the banks of the 
 Rhine. The whole of the Bergstrasse was abandoned by 
 the Spaniards, who endeavored obstinately to defend the 
 other bank of the river. For this purpose they had burned 
 or sunk all the vessels in the neighborhood, and arranged 
 a formidable force on the banks in case the king should 
 attempt the passage at that place. 
 
 On this occasion, the king's impetuosity exposed him 
 to great danger of falling into .the hands of the enemy. 
 In order to reconnoitre the opposite bank, he crossed the 
 river in a small boat ; he had scarcely landed when he 
 was attacked by a party of Spanish horse, from whose 
 hands he only saved himself by a precipitate retreat. 
 Having at last, with the assistance of the neighboring 
 fishermen, succeeded in procuring a few transports, he 
 despatched two of them across the river, bearing Count 
 Brahe and three hundred Swedes. Scarcely had this 
 officer time to entrench himself on the opposite bank,
 
 196 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 
 
 when he was attacked by fourteen squadrons of Spanish 
 dragoons and cuirassiers. Superior as the enemy was in 
 number, Count Brahe, with his small force, bravely de- 
 fended himself, and gained time for the king to support 
 him with fresh troops. The Spaniards at last retired with 
 the loss of six hundred men, some taking refuge in 
 Oppenheim, and others in Mentz. A lion of marble on a 
 high pillar, holding a naked sword in his paw, and a hel- 
 met on his head, was erected seventy years after the 
 event, to point out to the traveller the spot where the 
 immortal monarch crossed the great river of Germany. 
 
 Gustavus Adolphus now conveyed his artillery and the 
 greater part of his troops over the river, and laid siege to 
 Oppenheim, which, after a brave resistance, was, on the 
 8th December, 1631, carried by storm. Five hundred 
 Spaniards, who had so courageously defended the place, 
 fell indiscriminately a sacrifice to the fury of the Swedes. 
 The crossing of the Rhine by Gustavus struck terror into 
 the Spaniards and Lorrainers, who had thought them- 
 selves protected by the river from the vengeance of the 
 Swedes. Rapid flight was now their only security ; every 
 place incapable of an effectual defence was immediately 
 abandoned. After a long train of outrages on the de- 
 fenceless citizens, the troops of Lorraine evacuated 
 Worms, which, before their departure, they treated with 
 wanton cruelty. The Spaniards hastened to shut them- 
 selves up in Frankenthal, where they hoped to defy the 
 victorious arms of Gustavus Adolphus. 
 
 The king lost no time in prosecuting his designs against 
 Mentz, into which the flower of the Spanish troops had 
 thrown themselves. While he advanced on the left 
 bank of the Rhine, the Landgrave of Hesse Cassel moved 
 forward on the other, reducing several strong places on 
 his march. The besieged Spaniards, though hemmed in 
 on both sides, displayed at first a bold determination, 
 and threw, for several days, a shower of bombs into the 
 Swedish camp, which cost the king many of his bravest 
 soldiers. But, notwithstanding, the Swedes continually 
 gained ground, and had at last advanced so close to the 
 ditch that they prepared seriously for storming the place. 
 The courage of the besieged now began to droop. They
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 197 
 
 trembled before the furious impetuosity of the Swedish 
 soldiers, of which Marienberg, in Wurtzburg, had afforded 
 so fearful an example. The same dreadful fate awaited 
 JVientz if taken by storm ; and the enemy might even be 
 easily tempted to revenge the carnage of Magdeburg on 
 this rich and magnificent residence of a Roman Catholic 
 prince. To save the town, rather than their own lives, 
 the Spanish garrison capitulated on the fourth day, and 
 obtained from the magnanimity of Gustavus a safe con- 
 duct to Luxembourg ; the greater part of them, however, 
 following the example of many others, enlisted in the 
 service of Sweden. 
 
 On the 13th December, 1631, the king made his entry 
 into the conquered town, and fixed his quarters in the 
 palace of the Elector. Eighty pieces of cannon fell into 
 his hands, and the citizens were obliged to redeem their 
 property from pillage by a payment of eighty thousand 
 florins. The benefits of this redemption did not extend 
 to the Jews and the clergy, who were obliged to make 
 large and separate contributions for themselves. The 
 library of the Elector was seized by the king as his share, 
 and presented by him to his chancellor, Oxenstiern, who 
 intended it for the Academy of Westerrah, but the 
 vessel in which it was shipped to Sweden foundered at 
 sea. 
 
 After the loss of Mentz misfortune still pursued the 
 Spaniards on the Rhine. Shortly before the capture of 
 that city, the Landgrave of Hesse Cassel had taken 
 Falkenstein and Reifenberg, and the fortress of Koning- 
 stein surrendered to the Hessians. The Rhinegrave, 
 Otto Louis, one of the king's generals, defeated nine 
 Spanish squadrons who were on their march for Franken- 
 thal, and made himself master of the most important 
 towns upon the Rhine, from Boppart to Bacharach. 
 After the capture of the fortress of Braunfels, which was 
 effected by the Count of Wetterau, with the co-operation 
 of the Swedes, the Spaniards quickly lost every place in 
 Wetterau, while in the Palatinate they retained few 
 places besides Frankenthal. Landau and Kronweisenberg 
 openly declared for the Swedes ; Spires offered troops for 
 the king's service ; Manheim was gained through the
 
 198 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 
 
 prudence of the Duke Bernard of Weimar, and the 
 negligence of its governor, who, for this misconduct, was 
 tried before the council of war, at Heidelberg, and 
 beheaded. 
 
 The king had protracted the campaign into the depth 
 of winter, and the severity of the season was perhaps one 
 cause of the advantage his soldiers gained over those of 
 the enemy. But the exhausted troops now stood in need 
 of the repose of winter quarters, which, after the surrender 
 of Mentz, Gustavus assigned to them, in its neighborhood. 
 He himself employed the interval of inactivity in the 
 field, which the season of the year enjoined, in arranging, 
 with his chancellor, the affairs of his cabinet, in treating 
 for a neutrality with some of his enemies, and adjusting 
 some political disputes which had sprung up with a neigh- 
 boring ally. He chose the city of Mentz for his winter 
 quarters, and the settlement of these state affairs, and 
 showed a greater partiality for this town than seemed 
 consistent with the interests of the German princes, or 
 the shortness of his visit to the Empire. Not content 
 with strongly fortifying it, he erected at the opposite 
 angle, which the Maine forms with the Rhine, a new 
 citadal, which was named Gustavusburg from its founder, 
 but which is better known under the title of Pfaffenraub 
 or Pfaffenzwang.* 
 
 While Gustavus Adolphus made himself master of the 
 Rhine, and threatened the three neighboring electorates 
 with his victorious arms, his vigilant enemies in Paris 
 and St. Germain's made use of every artifice to deprive 
 him of the support of France, and, if possible, to involve 
 him in a war with that power. By his sudden and 
 equivocal march to the Rhine he had surprised his 
 friends, and furnished his enemies with the means of ex- 
 citing a distrust of his intentions. After the conquest of 
 Wurtzburg, and of the greater part of Fran con ia, the 
 road into Bavaria and Austria lay open to him through 
 Bamberg and the Upper Palatinate ; and the expectation 
 was as general as it was natural, that he would not delay 
 to attack the Emperor and the Duke of Bavaria in the 
 
 * Priests' plunder ; alluding to the means by which the expense of its 
 erection had been defrayed.
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 199 
 
 very centre of their power, and, by the reduction of his 
 two principal enemies, bring the war immediately to an 
 end. But to the surprise of both parties, Gustavus left 
 the path which general expectation had thus marked out 
 for him; and instead of advancing to the right, turned to 
 the left, to make the less important and more innocent 
 princes of the Rhine feel his power, while he gave time 
 to his more formidable opponents to recruit their strength. 
 Nothing but the paramount design of reinstating the un- 
 fortunate Palatine, Frederick V., in the possession of his 
 territories, by the expulsion of the Spaniards, could seem 
 to account for this strange step ; and the belief that Gus- 
 tavus was about to effect that restoration silenced for a 
 while the suspicions of his friends and the calumnies of 
 his enemies. But the Lower Palatinate was now almost 
 entirely cleared of the enemy; and yet Gustavus con- 
 tinued to form new schemes of conquest on the Rhine, 
 and to withhold the reconquered country from the Pala- 
 tine, its rightful owner. In vain did the English ambas- 
 sador remind him of what justice demanded, and what 
 his own solemn engagement made a duty of honor; Gus- 
 tavus replied to these demands with bitter complaints 
 of the inactivity of the English court, and prepared to 
 carry his victorious standard into Alsace, and even into 
 Lorraine. 
 
 A distrust of the Swedish monarch was now loud and 
 open, while the malice of his enemies busily circulated the 
 most injurious reports as to his intentions. Richelieu, 
 the minister of Louis XIII., had long witnessed with 
 anxiety the king's progress towards the French frontier, 
 and the suspicious temper of Louis rendered him but too 
 accessible to the evil surmises which the occasion gave rise 
 to. France was at this time involved in a civil war with 
 her Protestant subjects, and the fear was not altogether 
 groundless that the approach of a victorious monarch of 
 their party might revive their drooping spirit, and en- 
 courage them to a more desperate resistance. This might 
 be the case, even if Gustavus Adolphus was far from 
 showing a disposition to encourage them, or to act un- 
 faithfully towards his ally, the King of France. But the 
 vindictive Bishop of Wurtzburg, who was anxious to
 
 200 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 
 
 avenge the loss of his dominions, the envenomed rhetoric 
 of the Jesuits, and the active zeal of the Bavarian minister, 
 represented this dreaded alliance between the Huguenots 
 and the Swedes as an undoubted fact, and filled the timid 
 mind of Louis with the most alarming fears. Not merely 
 chimerical politicians, but many of the best informed 
 Roman Catholics, fully believed that the king was on the 
 point of breaking into the heart of France, to make com- 
 mon cause with the Huguenots, and to overturn the 
 Catholic religion within the kingdom. Fanatical zealots 
 already saw him, with his army, crossing the Alps and 
 dethroning the Vicegerent of Christ in Italy. Such 
 reports no doubt soon refute themselves ; yet it cannot be 
 denied that Gustavus, by his manoauvres on the Rhine, 
 gave a dangerous handle to the malice of his enemies, and 
 in some measure justified the suspicion that he directed 
 his arms, not so much against the Emperor and the 
 Duke of Bavaria, as against the Roman Catholic religion 
 itself. 
 
 The general clamor of discontent which the Jesuits 
 raised in all the Catholic courts against the alliance be- 
 tween France and the enemy of the church at last com- 
 pelled Cardinal Richelieu to take a decisive step for the 
 security of his religion, and at once to convince the 
 Roman Catholic world of the zeal of France, and of the 
 selfish policy of the ecclesiastical states of Germany. 
 Convinced that the views of the King of Sweden, like his 
 own, aimed solely at the humiliation of the power of 
 Austria, he hesitated not to promise to the princes of the 
 League, on the part of Sweden, a complete neutrality, 
 immediately they abandoned their alliance with the Em- 
 peror and withdrew their troops. Whatever the resolu- 
 tion these princes should adopt Richelieu would equally 
 attain his object. By their separation from the Austrian 
 interest Ferdinand would be exposed to the combined 
 attack of France and Sweden ; and Gustav-us Adolphus, 
 freed from his other enemies in Germany, would be able 
 to direct his undivided force against the hereditary do- 
 minions of Austria. In that event the fall of Austria 
 was inevitable, and this great object of Richelieu's policy 
 would be gained without injury to the church. If, on
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 201 
 
 the other hand, the princes of the League persisted in 
 their opposition, and adhered to the Austrian alliance, the 
 result would indeed be more doubtful, but still France 
 would have sufficiently proved to all Europe the sincerity 
 of her attachment to the Catholic cause, and performed 
 her duty as a member of the Roman Church. The 
 princes of the League would then appear the sole au- 
 thors of those evils which the continuance of the war 
 would unavoidably bring upon the Roman Catholics of 
 Germany ; they alone, by their wilful and obstinate ad- 
 herence to the Emperor, would frustrate the measures 
 employed for their protection, involve the church in 
 danger, and themselves in ruin. 
 
 Richelieu pursued this plan with greater zeal, the more 
 he was embarrassed by the repeated demands of the 
 Elector of Bavaria for assistance from France ; for this 
 prince, as already stated, when he first began to enter- 
 tain suspicions of the Emperor, entered immediately into 
 a secret alliance with France, by which, in the event of 
 any change in the Emperor's sentiments, he hoped to 
 secure the possession of the Palatinate. But though the 
 origin of the treaty clearly showed against what enemy 
 it was directed, Maximilian now thought proper to make 
 use of it against the King of Sweden, and did not hesi- 
 tate to demand from France that assistance against her 
 ally which she had simply promised against Austria. 
 Richelieu, embarrassed by this conflicting alliance with 
 two hostile powers, had no resource left but to endeavor 
 to put a speedy termination to their hostilities ; and as 
 little inclined to sacrifice Bavaria, as he was disabled, by 
 his treaty with Sweden, from assisting it, he set himself, 
 with all diligence, to bring about a neutrality as the only 
 means of fulfilling his obligations to both. For this pur- 
 pose the Marquis of Breze was sent, as his plenipoten- 
 tiary, to the King of Sweden at Mentz, to learn his senti- 
 ments on this point, and to procure from him favorable 
 conditions for the allied princes. But if Louis XIII. had 
 powerful motives for wishing for this neutrality, Gustavus 
 Adolphus had as grave reasons for desiring the contrary. 
 Convinced by numerous proofs that the hatred of the 
 princes of the League to the Protestant religion was in-
 
 202 THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 
 
 vincible, their aversion to the foreign power of the 
 Swedes inextinguishable, and their attachment to the 
 House of Austria irrevocable, he apprehended less danger 
 from their open hostility than from a neutrality which 
 was so little in unison with their real inclinations; and, 
 moreover, as he was constrained to carry on the war in 
 Germany at the expense of the enemy, he manifestly sus- 
 tained great loss if he diminished their number without 
 increasing that of his friends. It was not surprising, 
 therefore, if Gustavus evinced little inclination to pur- 
 chase the neutrality of the League, by which he was 
 likely to gain so little, at the expense of the advantages 
 he had already obtained. 
 
 The conditions, accordingly, upon which he offered to 
 adopt the neutrality towards Bavaria were severe, and 
 suited to these views. He required of the whole League 
 a full and entire cessation from all hostilities ; the recall 
 of their troops from the imperial army, from the con- 
 quered towns, and from all the Protestant countries ; the 
 reduction of their military force; the exclusion of the 
 imperial armies from their territories, and from supplies 
 either of men, provisions, or ammunition. Hard as the 
 conditions were which the victor thus imposed upon the 
 vanquished the French mediator flattered himself he 
 should be able to induce the Elector of Bavaria to accept 
 them. In order to give time for an accommodation, Gus- 
 tavus had agreed to a cessation of hostilities for a fort- 
 night. But at the very time when this monarch was 
 receiving from the French agents repeated assurances of 
 the favorable progress of the negotiation, an intercepted 
 letter from the Elector to Pappenheim, the imperial gen- 
 eral in Westphalia, revealed the perfidy of that prince, as 
 having no other object in view by the whole negotiation 
 than to gain time for his measures of defence. Far 
 from intending to fetter his military operations by a 
 truce with Sweden, the artful prince hastened his prep- 
 arations, and employed the leisure which his enemy 
 afforded him, in making the most active dispositions for 
 resistance. The negotiation accordingly failed, and 
 served only to increase the animosity of the Bavarians 
 and the Swedes.
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 203 
 
 Tilly's augmented force, with which he threatened to 
 overrun Franconia, urgently required the king's presence 
 in that circle ; but it was necessary to expel previously 
 the Spaniards from the Rhine, and to cut off their means 
 of invading Germany from the Netherlands. With this 
 view, Gustavus Adolphus had made an offer of neutrality 
 to the Elector of Treves, Philip von Zeltern, on condi- 
 tion that the fortress of Hermanstein should be delivered 
 up to him, and a free passage granted to his troops 
 through Coblentz. But unwillingly as the Elector had 
 beheld the Spaniards within his territories, he was still 
 less disposed to commit his estates to the suspicious pro- 
 tection of a heretic, and to make the Swedish conqueror 
 master of his destinies. Too weak to maintain his inde- 
 pendence between two such powerful competitors, he took 
 refuge in the protection of France. With his usual pru- 
 dence, Richelieu profited by the embarrassments of this 
 prince to augment the power of France, and to gain for 
 her an important ally on the German frontier. A numer- 
 ous French army was despatched to protect the territory 
 of Treves, and a French garrison was received into 
 Ehrenbreitstein. But the object which had moved the 
 Elector to this bold step was not completely gained, for 
 the offended pride of Gustavus Adolphus was not ap- 
 peased till he had obtained a free passage for his troops 
 through Treves. 
 
 Pending these negotiations with Treves and France, 
 the king's generals had entirely cleared the territory of 
 Mentz of the Spanish garrisons, and Gustavus himself 
 completed the conquest of this district by the capture of 
 Kreutznach. To protect these conquests the Chancellor 
 Oxenstiern was left with a division of the army upon the 
 Middle Rhine, while the main body, under the king him- 
 self, began its march against the enemy in Franconia. 
 
 The possession of this circle had, in the meantime, been 
 disputed with variable success, between Count Tilly and the 
 Swedish General Horn, whom Gustnvus had left there with 
 eight thousand men ; and the Bishopric of Bamberg, in 
 particular, was at once the prize and the scene of their 
 struggle. Called away to the Rhine by his other projects, 
 the king had left to his general the chastisement of the
 
 204 THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 
 
 bishop, whose perfidy had excited his indignation, and 
 the activity of Horn justified the choice. In a short time 
 he subdued the greater part of the bishopric ; and the 
 capital itself, abandoned by its imperial garrison, was 
 carried by storm. The banished bishop urgently de- 
 manded assistance from the Elector of Bavaria, who was 
 at length persuaded to put an end to Tilly's inactivity. 
 Fully empowered by his master's order to restore the 
 bishop to his possessions, this general collected his troops, 
 who were scattered over the Upper Palatinate, and with 
 an army of twenty thousand men advanced upon Bam- 
 berg. Firmly resolved to maintain his conquest, even 
 against this overwhelming force, Horn awaited the enemy 
 within the walls of Bamberg ; but was obliged to yield to 
 the vanguard of Tilly what he had thought to be able to 
 dispute with his whole army. A panic which suddenly 
 seized his troops, and which no presence of mind of their 
 general could check, opened the gates to the enemy, and 
 it was with difficulty that the troops, baggage, and artil- 
 lery were saved. The reconquest of Bamberg was the 
 fruit of this victory ; but Tilly, with all his activity, was 
 \inable to overtake the Swedish general, who retired in 
 good order behind the Maine. The king's appearance in 
 Franconia, and his junction with Gustavus Horn at 
 Kitzingen, put a stop to Tilly's conquests, and com- 
 pelled him to provide for his own safety by a rapid re- 
 treat. 
 
 The king made a general review of his troops at Asch- 
 affenburg. After his junction with Gustavus Horn, 
 Banner, and Duke William of Weimar, they amounted 
 to nearly forty thousand men. His progress through 
 Franconia was uninterrupted ; for Tilly, far too weak to 
 encounter an enemy so superior in numbers, had retreated, 
 by rapid marches, towards the Danube. Bohemia and 
 Bavaria were now equally near to the king, and, uncer- 
 tain whither his victorious course might be directed, 
 Maximilian could form no immediate resolution. The 
 choice of the king, and the fate of both provinces, now 
 depended on the road that should be left open to Count 
 Tilly. It was dangerous, during the approach of so for- 
 midable an enemy, to leave Bavaria undefended, in order
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 205 
 
 to protect Austria; still more dangerous, by receiving 
 Tilly into Bavaria, to draw thither the enemy also, and 
 to render it the seat of a destructive war. The cares of 
 the sovereign finally overcame the scruples of the states- 
 man, and Tilly received orders, at all hazards, to cover 
 the frontiers of Bavaria with his army. 
 
 Nuremberg received with triumphant joy the pro- 
 tector of the Protestant religion and German freedom, 
 and the enthusiasm of the citizens expressed itself on his 
 arrival in loud transports of admiration and joy. Even 
 Gustavus could not contain his astonishment to see him- 
 self in this city, which was the very centre of Germany, 
 where he had never expected to be able to penetrate. 
 The noble appearance of his person completed the im- 
 pression produced by his glorious exploits, and the con- 
 descension with which he received the congratulations of 
 this free city won all hearts. He now confirmed the 
 alliance lie had concluded with it on the shores of the 
 Baltic, and excited the citizens to zealous activity and 
 fraternal unity against the common enemy.- After a 
 short stay in Nuremberg he followed his army to the 
 Danube, and appeared unexpectedly before the frontier 
 town of Donauwerth. A numerous Bavarian garrison 
 defended the place, and their commander, Rodolph Maxi- 
 milian, Duke of Saxe Lauenburg, showed at first a resolute 
 determination to defend it till the arrival of Tilly. But 
 the vigor with which Gustavus Adolphus prosecuted the 
 siege soon compelled him to take measures for a speedy 
 and secure retreat, which, amidst a tremendous fire from 
 the Swedish artillery, he successfully executed. 
 
 The conquest of Donauwerth opened to the king the 
 further side of the Danube, and gow the small river 
 Lech alone separated him from Bavaria. The immediate 
 danger of his dominions aroused all Maximilian's activity, 
 and however little he had hitherto disturbed the enemy's 
 progress to his frontier, he now determined to dispute as 
 resolutely the remainder of their course. On the oppo- 
 site bank of the Lech, near the small town of Rain, Tilly 
 occupied a strongly fortified camp, which, surrounded by 
 three rivers, bade defiance to all attack. All the bridges 
 over the Lech were destroyed ; the whole course of the
 
 206 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 
 
 stream protected by strong garrisons as far as Augsburg, 
 and that town itself, which had long betrayed its impa- 
 tience to follow the example of Nuremberg and Frank- 
 fort, secured by a Bavarian garrison, and the disarming 
 of its inhabitants. The Elector himself, with all the 
 troops he could collect, threw himself into Tilly's camp, 
 as if all his hopes centred on this single point, and here 
 the good fortune of the Swedes was to suffer shipwreck 
 forever. 
 
 Gustavus Adolphus, after subduing the whole territory 
 of Augsburg, on his own side of the river, and opening 
 to his troops a rich supply of necessaries from that quar- 
 ter, soon appeared on the bank opposite the Bavarian 
 intrenchments. It was now the month of March, when 
 the river, swollen by frequent rains and the melting of 
 the snow from the mountains of the Tyrol, flowed full 
 and rapid between its steep banks. Its boiling current 
 threatened the rash assailants with certain destruction, 
 while from the opposite side the enemy's cannon showed 
 their murderous mouths. If, in despite of the fury both 
 of fire and water, they should accomplish this almost 
 impossible passage, a fresh and vigorous enemy awaited 
 the exhausted troops in an impregnable camp ; and when 
 they needed repose and refreshment they must prepare 
 for battle. With exhausted powers they must ascend 
 the hostile intrenchments, whose strength seemed to bid 
 defiance to every assault. A defeat sustained upon this 
 shore would be attended with inevitable destruction, 
 since the same stream which impeded their advance 
 would also cut off their retreat if fortune should abandon 
 them. 
 
 The Swedish council of war, which the king now 
 assembled, strongly urged upon him all these considera- 
 tions, in order to deter him from this dangerous under- 
 taking. The most intrepid were appalled, and a troop of 
 honorable warriors, who had grown gray in the field, did 
 not hesitate to express their alarm. But the king's reso- 
 lution was fixed. " What ! " said he to Gustavus Horn, 
 who spoke for the rest, "have we crossed the Baltic, 
 and so many great rivers of Germany, and shall we now 
 be checked by a brook like the Lech?" Gustavus had
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 207 
 
 already at great personal risk reconnoitred the whole 
 country, and discovered that his own side of the river 
 was higher than the other, and consequently gave a con- 
 siderable advantage to the fire of the Swedish artillery 
 over that of the enemy. With great presence of mind 
 he determined to profit by this circumstance. At the 
 point where the left bank of the Lech forms an angle 
 with the right he immediately caused three batteries to 
 be erected, from which seventy-two field-pieces main- 
 tained a cross fire upon the enemy. While this tremen- 
 dous cannonade drove the Bavarians from the opposite 
 bank, he caused to be erected a bridge over the river 
 with all possible rapidity. A thick smoke, kept up by 
 burning wood and wet straw, concealed for some time the 
 progress of the work from the enemy, while the contin- 
 ued thunder of the cannon overpowered the noise of the 
 axes. He kept alive by his own example the courage of 
 his troops, and discharged more than sixty cannon with 
 his own hand. The cannonade was returned by the 
 Bavarians with equal vivacity for two hours, though with 
 less effect, as the Swedish batteries swept the lower oppo- 
 site bank, while their height served as a breastwork to 
 their own troops. In vain, therefore, did the Bavarians 
 attempt to destroy these works ; the superior fire of the 
 Swedes threw them into disorder, and the bridge was com- 
 pleted under their very eyes. On this dreadful day Tilly 
 did everything in his power to encourage his troops, and 
 no danger could drive him from the bank. At length he 
 found the death which he sought, a cannon-ball shattered 
 his leg ; and Altringer, his brave companion-in-arms, was 
 soon after dangerously wounded in the head. Deprived 
 of the animating presence of their two generals the 
 Bavarians gave way at last, and Maximilian, in spite of 
 his own judgment, was driven to adopt a pusillanimous 
 resolve. Overcome by the persuasions of the dying 
 Tilly, whose wonted firmness was overpowered by the 
 near approach of death, he gave up his impregnable posi- 
 tion for lost ; and the discovery by the Swedes of a ford 
 by which their cavalry were on the point of passing, 
 accelerated his inglorious retreat. The same night, be- 
 fore a single soldier of the enemy had crossed the Lech,
 
 208 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 
 
 he broke up his camp, and without giving time for the 
 king to harass him in his march, retreated in good order 
 to Neuburgh and Ingolstadt. With astonishment did 
 Gustavus Adolphus, who completed the passage of the 
 river on the following day, behold the hostile camp 
 abandoned; and the Elector's flight surprised him still 
 more when he saw the strength of the position he had 
 quitted. " Had I been the Bavarian," said he, " though 
 a cannon-ball had carried away my beard and chin, never 
 would I have abandoned a position like this and laid open 
 my territory to my enemies." 
 
 Bavaria now lay exposed to the conquerer ; and, for 
 the first time the tide of war, which had hitherto only 
 beat against its frontier, now flowed over its long spared 
 and fertile fields. Before, however, the king proceeded 
 to the conquest of these provinces, he delivered the town 
 of Augsburg from the yoke of Bavaria, exacted an oath of 
 allegiance from the citizens, and to secure its observance 
 left a garrison in the town. He then advanced by rapid 
 marches against Ingolstadt, in order, by the capture of 
 this important fortress, which the Elector covered with 
 the greater part of his army, to secure his conquests in 
 Bavaria and obtain a firm footing on the Danube. 
 
 Shortly after the appearance of the Swedish King 
 before Ingoldstadt, the wounded Tilly, after experiencing 
 the caprice of unstable fortune, terminated his career 
 within the walls of that town. Conquered by the supe- 
 rior generalship of Gustavus Adolphus, he lost at the 
 close of his days all the laurels of his earlier victories, and 
 appeased by a series of misfortunes the demands of jus- 
 tice and the avenging manes of Magdeburg. In his 
 death the Imperial army and that of the League sus- 
 tained an irreparable loss; the Roman Catholic religion 
 was deprived of its most zealous defender, and Maximil- 
 ian of Bavaria of the most faithful of his servants, who 
 sealed his fidelity by his death, and even in his dying 
 moments fulfilled the duties of a general. His last mes- 
 sage to the Elector was an urgent advice to take possess- 
 ion of Ratisbon, in order to maintain the command of the 
 Danube, and to keep open the communication with 
 Bohemia.
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 209 
 
 With the confidence which was the natural fruit of so 
 many victories, Gustavus Adolphus commenced the siege 
 of Ingolstadt, hoping to gain the town by the fury of his 
 first assault. But the strength of its fortifications and 
 the bravery of its garrison presented obstacles greater 
 than any he had had to encounter since the battle of 
 Breitenfeld, and the walls of Ingolstadt were near putting 
 an end to his career. While reconnoitring the works a 
 twenty-four-pounder killed his horse under him and he 
 fell to the ground, while almost immediately afterwards 
 another ball struck his favorite, the young Margrave of 
 Baden, by his side. With perfect self-possession the king 
 rose and quieted the fears of his troops by immediately 
 mounting another horse. 
 
 The occupation of Ratisbon by the Bavarians, who, by 
 the advice of Tilly, had surprised this town by stratagem, 
 and placed in it a strong garrison, quickly changed the 
 king's plan of operations. He had flattered himself with 
 the hope of gaining this town, which favored the Prot- 
 estant cause, and to find in it an ally as devoted to him as 
 Nuremberg, Augsburg, and Frankfort. Its seizure by 
 the Bavarians seemed to postpone for a long time the 
 fulfilment of his favorite project of making himself mas- 
 ter of the Danube, and cutting off his adversaries' sup- 
 plies from Bohemia. He suddenly raised the siege of 
 Ingoldstadt, before which he had wasted both his time 
 and his troops, and penetrated into the interior of Bavaria, 
 in order to draw the Elector into that quarter for the 
 defence of his territories, and thus to strip the Danube 
 of its defenders. 
 
 The whole country as far as Munich now lay open to 
 the conqueror. Mosberg, Landshut, and the whole terri- 
 tory of Freysingen submitted ; nothing could resist his 
 arms. But if he met with no regular force to oppose his 
 progress he had to contend against a still more implac- 
 able enemy in the heart of every Bavarian religious 
 fanaticism. Soldiers who did not believe in the Pope 
 were, in this country, a new and unheard-of phenomenon ; 
 the blind zeal of the priests represented them to the 
 peasantry as monsters, the children of hell, and their 
 leader as Antichrist. No wonder, then, if they thought
 
 210 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 
 
 themselves released from all the ties of nature and human- 
 ity towards this brood of Satan, and justified in commit- 
 ting the most savage atrocities upon them. Woe to the 
 Swedish soldier who fell into their hands! All the 
 torments which inventive malice could devise were exer- 
 cised upon these unhappy victims ; and the sight of their 
 mangled bodies exasperated the army to a fearful retalia- 
 tion. Gustavus Adolphus, alone, sullied the lustre of his 
 heroic character by no act of revenge ; and the aversion 
 which the Bavarians felt towards his religion, far from 
 making him depart from the obligations of humanity 
 towards that unfortunate people, seemed to impose upon 
 him the stricter duty to honor his religion by a more 
 constant clemency. 
 
 The approach of the king spread terror and conster- 
 nation in the capital, which, stripped of its defenders, 
 and abandoned by its principal inhabitants, placed all its 
 hopes in the magnanimity of the conqueror. By an 
 unconditional and voluntary surrender it hoped to dis- 
 arm his vengeance ; and sent deputies even to Freysingen 
 to lay at his feet the keys of the city. Strongly as the 
 king might have been tempted by the inhumanity of the 
 Bavarians, and the hostility of their sovereign, to make 
 a dreadful use of the rights of victory ; pressed as he 
 was by Germans to avenge the fate of Magdeburg on the 
 capital of its destroyer, this great prince scorned tins 
 mean revenge; and the very helplessness of his enemies 
 disarmed his severity. Contented with the more noble 
 triumph of conducting the Palatine Frederick with the 
 pomp of a victor into the very palace of the prince who 
 had been the chief instrument of his ruin, and the usurper 
 of his territories, he heightened the brilliancy of his tri- 
 umphal entry by the brighter splendor of moderation 
 and clemency. 
 
 The king found in Munich only a forsaken palace, for 
 the Elector's treasures had been transported to Werfen. 
 The magnificence of the building astonished him ; and he 
 asked the guide who showed the apartments who was the 
 architect. " No other," replied he, " than the Elector 
 himself." "I wish," said the king, "I had this archi- 
 tect to send to Stockholm." " That," he was answered,
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 211 
 
 "the architect will take care to prevent." When the 
 arsenal was examined, they found nothing but carrriages, 
 stripped of their cannon. The latter had been so artfully 
 concealed under the floor that no traces of them re- 
 mained ; and but for the treachery of a workman, the 
 deceit would not have been detected. " Rise up from 
 the dead," said the king, "and come to judgment." 
 The floor was pulled up, and one hundred and forty 
 pieces of cannon discovered, some of extraordinary cal- 
 ibre, which had been principally taken in the Palatinate 
 and Bohemia. A treasure of thirty thousand gold ducats, 
 concealed in one of the largest, completed the pleasure 
 which the king received from this valuable acquisition. 
 
 A far more welcome spectacle still would have been 
 the Bavarian army itself ; for his march into the heart of 
 Bavaria had been undertaken chiefly with the view of 
 luring them from their intrenchments. In this expec- 
 tation he was disappointed. No enemy appeared; no 
 entreaties, however urgent, on the part of his subjects, 
 could induce the Elector to risk the remainder of his 
 army to the chances of a battle. Shut up in Ratisbon, he 
 awaited the reinforcements which Wallenstein was bring- 
 ing from Bohemia ; and endeavored, in the meantime, 
 to amuse his enemy and keep him inactive by reviving 
 the negotiation for a neutrality. But the king s distrust, 
 too often and too justly excited by his previous conduct, 
 frustrated this design ; and the intentional delay of Wal- 
 lenstein abandoned Bavaria to the Swedes. 
 
 Thus far had Gustavus advanced from victory to victory 
 without meeting with an enemy able to cope with him. 
 A pai-t of Bavaria and Swabia, the bishoprics of Fran- 
 conia, the Lower Palatinate, and the archbishopric of 
 Mentz lay conquered in his rear. An uninterrupted 
 career of conquest had conducted him to the threshold 
 of Austria ; and the most brilliant success had fully jus- 
 tified the plan of operations which he had formed after 
 the battle of Breitenfeld. If he had not succeeded to his 
 wish in promoting a confederacy among the Protestant 
 States, he had at least disarmed or weakened the League, 
 carried on the war chiefly at its expense, lessened the 
 Emperor's resources, emboldened the weaker States, and
 
 212 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 
 
 while he laid under contribution the allies of the Emperor, 
 forced a way through their territories into Austria itself. 
 Where arms were unavailing, the greatest service was 
 rendered by the friendship of the free cities, whose affec- 
 tions he had gained by the double ties of policy and 
 religion ; and, as long as he should maintain his superi- 
 ority in the field, he might reckon on everything from 
 their zeal. By his conquests on the Rhine, the Spaniards 
 were cut off from the Lower Palatinate, even if the state 
 of the war in the Netherlands left them at liberty to 
 interfere in the affairs of Germany. The Duke of Lor- 
 raine, too, after his unfortunate campaign, had been glad 
 to adopt a neutrality. Even the numerous garrisons he 
 had left behind him in his progress through Germany 
 had not diminished his army; and, fresh and vigorous as 
 when he first began his march, he now stood in the centre 
 of Bavaria, determined and prepared to carry the war 
 into the heart of Austria. 
 
 While Gustavus Adolphus thus maintained his superi- 
 ority within the empire, fortune, in another quarter, had 
 been no less favorable to his ally, the Elector of Saxony. 
 By the arrangement concerted between these princes at 
 Halle, after the battle of Leipzig, the conquest of Bohemia 
 was intrusted to the Elector of Saxony, while the king 
 reserved for himself the attack upon the territories of the 
 League. The first fruits which the Elector reaped from 
 the battle of Breitenfeld, was the reconquest of Leipzig, 
 which was shortly followed by the expulsion of the Aus- 
 trian garrisons from the entire circle. Reinforced by the 
 troops who deserted to him from the hostile garrisons, 
 the Saxon General, Arnheim, marched towards Lusatia, 
 which had been overrun by an Imperial general, Rudolph 
 von Tiefenbach, in order to chastise the Elector for em- 
 bracing the cause of the enemy. He had already com- 
 menced in this weakly defended province the usual course 
 of devastation, taken several towns, and terrified Dresden 
 itself by his approach, when his destructive progress was 
 suddenly stopped by an express mandate from the Em- 
 peror to spare the possessions of the King of Saxony. 
 
 Ferdinand had perceived too late the errors of that 
 policy, which had reduced the Elector of Saxony to
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 213 
 
 extremities, and forcibly driven this powerful monarch 
 into an alliance with Sweden. By moderation, equally ill- 
 timed, he now wished to repair if possible the consequences 
 of his haughtiness ; and thus committed a second error in 
 endeavoring to repair the first. To deprive his enemy 
 of so powerful an ally, he had opened, through the inter- 
 vention of Spain, a negotiation with the Elector ; and in 
 order to facilitate an accommodation, Tiefenbach was 
 ordered immediately to retire from Saxony. But these 
 concessions of the Emperor, far from producing the 
 desired effect, only revealed to the Elector the embar- 
 rassment of his adversary and his own importance, and 
 emboldened him the more to prosecute the advantages 
 he had already obtained. How could he, moreover, with- 
 out becoming chargeable with the most shameful ingrat- 
 itude, abandon an ally to whom he had given the most 
 solemn assurances of fidelity, and to whom he was in- 
 debted for the preservation of his dominions, and even 
 of his Electoral dignity? 
 
 The Saxon army, now relieved from the necessity of 
 marching into Lusatia, advanced towards Bohemia, where 
 a combination of favorable circumstances seemed to 
 insure them an easy victory. In this kingdom, the first 
 scene of this fatal war, the flames of dissension still 
 smouldered beneath the ashes, while the discontent of 
 the inhabitants was fomented by daily acts of oppression 
 and tyranny. On every side this unfortunate country 
 showed signs of a mournful change. Whole districts had 
 changed their proprietors, and groaned under the hated 
 yoke of Roman Catholic masters, whom the favor of the 
 Emperor and the Jesuits had enriched with the plunder 
 and possessions of the exiled Protestants. Others, taking 
 advantage themselves of the general distress, had pur- 
 chased, at a low rate, the confiscated estates. The blood 
 of the most eminent champions of liberty had been shed 
 upon the scaffold ; and such as by a timely flight avoided 
 that fate were wandering in misery far from their native 
 land, while the obsequious slaves of despotism enjoyed 
 their patrimony. Still more insupportable than the 
 oppression of these petty tyrants, was the restraint of 
 conscience which was imposed without distinction on all
 
 214 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 
 
 the Protestants of that kingdom. No external danger, 
 no opposition on the part of the nation, however stead- 
 fast, not even the fearful lessons of past experience could 
 check in the Jesuits the rage of proselytism ; where fair 
 means were ineffectual, recourse was had to military 
 force to bring the deluded wanderers within the pale of 
 the church. The inhabitants of Joachimsthal, on the 
 frontiers between Bohemia and Meissen, were the chief 
 sufferers from this, violence. Two imperial commissaries, 
 accompanied by as many Jesuits, and supported by 
 fifteen musketeers, made their appearance in this peace- 
 ful valley to preach the gospel to the heretics. Where 
 the rhetoric of the former was ineffectual, the forcibly 
 quartering the latter upon the houses, and threats of 
 banishment and fines were tried. But on this occasion, 
 the good cause prevailed, and the bold resistance of this 
 small district compelled the Emperor disgracefully to 
 recall his mandate of conversion. The example of the 
 court had, however, afforded a precedent to the Roman 
 Catholics of the empire, and seemed to justify every act 
 of oppression which their insolence tempted them to 
 wreak upon the Protestants. It is not surprising, then, 
 if this persecuted party was favorable to a revolution, 
 and saw with pleasure their deliverers on the frontiers. 
 
 The Saxon army was already on its march towards 
 Prague, the imperial garrisons everywhere retired before 
 them ; Schloeckenau, Tetschen, Aussig, Leutmeritz, soon 
 fell into the enemy's hands, and every Roman Catholic 
 place was abandoned to plunder. Consternation seized 
 all the Papists of the Empire ; and conscious of the out- 
 rages which they themselves had committed on the 
 Protestants, they did not venture to abide the vengeful 
 arrival of a Protestant army. All the Roman Catholics 
 who had anything to lose fled hastily from the country 
 to the capital, which again they presently abandoned. 
 Prague was unprepared for an attack, and was too 
 weakly garrisoned to sustain a long siege. Too late had 
 the Emperor resolved to despatch Field-Marshal Tiefen- 
 bach to the defence of this capital. Before the imperial 
 orders could reach the headquarters of that general, in 
 Silesia, the Saxons were already close to Prague, the
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 215 
 
 Protestant inhabitants of which showed little zeal, while 
 the weakness of the garrison left no room to hope a long 
 resistance. In this fearful state of embarrassment the 
 Roman Catholics of Prague looked for security to Wal- 
 lenstein, who now lived in that city as a private in- 
 dividual. But far from lending his military experience, 
 and the weight of his name, towards its defence, he 
 seized the favorable opportunity to satiate his thirst for 
 revenge. If he did not actually invite the Saxons to 
 Prague, at least his conduct facilitated its capture. 
 Though unprepared, the town might still hold out until 
 succors could arrive ; and an imperial colonel, Count 
 Maradas, showed serious intentions of undertaking its 
 defence. But without command and authority, and 
 having no support but his own zeal and courage, he did 
 not dare to venture upon such a step without the advice of 
 a superior. He therefore consulted the Duke of Fried- 
 land, whose approbation might supply the want of au- 
 thority from the Emperor, and to whom the Bohemian 
 generals were referred by an express edict of the court in 
 the last extremity. He, however, artfully excused him- 
 self, on the plea of holding no official appointment, and 
 his long retirement from the political world ; while he 
 weakened the resolution of the subalterns by the scruples 
 which he suggested, and painted in the strongest colors. 
 At last, to render the consternation general and complete, 
 he quitted the capital with his whole court, however 
 little he had to fear from its capture ; and the city was 
 lost, because, by his departure, he showed that he de- 
 spaired of its safety. His example was followed by all 
 the Roman Catholic nobility, the generals with their 
 troops, the clergy, and all the officers of the crown. All 
 night the people were employed in saving their persons 
 and effects. The roads to Vienna were crowded with 
 fugitives, who scarcely recovered from their consternation 
 till they reached the imperial city. Maradas himself, de- 
 spairing of the safety of Prague, followed the rest, and led 
 his small detachment to Tabor, where he awaited the event. 
 Profound silence reigned in Prague, when the Saxons 
 next morning appeared before it; no preparations were 
 made for defence; not a single shot from the walls
 
 216 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 
 
 announced an intention of resistance. On the contrary, 
 a crowd of spectators from the town, allured by curiosity, 
 came flocking round, to behold the foreign army ; and 
 the peaceful confidence with which they advanced re- 
 sembled a friendly salutation more than a hostile recep- 
 tion. From the concurrent reports of these people the 
 Swedes learned that the town had been deserted by the 
 troops, and that the government had fled to Budweiss. 
 This unexpected and inexplicable absence of resistance 
 excited Arnheim's distrust the more, as the speedy 
 approach of the Silesian succors was no secret to him, 
 and as he knew that the Saxon army was too indifferently 
 provided with materials for undertaking a siege, and by 
 far too weak in numbers to attempt to take the place by 
 storm. Apprehensive of stratagem, he redoubled his 
 vigilance ; and he continued in this conviction until 
 Wallenstein's house-steward, whom he discovered among 
 the crowd, confirmed to him this intelligence. " The 
 town is ours without a blow!" exclaimed he in astonish- 
 ment to his officers, and immediately summoned it by a 
 trumpeter. 
 
 The citizens of Prague, thus shamefully abandoned by 
 their defenders, had long taken their resolution ; all that 
 they had to do was to secure their properties and liberties 
 by an advantageous capitulation. No sooner was the 
 treaty signed by the Saxon general, in his master's name, 
 than the gates were opened,without farther opposition ; 
 and upon the llth of November, 1631, the army made 
 their triumphal entry. The Elector soon after followed 
 in person, to receive the homage of those whom he had 
 newly taken under his protection : for it was only in the 
 character of protector that the three towns of Prague had 
 surrendered to him. Their allegiance to the Austrian 
 monarchy was not to be dissolved by the step they had 
 taken. In proportion as the Papists' apprehensions of 
 reprisals on the part of the Protestants had been exag- 
 gerated, so was their surprise great at the moderation of 
 the Elector, and the discipline of his troops. Field- 
 Marshal Arnheim plainly evinced, on this occasion, his 
 respect for Wallenstein. Not content with sparing his 
 estates on his march, he now placed guards over his
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 217 
 
 palace, in Prague, to prevent the plunder of any of his 
 effects. The Roman Catholics of the town were allowed 
 the fullest liberty of conscience ; and of all the churches 
 they had wrested from the Protestants four only were 
 now taken back from them. From this general indulg- 
 ence none were excluded but the Jesuits, who were 
 generally considered as the authors of all past grievances, 
 and thus banished the kingdom. 
 
 John George belied not the submission and dependence 
 with which the terror of the imperial name inspired him ; 
 nor did he indulge at Prague in a course of conduct 
 which would assuredly have been pursued against himself 
 in Dresden by imperial generals, such as Tilly or Wallen- 
 stein. He carefully distinguished between the enemy 
 with whom he was at war, and the head of the Empire, 
 to whom he owed obedience. He did not venture to 
 touch the household furniture of the latter, while, with- 
 out scruple, he appropriated and transported to Dresden 
 the cannon of the former. He did not take up his resi- 
 dence in the imperial palace, but the house of Lichten- 
 stein ; too modest to use the apartments of one whom he 
 had deprived of a kingdom. Had this trait been related 
 of a great man and a hero it would irresistibly excite 
 our admiration ; but the character of this prince leaves us 
 in doubt whether this moderation ought to be ascribed to 
 a noble self-command or to the littleness of a weak mind, 
 which even good fortune could not embolden, and liberty 
 itself could not strip of its habituated fetters. 
 
 The surrender of Prague, which was quickly followed 
 by that of most of the other towns, effected a great and 
 sudden change in Bohemia. Many of the Protestant 
 nobility, who had hitherto been wandering about in 
 misery now returned to their native country ; and Count 
 Thurn, the famous author of the Bohemian insurrection, 
 enjoyed the triumph of returning as a conqueror to the 
 scene of his crime and his condemnation. Over the very 
 bridge where the heads of his adherents, exposed to view, 
 held out a fearful picture of the fate which had threatened 
 himself, he now made his triumphal entry ; and to re- 
 move these ghastly objects was his first care. The exiles 
 again took possession of their properties, without think-
 
 218 THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 
 
 ing of recompensing for the purchase-money the present 
 possessors, who had mostly taken to flight. Even though 
 they had received a price for their estates, they seized on 
 everything which had once been their own ; and many 
 had reason to rejoice at the economy of the late posses- 
 sors. The lands and cattle had greatly improved in their 
 hands; the apartments were now decorated with the 
 most costly furniture ; the cellars, which had been left 
 empty, were richly filled ; the stables supplied ; the mag- 
 azines stored with provisions. But distrusting the con- 
 stancy of that good fortune which had so unexpectedly 
 smiled upon them, they hastened to get quit of these 
 insecure possessions, and to convert their immovable into 
 transferable property. 
 
 The presence of the Saxons inspired all the Protestants 
 of the kingdom with courage; and both in the country 
 and the capital crowds flocked to the newly-opened 
 Protestant churches. Many, whom fear alone had re- 
 tained in their adherence to Popery, now openly pro- 
 fessed the new doctrine; and many of the late converts 
 to Roman Catholicism gladly renounced a compulsory 
 persuasion to follow the earlier conviction of their con- 
 science. All the moderation of the new regency could 
 not restrain the manifestation of that just displeasure 
 which this persecuted people felt against their oppressors. 
 They made a fearful and cruel use of their newly-recov- 
 ered rights; and, in many parts of the kingdom, their 
 hatred of the religion which they had been compelled 
 to profess could be satiated only by the blood of its 
 adherents. 
 
 Meantime the succors which the imperial generals, 
 Goetz and Tiefenbach, were conducting from Silesia, had 
 entered Bohemia, where they were joined by some of 
 Tilly's regiments, from the Upper Palatinate. In order 
 to disperse them before they should receive any further 
 reinforcements, Arnheim advanced with part of his army 
 from Prague, and made a vigorous attack on their in- 
 trenchments near Limburg, on the Elbe. After a severe 
 action, not without great loss, he drove the enemy from 
 their fortified camp, and forced them, by his heavy fire, 
 to recross the Elbe, and to destroy the bridge which they
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 219 
 
 had built over that river. Nevertheless, the Imperialists 
 obtained the advantage in several skirmishes, and the 
 Croats pushed their incursions to the very gates of 
 Prague. Brilliant and promising as the opening of the 
 Bohemian campaign had been, the issue by no means 
 satisfied the expectations of Gustavus Adolphus. Instead 
 of vigorously following up their advantages, by forcing a 
 passage to the Swedish army through the conquered 
 country, and then, with it, attacking the imperial power 
 in its centre, the Saxons weakened themselves in a war of 
 skirmishes, in which they were not always successful, 
 while they lost the time which should have been devoted 
 to greater undei'takings. But the Elector's subsequent 
 conduct betrayed the motives which had prevented him 
 from pushing his advantage over the Emperor, and by 
 consistent measures promoting the plans of the King of 
 Sweden. 
 
 The Emperor had now lost the greater part of Bohe- 
 mia, and the Saxons were advancing against Austria, 
 while the Swedish monarch was rapidly moving to the 
 same point through Franconia, Swabia, and Bavaria. A 
 long war had exhausted the strength of the Austrian 
 monarchy, wasted the country, and diminished its armies. 
 The renown of its victories was no more, as well as the 
 confidence inspired by constant success; its troops had 
 lost the obedience and discipline to which those of the 
 Swedish monarch owed all their superiority in the field. 
 The confederates of the Emperor were disarmed, or their 
 fidelity shaken by the danger which threatened them- 
 selves. Even Maximilian of Bavaria, Austria's most 
 powerful ally, seemed disposed to yield to the seductive 
 proposition "of neutrality ; while his suspicious alliance 
 with France had long been a subject of apprehension to 
 the Emperor. The Bishops of Wurtzburg and Bamberg, 
 the Elector of Mentz, and the Duke of Lorraine, were 
 either expelled from their territories, or threatened with 
 immediate attack; Treves had placed itself under the 
 protection of France. The bravery of the Hollanders 
 gave full employment to the Spanish arms in the Nether- 
 lands ; while Gustavus had driven them from the Rhine. 
 Poland was still fettered by the truce which subsisted
 
 220 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 
 
 between that country and Sweden. The Hungarian front- 
 ier was threatened by the Transylvanian Prince, Kagotsky, 
 a successor of Bethlem Gabor, and the inheritor of his 
 restless mind ; while the Porte was making great prepa- 
 ration to profit by the favorable conjuncture for aggres- 
 sion. Most of the Protestant states, encouraged by their 
 protector's success, were openly and actively declaring 
 against the Emperor. All the resources which had been 
 obtained by the violent and oppressive extortions of Tilly 
 and Wallenstein were exhausted ; all these depots, maga- 
 zines, and rallying-points were now lost to the Emperor ; 
 and the war could no longer be carried on, as before, at 
 the cost of others. To complete his embarrassment, a 
 dangerous insurrection broke out in the territory of the 
 Ens, where the ill-timed religious zeal of the government 
 had provoked the Protestants to resistance; and thus 
 fanaticism lit its torch within the empire, while a foreign 
 enemy was already on its frontier. After so long a con- 
 tinuance of good fortune, such brilliant victories and ex- 
 tensive conquests, such fruitless effusion of blood, the 
 Emperor saw himself a second time on the brink of that 
 abyss into which he was so near falling at the commence- 
 ment of his reign. If Bavaria should embrace the neu- 
 trality ; if Saxony should resist the tempting offers he 
 had held out ; and France resolve to attack the Spanish 
 power at the same time in the Netherlands, in Italy, and 
 in Catalonia, the ruin of Austria would be complete ; the 
 allied powers would divide its spoils, and the political 
 system of Germany would undergo a total change. 
 
 The chain of these disasters began with the battle of 
 Breitenfeld, the unfortunate issue of which plainly re- 
 vealed the long-decided decline of the Austrian power, 
 whose weakness had hitherto been concealed under the 
 dazzling glitter of a grand name. The chief cause of the 
 Swedes' superiority in the field was evidently to be 
 ascribed to the unlimited power of their leader, who con- 
 centrated in himself the whole strength of his party ; and, 
 unfettered in his enterprises by any higher authority, was 
 complete master of every favorable opportunity, could 
 control all his means to the accomplishment of his ends, 
 and was responsible to none but himself. But since
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 221 
 
 Wallenstein's dismissal, and Tilly's defeat, the very re- 
 verse of this course was pursued by the Emperor and the 
 League. The generals wanted authority over their troops, 
 and liberty of acting at their discretion ; the soldiers 
 were deficient in discipline and obedience ; the scattered 
 corps in combined operation ; the states in attachment to 
 the cause ; the leaders in harmony among themselves, in 
 quickness to resolve, and firmness to execute. What 
 gave the Emperor's enemy so decided an advantage over 
 him was not so much their superior power as their man- 
 ner of using it. The League and the Emperor did not 
 want means, but a mind capable of directing them with 
 energy and effect. Even had Count Tilly not lost his 
 old renown, distrust of Bavaria would not allow the Em- 
 peror to place the fate of Austria in the hands of one who 
 had never concealed his attachment to the Bavarian 
 Elector. The urgent want which Ferdinand felt was 
 for a general possessed of sufficient experience to form 
 and to command an army, and willing at the same time 
 to dedicate his services, with blind devotion, to the Aus- 
 trian monarchy. 
 
 This choice now occupied the attention of the Em- 
 peror's privy council, and divided the opinions of its 
 members. In order to oppose one monarch to another, 
 and by the presence of their sovereign to animate the 
 courage of the troops, Ferdinand, in the ardor of the 
 moment, had offered himself to be the leader of his army; 
 but little trouble was required to overturn a resolution 
 which was the offspring of despair alone, and which 
 yielded at once to calm reflection. But the situation 
 which his dignity, and the duties of administration, pre- 
 vented the Emperor from holding, might be filled by his 
 son, a youth of talents and bravery, and of whom the 
 subjects of Austria had already formed great expecta- 
 tions. Called by his birth to the defence of a monarchy, 
 of whose crowns he wore two already, Ferdinand III., 
 King of Hungary and Bohemia, united, with the natural 
 dignity of heir to the throne, the respect of the army, and 
 the attachment of the people, whose co-operation was in- 
 dispensable to him in the conduct of the war. None but 
 the beloved heir to the crown could venture to impose
 
 222 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 
 
 new burdens on a people already severely oppressed ; his 
 personal presence with the army could alone suppress the 
 pernicious jealousies of the several leaders, and, by the 
 influence of his name, restore the neglected discipline of 
 the troops to its former rigor. If so young a leader was 
 devoid of the maturity of judgment, prudence, and mili- 
 tary experience, which practice alone could impart, this 
 deficiency might be supplied by a judicious choice of 
 counsellors and assistants, who, under the cover of his 
 name, might be vested with supreme authority. 
 
 But plausible as were the arguments with which a part 
 of the ministry supported this plan, it was met by diffi- 
 culties not less serious, arising from the distrust, perhaps 
 even the jealousy of the Emperor, and also from the des- 
 perate state of affairs. How dangerous was it to entrust 
 the fate of the monarchy to a youth who was himself in 
 need of counsel and support ! How hazardous to oppose 
 to the greatest general of his age a tyro, whose fitness for 
 so important a post had never yet been tested by expe- 
 rience ; whose name, as yet unknown to fame, was far too 
 powerless to inspire a dispirited army with the assurance 
 of future victory! What a new burden on the coun- 
 try, to support the state a royal leader was required to 
 maintain, and which the prejudices of the age considered 
 as inseparable from his presence with the army! How 
 serious a consideration for the prince himself, to com- 
 mence his political career with an office which must make 
 him the scourge of his people, and the oppressor of the 
 territories which he was hereafter to rule. 
 
 But not only was a general to be found for the army ; 
 an army must also be found for the general. Since the 
 compulsory resignation of Wallenstein the Emperor had 
 defended himself more by the assistance of Bavaria and 
 the League than by his own armies ; and it was this de- 
 pendence on equivocal allies which he was endeavoring 
 to escape by the appointment of a general of his own. 
 But what possibility was there of raising an army out of 
 nothing, without the all-powerful aid of gold, and the 
 inspiriting name of a victorious commander ; above all, 
 an army which, by its discipline, warlike spirit, and ac- 
 tivity should be fit to cope with the experienced troops
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 223 
 
 of the northern conqueror ? In all Europe, there was but 
 one man equal to this, and that one had been mortally 
 affronted. 
 
 The moment had at last arrived when more than ordi- 
 nary satisfaction was to be done to the wounded pride of 
 the Duke of Friedland. Fate itself had been his avenger, 
 and an unbroken chain of disasters, which had assailed 
 Austria from the day of his dismissal, had wrung from 
 the Emperor the humiliating confession that with this 
 general he had lost his right arm. Every defeat of his 
 troops opened afresh this wound ; every town which he 
 lost revived in the mind of the deceived monarch the 
 memory of his own weakness and ingratitude. It would 
 have been well for him if, in the offended general, "he 
 had only lost a leader of his troops, and a defender of his 
 dominions ; but he was destined to find in him an enemy, 
 and the most dangerous of all, since he was least armed 
 against the stroke of treason. 
 
 Removed from the theatre of war, and condemned to 
 irksome inaction, while his rivals gathered laurels on the 
 field of glory, the haughty duke had beheld these changes 
 of fortune with affected composure, and concealed, under 
 a glittering and theatrical pomp, the dark designs of his 
 restless genius. Torn by burning passions within, while 
 all without bespoke calmness and indifference, he brooded 
 over projects of ambition and revenge, and slowly, but 
 surely, advanced towards his end. All that he owed to 
 the Emperor was effaced from his mind ; what he himself 
 had done for the Emperor was imprinted in burning 
 characters on his memory. To his insatiable thirst for 
 power the Emperor's ingratitude was welcome, as it 
 seemed to tear in pieces the record of past favors, to 
 absolve from him every obligation towards his former 
 benefactor. In the disguise of a righteous retaliation, the 
 projects dictated by his ambition now appeared to him 
 just and pure. In proportion as the external circle of 
 his operations was narrowed, the world of hope expanded 
 before him, and his dreamy imagination revelled in 
 boundless projects, which, in any mind but such as his, 
 madness alone could have given birth to. His services 
 had raised him to the proudest height which it was pos-
 
 224 THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 
 
 sible for a man, by his own efforts, to attain. Fortune 
 had denied him nothing which the subject and the citizen 
 could lawfully enjoy. Till the moment of his dismissal 
 his demands had met with no refusal, his ambition had 
 met with no check ; but the blow which, at the Diet 
 of Ratisbon, humbled him, showed him the difference 
 between original and deputed power, the distance be- 
 tween the subject and his sovereign. Roused from the 
 intoxication of his own greatness by this sudden reverse 
 of fortune, he compared the authority which he had 
 possessed with that which had deprived him of it; and 
 his ambition marked the steps which it had yet to sur- 
 mount upon the ladder of fortune. From the moment he 
 had so bitterly experienced the weight of sovereign 
 power, his efforts were directed to attain it for himself; 
 the wrong which he himself had suffered made him a 
 robber. Had he not been outraged by injustice he might 
 have obediently moved in his orbit round the majesty of 
 the throne, satisfied with the glory of being the brightest 
 of its satellites. It was only when violently forced from 
 its sphere, that his wandering star threw in disorder the 
 system to which it belonged, and came in destructive 
 collision with its sun. 
 
 Gustavus Adolphus had overrun the north of Germany; 
 one place after another was lost ; and at Leipzig the 
 flower of the Austrian army had fallen. The intelligence 
 of this defeat soon reached the ears of Wallenstein, who, 
 in the retired obscurity of a private station in Prague, 
 contemplated from a calm distance the tumult of war. 
 The news, which filled the breasts of the Roman Catholics 
 with 'dismay, announced to him the return of greatness 
 and good fortune. For him was Gustavus Adolphus 
 laboring. Scarce had the king begun to gain reputation 
 by his exploits when Wallenstein lost not a moment to 
 court his friendship, and to make common cause with this 
 successful enemy of Austria. The banished Count Thurn 
 who had long entered the service of Sweden, undertook 
 to convey Wallenstein's congratulations to the king, and 
 to invite him to a close alliance with the duke. Wallen- 
 stein required fifteen thousand men from the king; and 
 with these, and the troops he himself engaged to raise, he
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 225 
 
 undertook to conquer Bohemia and Moravia, to surprise 
 Vienna, and drive his master, the Emperor, before him 
 into Italy. Welcome as was this unexpected proposition, 
 its extravagant promises were naturally calculated to ex- 
 cite suspicion. Gustavus Adolphus was too good a judge of 
 merit to reject with coldness the offers of one who might 
 be so important a friend. But when Wallenstein, en- 
 couraged by the favorable reception of his first message, 
 renewed it after the battle of Breitenfeld, and pressed 
 for a decisive answer, the prudent monarch hesitated to 
 trust his reputation to the chimerical projects of so daring 
 an adventurer, and to commit so large a force to the 
 honesty of a man who felt no shame in openly avowing 
 himself a traitor. He excused himself, therefore, on the 
 plea of the weakness of his army, which, if diminished by 
 so large a detachment, would certainly suffer in its march 
 through the empire ; and thus, perhaps, by excess of 
 caution, lost an opportunity of putting an immediate end 
 to the war. He afterwards endeavored to renew the nego- 
 tiations ; but the favorable moment was past, and Wallen- 
 stein's offended pride never forgave the first neglect. 
 
 But the king's hesitation, perhaps, only accelerated the 
 breach which their characters made inevitable sooner or 
 later. Both framed by nature to give laws, not to receive 
 them, they could not long have co-operated in an enter- 
 prise which eminently demanded mutual submission and 
 sacrifices. Wallenstein was nothing where he was not 
 everything; he must either act with unlimited power or 
 not at all. So cordially, too, did Gustavus dislike con- 
 trol, that he had almost renounced his advantageous 
 alliance with France because it threatened to fetter his 
 own independent judgment. Wallenstein was lost to a 
 party if he could not lead ; the latter was, if possible, still 
 less disposed to obey the instructions of another. If the 
 pretensions of a rival would be so irksome to the Duke of 
 Friedland, in the conduct of combined operations, in 
 the division of the spoil they would be insupportable. 
 The proud monarch might condescend to accept the 
 assistance of a rebellious subject against the Emperor, 
 and to reward his valuable services with regal munifi- 
 cence; but he never could so far lose sight of his owii
 
 226 THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 
 
 dignity, and the majesty of royalty, as to bestow the 
 recompense which the extravagant ambition of Wallen- 
 stein demanded ; and requite an act of treason, however 
 useful, with a crown. In him, therefore, even if all 
 Europe should tacitly acquiesce, W alien stein had reason 
 to expect the most decided and formidable opponent to 
 his views on the Bohemian crown ; and in all Europe he 
 was the only one who could enforce his opposition. 
 Constituted Dictator in Germany by Wallenstein himself, 
 he might turn his arms against him, and consider himself 
 bound by no obligation to one who was himself a traitor. 
 There was no room for a Wallenstein under such an ally; 
 and it was, apparently, this conviction, and not any 
 supposed designs upon the imperial throne, that he 
 alluded to, when, after the death of the King of Sweden, 
 he exclaimed, " It is well for him and me that he is gone. 
 The German Empire does not require two such leaders." 
 His first scheme of revenge on the house of Austria 
 had indeed failed ; but the purpose itself remained un- 
 alterable ; the choice of means alone was changed. What 
 he had failed in effecting with the King of Sweden, he 
 hoped to obtain with less difficulty and more advantage 
 from the Elector of Saxony. Him he was as certain of 
 being able to bend to his views as he had always been 
 doubtful of Gustavus Adolphus. Having always main- 
 tained a good understanding with his old friend Arnheim, 
 he now made use of him to bring about an alliance with 
 Saxony, by which he hoped to render himself equally 
 formidable to the Emperor and the King of Sweden. He 
 had reason to expect that a scheme, which, if successful, 
 would deprive the Swedish monarch of his influence in 
 Germany, would be welcomed by the Elector of Saxony, 
 who he knew was jealous of the power and offended at 
 the lofty pretensions of Gustavus Adolphus. If he suc- 
 ceeded in separating Saxony from the Swedish alliance, 
 and in establishing, conjointly with that power, a third 
 party in the Empire, the fate of the war would be placed 
 in his hand ; and by this single step he would succeed "in 
 gratifying his revenge against the Emperor, revenging 
 the neglect of the Swedish monarch, and on the ruin of 
 both raising the edifice of his own greatness.
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 227 
 
 But whatever course he might follow in the prosecution 
 of his designs he could not carry them into effect with- 
 out an army entirely devoted to him. Such a force could 
 not be secretly raised without its coming to the knowl- 
 edge of the imperial court, where it would naturally 
 excite suspicion, and thus frustrate his design in the very 
 outset. From the army, too, the rebellious purposes for 
 which it was destined must be concealed till the very 
 moment of execution, since it could scarcely be expected 
 that they would at once be prepared to listen to the voice 
 of a traitor, and serve against their legitimate sovereign. 
 Wallenstein, therefore, must raise it publicly, and in 
 name of the Emperor, and be placed at its head, with 
 unlimited authority, by the Emperor himself. But how 
 could this be accomplished otherwise than by his being 
 appointed to the command of the army, and entrusted 
 with full powers to conduct the war. Yet neither his 
 pride nor his interest permitted him to sue in person for 
 this post, and as a suppliant to accept from the favor of 
 the Emperor a limited power, when an unlimited author- 
 ity might be extorted from his fears. In order to make 
 himself the master of the terms on which he would 
 resume the command of the army, his course was to wait 
 until the post should be forced upon him. This was 
 the advice he received from Arnheim, and this the end 
 for which he labored with profound policy and restless 
 activity. 
 
 Convinced that extreme necessity would alone conquer 
 the Emperor's irresolution, and render powerless the 
 opposition of his bitter enemies, Bavaria and Spain, he 
 henceforth occupied himself in promoting the success of 
 the enemy, and in increasing the embarrassments of his 
 master. It was apparently by his instigation and advice 
 that the Saxons, when on the route to Lusatia and Silesia, 
 had turned their march towards Bohemia, and overrun 
 that defenceless kingdom, where their rapid conquests 
 was partly the result of his measures. By the fears 
 which he affected to entertain he paralyzed every effort 
 at resistance ; and his precipitate retreat caused the deliv- 
 ery of the capital to the enemy. At a conference with 
 the Saxon general, which was held at Kaunitz under the
 
 228 THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 
 
 pretext of negotiating for a peace, the seal was put to 
 the conspiracy, and the conquest of Bohemia was the 
 first fruits of this mutual understanding. While Wallen- 
 stein was thus personally endeavoring to heighten the 
 perplexities of Austria, and while the rapid movements 
 of the Swedes upon the Rhine effectually promoted his 
 designs, his friends and bribed adherents in Vienna 
 uttered loud complaints of the public calamities, and 
 represented the dismissal of the general as the sole cause 
 of all these misfortunes. " Had Wallenstein commanded, 
 matters would never have come to this," exclaimed a 
 thousand voices ; while their opinions found supporters, 
 even in the Emperor's privy council. 
 
 Their repeated remonstrances were not needed to con- 
 vince the embarrassed Emperor of his general's merits, 
 and of his own error. His dependence on Bavaria and 
 the League had soon become insupportable ; but hitherto 
 this dependence permitted him not to show his distrust, 
 or irritate the Elector by the recall of "Wallenstein. But 
 now, when his necessities grew every day more pressing, 
 and the weakness of Bavaria more apparent, he could no 
 longer hesitate to listen to the friends of the duke, and to 
 consider their overtures for his restoration to command. 
 The immense riches Wallenstein possessed, the universal 
 reputation he enjoyed, the rapidity with which six years 
 before he had assembled an army of forty thousand men, 
 the little expense at which he had maintained this for- 
 midable force, the actions he had performed at its head, 
 and, lastly, the zeal and fidelity he had displayed for h;s 
 master's honor, still lived in the Emperor's recollection, 
 and made Wallenstein seem to him the ablest instrument 
 to restore the balance between the belligerent powers, to 
 save Austria, and preserve the Catholic religion. How- 
 ever sensibly the imperial pi-ide might feet the humilia- 
 tion in being forced to make so unequivocal an admission 
 of past errors and present necessity; however painful it 
 was to descend to humble entreaties from the height of 
 imperial command ; however doubtful the fidelity of so 
 deeply-injured and implacable a character; however 
 loudly and urgently the Spanish minister and the Elector 
 of Bavaria protested against this step, the immediate
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 229 
 
 pressure of necessity finally overcame every other con- 
 sideration, and the friends of the duke were empowered 
 to consult him on the subject, and to hold out the pros- 
 pect of his restoration. 
 
 Informed of all that was transacted in the Emperor's 
 cabinet to his advantage, Wallenstein possessed sufficient 
 self-command to conceal his inward triumph and to 
 assume the mask of indifference. The moment of ven- 
 geance was at last come, and his proud heart exulted in 
 the prospect of repaying with interest the injuries of the 
 Emperor. With artful eloquence he expatiated upon the 
 happy tranquillity of a private station, which had blessed 
 him since his retirement from a political stage. Too 
 long, he said, had he tasted the pleasures of ease and in- 
 dependence to sacrifice to the vain phantom of glory the 
 uncertain favor of princes. All his desire of power and 
 distinction were extinct: tranquillity and repose were 
 now the sole object of his wishes. The better to conceal 
 his real impatience, he declined the Emperor's invitation 
 to the court, but at the same time, to facilitate the nego- 
 tiations, came to Znaim, in Moravia. 
 
 At first it was proposed to limit the authority to be 
 entrusted to him, by the presence of a superior, in order 
 by this expedient to silence the objections of the Elector 
 of Bavaria. The imperial deputies, Questenberg and 
 Werdenberg, who, as old friends of the duke, had been 
 employed in this delicate mission, were instructed to pro- 
 pose that the King of Hungary should remain with the 
 army, and learn the art of war under Wallenstein. But 
 the very mention of his name threatened to put a period 
 to the whole negotiation. " Xo ! never," exclaimed Wal- 
 lenstein, " will I submit to a colleague in my office. No 
 not even if it were God himself with Mhom I should 
 have to share my command." But even when this ob- 
 noxious point -was given up, Prince Eggenberg, the 
 Emperor's minister and favorite, who had always been 
 the steady friend and zealous champion of Wallenstein, 
 and was therefore expressly sent to him, exhausted his 
 eloquence in vain to overcome the pretended -reluctance 
 of the duke. "The Emperor," he admitted, "had, in 
 Walienstein, thrown away the most costly jewel in his
 
 230 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 
 
 crown : but unwillingly and compulsorily only had he 
 taken this step, which he had since deeply repented of ; 
 while his esteem for the duke had remained unaltered, his 
 favor for him undiminished. Of these sentiments he now 
 gave the most decisive proof, by reposing unlimited con- 
 fidence in his fidelity and capacity to repair the mistakes 
 of his predecessors, and to change the whole aspect of 
 affairs. It would be great and noble to sacrifice his just 
 indignation to the good of his country; dignified and 
 worthy of him to refute the evil calumny of his enemies 
 by the double warmth of his zeal. This victory over 
 himself," concluded the prince, " would crown his other 
 unparalleled services to the empire, and render him the 
 greatest man of his age." 
 
 These humiliating confessions, and flattering assurances, 
 seemed at last to disarm the anger of the duke ; but not 
 before he had disburdened his heart of his reproaches 
 against the Emperor, pompously dwelt upon his own ser- 
 vices, and humbled to the utmost the monarch who 
 solicited his assistance, did he condescend to listen to the 
 attractive proposals of the minister. As if he yielded 
 entirely to the force of their arguments, he condescended 
 with a haughty reluctance to that which was the most 
 ardent wish of his heart ; and deigned to favor the am- 
 bassadors with a ray of hope. But far from putting an 
 end to the Emperor's embarrassments, by giving at once 
 a full and unconditional consent, he only acceded to a 
 part of his demands, that he might exalt the value of that 
 which still remained, and was of most importance. He 
 accepted the command, but only for three months ; merely 
 for the purpose of raising, but not of leading an army. 
 He wished only to show his power and ability in its 
 organization, and to display before the eyes of the Em- 
 peror the greatness of that assistance which he still 
 retained in his hands. Convinced that an army raised by 
 his name alone would, if deprived of its creator, soon 
 sink again into nothing, he intended it to serve only as a 
 decoy to draw more important concessions from his mas- 
 ter. And yet Ferdinand congratulated himself, oven in 
 having gained so much as he had. 
 
 Wallenstein did not long delay to fulfil those promises
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 231 
 
 which all Germany regarded as chimerical, and which 
 Gustavus Adolphus had considered as extravagant. But 
 the foundation for the present enterprise had been long 
 laid, and he now only put in motion the machinery which 
 many years had been prepared for the purpose. Scarcely 
 had the news spread of Wallenstein's levies, when, from 
 every quarter of the Austrian monarchy, crowds of 
 soldiers repaired to try their fortunes under this expe- 
 rienced general. Many, who had before fought under 
 his standards, had been admiring eye-witnesses of his 
 great actions, and experienced his magnanimity, came 
 forward from their retirement to share with him a 
 second time both booty and glory. The greatness of the 
 pay he promised attracted thousands, and the plentiful 
 supplies the soldier was likely to enjoy at the cost of 
 the peasant was to the latter an irresistible inducement to 
 embrace the military life at once, rather than be the 
 victim of its oppression. All the Austrian provinces 
 were compelled to assist in the equipment. Xo class 
 was exempt from taxation no dignity or privilege from 
 capitation. The Spanish court, as well as the King of 
 Hungary, agreed to contribute a considerable sum. The 
 ministers made large presents, while Wallenstein himself 
 advanced two hundred thousand dollars from his own 
 income to hasten the armament. The poorer officers he 
 supported out of his own revenues; and, by his own 
 example, by brilliant promotions, and still more brilliant 
 promises, he induced all who were able to raise troops 
 at their own expense. Whoever raised a corps at his 
 own cost was to be its commander. In the appointment 
 of officers, religion made no difference. Riches, bravery, 
 and experience were more regarded than creed. By 
 this uniform treatment of different religious sects, and 
 still more by his express declaration, that his present levy 
 had nothing to do with religion, the Protestant subjects 
 of the empire were tranquillized, and reconciled to bear 
 their share of the public burdens. The duke, at the 
 same time, did not omit to treat, in his own name, with 
 foreign states for men and money. He prevailed on the 
 Duke of Lorraine, a second time, to espouse the cause of 
 the Emperor. Poland was urged to supply him with
 
 232 THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 
 
 Cossacks, and Italy with warlike necessaries. Before the 
 three months were expired the army, which was assembled 
 in Moravia, amounted to no less than forty thousand men, 
 chiefly drawn from the unconquered parts of Bohemia, 
 from Moravia, Silesia, and the German provinces of the 
 House of Austria. What to every one had appeared 
 impracticable, Wallenstein, to the astonishment of all 
 Europe, had in a short time effected. The charm of his 
 name, his treasures, and his genius had assembled 
 thousands in arms, where before Austria had only looked 
 for hundreds. Furnished, even to superfluity, with all 
 necessaries, commanded by experienced officers, and 
 inflamed by enthusiasm which assured itself of victory, 
 this newly-created army only awaited the signal of their 
 leader to show themselves, by the bravery of their deeds, 
 worthy of his choice. 
 
 The duke had fulfilled his promise, and the troops 
 were ready to take the field ; he then retired, and left to 
 the Emperor to choose a commander. But it would 
 have been as easy to raise a second army like the first as 
 to find any other commander for it than Wallenstein. 
 This promising army, the last hope of the Emperor, was 
 nothing but an illusion as soon as the charm was dissolved 
 which had called it into existence ; by Wallenstein it had 
 been raised, and without him it sank like a creation of 
 magic into its original nothingness. Its officers were 
 either bound to him as his debtors, or, as his creditors, 
 closely connected with his interests, and the preservation 
 of his power. The regiments he had entrusted t^o his 
 own relations, creatures, and favorites. He, and he 
 alone, could discharge to the troops the extravagant 
 promises by which they had bsen lured into his service. 
 His pledged word was the only security on which their 
 bold expectations rested ; a blind reliance on his omnipo- 
 tence, the only tie which linked together in one common 
 life and soul the various impulses of their zeal. There 
 was an end of the good fortune of each individual if he 
 retired, who alone was the voucher of its fulfilment. 
 
 However little Wallenstein was serious in his refusal, 
 he successfully employed this means to terrify the Em- 
 peror into consenting to his extravagant conditions. The
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 233 
 
 progress of the enemy every day increased the pressure 
 of the Emperor's difficulties, while the remedy was also 
 close at hand; a word from him might terminate the 
 general embarrassment. Prince Eggenberg at length 
 received orders, for the third and last time, at any cost 
 and sacrifice, to induce his friend, Wallenstein, to accept 
 the command. 
 
 He found him at Znaim, in Moravia, pompously sur- 
 rounded by the troops, the possession of which he made 
 the Emperor so earnestly to long for. As a suppliant did 
 the haughty subject receive the deputy of his sovereign. 
 "He never could trust," he said, "to a restoration to 
 command, which he owed to the Emperor's necessities, 
 and not to 'his sense of justice. He \vas now courted 
 because the danger had reached its height, and safety was 
 hoped for from his arm only ; but his successful services 
 would soon cause the servant to be forgotten, and the 
 return of security would bring back renewed ingratitude. 
 If he deceived the expectations formed of him, his long- 
 earned reno\vn would be forfeited ; even if he fulfilled 
 them, his repose and happiness must be sacrificed. Soon 
 would envy be excited anew, and the dependent monarch 
 would not hesitate a second time to make an offering of 
 convenience to a servant whom he could now dispense 
 with. Better for him at once, and voluntarily, to resign 
 a post from which sooner or later the intrigues of his 
 enemies would expel him. Security and content were to 
 be found in the bosom of private life; and nothing but 
 the wish to oblige the Emperor had induced him, reluc- 
 tantly enough, to relinquish for a time his blissful re- 
 pose." 
 
 Tired of this long farce, the minister at last assumed a 
 serious tone, and threatened the obstinate duke with the 
 Emperor's resentment if he persisted in his refusal. 
 "Low enough had the imperial dignity," he added, 
 " stooped already ; and yet, instead of exciting his mag- 
 nanimity by its condescension, had only flattered his pride 
 and increased his obstinacy. If this sacrifice had been 
 made in vain, he would not answer but that the suppli- 
 ant might be converted into the sovereign, and that the 
 monarch might not avenge his injured dignity on his
 
 234 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 
 
 rebellious subject. However greatly Ferdinand may 
 have erred, the Emperor at leaet had a claim to obedi- 
 ence ; the man might be mistaken, but the monarch 
 could not confess his error. If the Duke of Friedland 
 had suffered by an unjust decree, he might yet be recom- 
 pensed for all his losses ; the wound which it had itself 
 inflicted the hand of Majesty might heal. If he asked 
 security for his person and his dignities, the Emperor's 
 equity would refuse him no reasonable demand. Majesty 
 contemned, admitted not of any atonement ; disobedience 
 to its commands cancelled the most brilliant services. 
 The Emperor required his services, and as Emperor he 
 demanded them. Whatever price Wallenstein might set 
 upon them, the Emperor would readily agree to ; but he 
 demanded obedience, or the weight of his indignation 
 should crush the refractory servant." 
 
 Wallenstein, whose extensive possessions within the 
 Austrian monarchy were momentarily exposed to the 
 power of the Emperor, was keenly sensible that this was 
 no idle threat; yet it was not fear that at last overcame 
 his affected reluctance. This imperious tone of itself 
 was to his mind a plain proof of the weakness and despair 
 which dictated it, while the Emperor's readiness to yield 
 all his demands convinced him that he had attained the 
 summit of his wishes. He now made a show of yielding 
 to the persuasions of Eggenberg ; and left him in order to 
 write down the conditions on which he accepted the com- 
 mand. 
 
 Not without apprehension did the minister receive the 
 writing in which the proudest of subjects had prescribed 
 laws to the proudest of sovereigns. But however little 
 confidence he had in the moderation of his friend, the 
 extravagant contents of his writing surpassed even his 
 worst expectations. Wallenstein required the uncon- 
 trolled command over all the German armies of Austria 
 and Spain, with unlimited powers to reward and punish. 
 Neither the King of Hungary, nor the Emperor himself, 
 were to appear in the army, still less to exercise any act 
 of authority over it. No commission in the army, no pen- 
 sion or letter of grace, was to be granted by the Emperor 
 without Wallenstein's approval. All the conquests and
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 235 
 
 confiscations that should take place were to be placed 
 entirely at Wallenstein's disposal, to the exclusion of 
 every other tribunal. For his ordinary pay, an imperial 
 hereditary estate was to be assigned him, with another of 
 the conquered estates within the empire for his extraordi- 
 nary expenses. Every Austrian province was to be 
 opened to him if he required it in case of retreat. He 
 farther demanded the assurance of the possession of the 
 Duchy of Mecklenburg, in the event of a future peace ; 
 and a formal and timely intimation, if it should be 
 deemed necessary a second time to deprive him of the 
 command. 
 
 In vain the minister entreated him to moderate his 
 demands, which, if granted, would deprive the Emperor 
 of all authority over his own troops, and make him 
 absolutely dependent on his general. The value placed on 
 his services had been too plainly manifested to prevent 
 him dictating the price at which they were to be pur- 
 chased. If the pressure of circumstances compelled the 
 Emperor to grant these demands, it was more than a 
 mere feeling of haughtiness and desire of revenge which 
 induced the duke to make them. His plans of re- 
 bellion were formed to their success, every one of the 
 conditions for which Wallenstein stipulated in this treaty 
 with the court was indispensable. Those plans required 
 that the Emperor should be deprived of all authority in 
 Germany, and be placed at the mercy of his general ; and 
 this object would be attained the moment Ferdinand 
 subscribed the required conditions. The use which Wai- 
 lenstein intended to make of his army (widely different 
 indeed from that for which it was entrusted to him), 
 brooked not of a divided power, and still less of an 
 authority superior to his own. To be the sole master of 
 the will of his troops, he must also be the sole master 
 their destinies ; insensibly to supplant his sovereign, and 
 to transfer permanently to his own person the rights ot 
 sovereignty, which were only lent to him for a time by a 
 higher authority, he must cautiously keep the latter out 
 of the view of the army. Hence his obstinate refusal 1 
 allow any prince of the house of Austria to be present 
 with the army. The liberty of free disposal of all
 
 236 THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 
 
 conquered and confiscated estates in the empire would 
 also afford him fearful means of purchasing dependents 
 and instruments of his plans, and of acting the dictator in 
 Germany more absolutely than ever any emperor did in 
 time of peace. By the right to use any of the Austrian 
 provinces as a place of refuge, in case of need, he had full 
 power to hold the Emperor a prisoner by means of his 
 own forces, and within his own dominions; to exhaust the 
 strength and resources of these countries, and to under- 
 mine the power of Austria in its very foundation. 
 
 Whatever might be the issue he had equally secured 
 his own advantage by the conditions he had extorted 
 from the Emperor. If circumstances proved favorable to 
 his daring project, this treaty with the Emperor facili- 
 tated its execution ; if, on the contrary, the course of 
 things ran counter to it, it would at least afford him a 
 brilliant compensation for the failure of his plans. But 
 how could he consider an agreement valid which was 
 extorted from his sovereign and based upon treason ? 
 How could he hope to blind the Emperor by a written 
 agreement, in the face of a law which condemned to 
 death every one who should have the presumption to 
 impose conditions upon him? But this criminal was the 
 most indispensable man in the empire, and Ferdinand, 
 well practised in dissimulation, granted him for the 
 present all he required. 
 
 At last then the imperial army had found a com- 
 mander-in-chief worthy of the name. Every other au- 
 thority in the army, even that of the Emperor himself, 
 ceased from the moment Wallenstein assumed the com- 
 mander's baton, and every act was invalid which did not 
 proceed from him. From the banks of the Danube to 
 those of the Weser and the Oder, was felt the life-giving 
 dawning of this new star; a new spirit seemed to inspire 
 the troops of the Emperor, a new epoch of the war began. 
 The Papists form fresh hopes, the Protestant beholds 
 with anxiety the changed course of affairs. 
 
 The greater the price at which the services of the new 
 general had been purchased, the -greater justly were the 
 expectations from those which the court of the Emperor 
 entertained. But the duke was in no hurry to fulfil
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 237 
 
 these expectations. Already in the vicinity of Bohemia, 
 and at the head of a formidable force, he had but to 
 show himself there in order to overpower the exhausted 
 force of the Saxons, and brilliantly to commence his new- 
 career by the reconquest of that kingdom. But, con- 
 tented with harassing the enemy with indecisive skir- 
 mishes of his Croats, he abandoned the best part of that 
 kingdom to be plundered, and moved calmly forward in 
 pursuit of his own selfish plans. His design was, not to 
 conquer the Saxons, but to unite with them. Exclusively 
 occupied with this important object, he remained inactive 
 in the hope of conquering more surely by means of nego- 
 tiation. He left no expedient untried to detach this 
 prince from the Swedish alliance ; and Ferdinand himself, 
 ever inclined to an accommodation with this prince, 
 approved of this proceeding. But the great debt which 
 Saxony owed to Sweden was as yet too freshly remem- 
 bered to allow of such an act of perfidy ; and even had 
 the Elector been disposed to yield to the temptation, the 
 equivocal character of Wallenstein, and the bad character 
 of Austrian policy, precluded any reliance in the integrity 
 of its promises. Notorious already as a treacherous 
 statesman, he met not with faith upon the very occasion 
 when perhaps he intended to act honestly; and, more- 
 over, was denied, by circumstances, the opportunity of 
 proving the sincerity of his intentions by the disclosure 
 of his real motives. 
 
 He therefore unwillingly resolved to extort by force 
 of arms what, he could not obtain by negotiation. . Sud- 
 denly assembling his troops, he appeared before Prague 
 ere the Saxons had time to advance to its relief. After 
 a short resistance the treachery of some Capuchins opens 
 the gates to one of his regiments ; and the garrison, who 
 had taken refuge in the citadel, soon laid down their 
 arms upon disgraceful conditions. Master of the capital, 
 he hoped to carry on more successfully his negotiations 
 at the Saxon court; but even while he was renewing his 
 proposals to Arnheim, he did not hesitate to give them 
 weight by striking a decisive blow. He hastened to 
 seize the narrow passes between Aussig and Pirna, with 
 a view of cutting off the retreat of the Saxons into their
 
 238 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 
 
 own country ; but the rapidity of Arnheim's operations 
 fortunately extricated them from the danger. After the 
 retreat of this general, Egra and Leutmeritz, the last 
 strongholds of the Saxons, surrendered to the con- 
 queror, and the whole kingdom was restored to its legiti- 
 mate sovereign in less time than it had been lost. 
 
 Wallenstein, less occupied with the interests of his 
 master than with the furtherance of his own plans, now 
 purposed to carry the war into b'axony, and by ravaging 
 his territories compel the Elector to enter into a private 
 treaty with the Emperor, or rather with himself. But, 
 however little accustomed lie was to make his will bend 
 to circumstances, he now perceived the necessity of post- 
 poning his favorite scheme for a time to a more pressing 
 emergency. While he was driving the Saxons from 
 Bohemia, Gustavus Adolphus had been gaining the victo- 
 ries, already detailed, on the Rhine and Danube, and 
 carried the war through Franconia and Swabia to the 
 frontiers of Bavaria. Maximilian, defeated on the Lech, 
 and deprived by death of Count Tilly, his best support, 
 urgently solicited the Emperor to send with all speed the 
 Duke of Friedland to his assistance, from Bohemia, and 
 by the defence of Bavaria to avert the danger from 
 Austria itself. He also made the same request of Wal- 
 lenstein, and entreated him, till he could himself come 
 with the main force, to despatch in the meantime a few 
 regiments to his aid. Ferdinand seconded the request 
 with all his influence, and one messenger after another 
 was sent to Wallenstein urging him to move towards the 
 Danube. 
 
 It now appeared how completely the Emperor had sacri- 
 ficed his authority in surrendering to another the supreme 
 command of his troops. Indifferent to Maximilian's en- 
 treaties, and deaf to the Emperor's repeated commands, 
 Wallenstein remained inactive in Bohemia and aban- 
 doned the Elector to his fate. The remembrance of the 
 evil service which Maximilian had rendered him with the 
 Emperor at the Diet at Ratisbon was deeply engraved 
 on the implacable mind of the duke, and the Elector's 
 late attempts to prevent his reinstatement were no secret 
 to him. The moment of avenging this affront had now
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 239 
 
 arrived, and Maximilian was doomed to pay dearly for 
 his folly in provoking the most revengeful of men. Wal- 
 lenstein maintained that Bohemia ought not to be left 
 exposed, and that Austria could not be better protected 
 than by allowing the Swedish army to waste its strength 
 before the Bavarian fortress. Thus, by the arm of the 
 Swedes, he chastised his enemy ; and, while one place 
 after another fell into their hands, he allowed the Elector 
 vainly to await his arrival in Ratisbon. It was only 
 when the complete subjugation of Bohemia left him 
 without excuse, and the conquests of Gustavus Adolphus 
 in Bavaria threatened Austria itself, that he yielded to 
 the pressing entreaties of the Elector and the Emperor, 
 and determined to effect the long-expected union with 
 the former; an event, which, according to the general 
 anticipation of the Roman Catholics, would decide the 
 fate of the campaign. 
 
 Gustavus Adolphus, too weak in numbers to cope even 
 with Wallenstein's force alone, naturally dreaded the 
 junction of such powerful armies; and the little energy 
 he used to prevent it was the occasion of great surprise. 
 Apparently he reckoned too much on the hatred which 
 alienated the leaders, and seemed to render their effectual 
 co-operation improbable. When the event contradicted 
 his views it was too late to repair his error. On the first 
 certain intelligence he received of their designs he 
 hastened to the Upper Palatinate for the purpose of inter- 
 cepting the Elector, but the latter had already arrived 
 there, and the junction had been effected at Egra. 
 
 This frontier town had been chosen by Wallenstein 
 for the scene of his triumph over his proud rival. Not 
 content with having seen him, as it were, a suppliant at 
 his feet, he imposed upon him the hard condition of leav- 
 ing his territories in his rear exposed to the enemy, and 
 declaring by this long march to meet him, the necessity 
 and distress to which he was reduced. Even to this 
 humiliation the haughty prince patiently submitted. It 
 had cost him a severe struggle to ask for protection df 
 the man who, if his own wishes had been consulted, 
 would never have had the power of granting it; but 
 having once made up his mind to it, he wae ready to bear
 
 240 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 
 
 all the annoyances which were inseparable from that 
 resolve, and sufficiently master of himself to put up with 
 petty grievances when an important end was in view. 
 
 But whatever pains it had cost to effect this junction, 
 it was equally difficult to settle the conditions on which 
 it was to be maintained. The united army must be 
 placed under the command of one individual, if any 
 object was to be gained by the union, and each general 
 was equally averse to yield to the superior authority of 
 the other. If Maximilian rested his claim on his electoral 
 dignity, the nobleness of his descent, and his influence in 
 the empire, Wallenstein's military renown and the un- 
 limited command conferred on him by the Emperor, 
 gave an equally strong title to it. If it was deeply 
 humiliating to the pride of the former to serve under an 
 imperial subject, the idea of imposing laws on so imperi- 
 ous a spirit flattered in the same degree the haughtiness 
 of Wallenstein. An obstinate dispute ensued, which, 
 however, terminated in a mutual compromise to Wallen- 
 stein's advantage. To him was assigned the* unlimited 
 command of both armies, particularly in battle, while the 
 Elector was deprived of all power of altering the order 
 of battle, or even the route of the army. He retained 
 only the bare right of punishing and rewarding his own 
 troops, and the free use of these when not acting in con- 
 junction with the Imperialists. 
 
 After these preliminaries were settled the two generals 
 at last ventured upon an interview ; but not until they 
 had mutually promised to bury the past in oblivion, and 
 all the outward formalities of a reconciliation had been 
 settled. According to agreement, they publicly embraced 
 in the sight of their troops, and made mutual professions 
 of friendship, Avhile in reality the hearts of both were 
 overflowing with malice. Maximilian, well versed in 
 dissimulation, had sufficient command over himself not 
 to betray in a single feature his real feelings ; but a 
 malicious triumph sparkled in the eyes' of Wallenstein, 
 and the constraint which was visible in all his movements 
 betrayed the violence of the emotion which overpowered 
 his proud soul. 
 
 The combined Imperial and Bavarian armies amounted
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 241 
 
 to nearly sixty thousand men, chiefly veterans. Before this 
 force the King of Sweden was not in a condition to keep 
 the field. As his attempt to prevent their junction had 
 failed, he commenced a rapid retreat into Franconia, and 
 awaited there for some decisive movement on the part of 
 the enemy in order to form his own plans. The position 
 of the combined armies between the frontiers of Saxony 
 and Bavaria left it for some time doubtful whether they 
 would remove the war into the former or endeavor to 
 drive the Swedes from the Danube and deliver Bavaria. 
 Saxony had been stripped of troops by Arnheim, who 
 was pursuing his conquests in Silesia, not without a secret 
 design, it was generally supposed, of favoring the en- 
 trance of the Duke of Friedland into that electorate, 
 and of thus driving the irresolute John George into peace 
 with the Emperor. Gustavus Adolphus himself, fully 
 persuaded that Wallenstein's views were directed against 
 Saxony, hastily despatched a strong reinforcement to the 
 assistance of his confederate, with the intention, as soon 
 as circumstances would allow, of following with the 
 main body. But the movements of "Wallenstein's army 
 soon led him to suspect that he himself was the object of 
 attack ; and the duke's march through the Upper Pala- 
 tinate placed the matter beyond a doubt. The question 
 now was, how to provide for his own security, and the 
 prize was no longer his supremacy, but his very exist- 
 ence. His fertile genius must now supply the means, not 
 of conquest, but of preservation. The approach of the 
 enemy had surprised him before he had time to concen- 
 trate his troops, which were scattered all over Germany, 
 or to summon his allies to his aid. Too weak to meet the 
 enemy in the field, he had no choice left but either to 
 throw himself into Nuremberg, and run the risk of being 
 shut up in its walls, or to sacrifice that city and await 
 a reinforcement under the cannon of Donauwerth. In- 
 different to danger or difficulty, while he obeyed the call 
 of humanity or honor, he chose the first without hesita- 
 tion, firmly resolved to bury himself with his whole army 
 under the ruins of Nuremberg rather than to purchase 
 his own safety by the sacrifice of his confederates. 
 
 Measures were immediately taken to surround the city
 
 242 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 
 
 and suburbs witli. redoubts, and to form an intrenched 
 camp. Several thousand workmen immediately com- 
 menced this extensive work, and an heroic determination 
 to hazard life and property in the common cause ani- 
 mated the inhabitants of Nuremberg. A trench eight 
 feet deep and twelve broad surrounded the whole forti- 
 fication ; the lines were defended by redoubts and bat- 
 teries, the gates by half-moons. The river Pegnitz, 
 which flows through Nuremberg, divided the whole camp 
 into two semicircles, whose communication was secured 
 by several bridges. About three hundred pieces of can- 
 non defended the town-walls and the iritrenchments. 
 The peasantry from the neighboring villages, and the 
 inhabitants of Nuremberg, assisted the Swedish soldiers 
 so zealously that on the seventh day the army was 
 able to enter the camp, and in a fortnight this great work 
 was completed. 
 
 While these operations were carried on without the 
 walls, the magistrates of Nuremberg were busily occupied 
 in filling the magazines with provisions and ammunition 
 for a long siege. Measures were taken, at the same time, 
 to secure the health of the inhabitants, Avhich was likely 
 to be endangered by the conflux of so many people; 
 cleanliness was enforced by the strictest regulations. In 
 order, if necessary, to support the king, the youth of the 
 city were embodied and trained to arms, the militia of 
 the town considerably reinforced, and a new regiment 
 raised, consisting of four-and-twenty names, according to 
 the letters of the alphabet. Gustavus had, in the mean- 
 time, called to his assistance his allies, Duke William of 
 Weimar and the Landgrave of Hesse Cassel ; and or- 
 dered his generals on the Rhine, in Thunngia and Lower 
 Saxony, to commence their march immediately, and join 
 him with their troops in Nuremberg. His army, which 
 was encamped within the lines, did not amount to more 
 than sixteen thousand men, scarcely a third of the 
 enemy. 
 
 The Imperialists had, in the meantime, by slow marches, 
 advanced to Neumark, where Wallenstein made a general 
 review. At the sight of this formidable force he could 
 not refrain from indulrrins: in a childish boast : " In four
 
 THE THIRTV YEARfe' WAR. 243 
 
 days," said lie, " it will be shown whether I or the King 
 of Sweden is to be master of the world." Yet, notwith* 
 standing his superiority, he did nothing to fulfil his 
 promise; and even let slip the opportunity of crushing 
 his enemy, when the latter had the hardihood to leave his 
 lines to meet him. " Battles enough have been fought," 
 was his answer to those who advised him to attack the 
 king, "it is now time to try another method." Wallen- 
 stein's well-founded reputation required not any of those 
 rash enterprises on which younger soldiers rush in hope 
 of gaining a name. Satisfied that the enemy's despair 
 would dearly sell a victory, while a defeat would irre- 
 trievably ruin the Emperor's affairs, he resolved to wear 
 out the ardor of his opponent by a tedious blockade, and 
 by thus depriving him of every opportunity of availing 
 himself of his impetuous bravery, take from him the very 
 advantage which had hitherto rendered him invincible. 
 Without making any attack, therefore, he erected a 
 strong fortified camp on the other side of the Pegnitz, and 
 opposite Nuremberg; and, by this well-chosen position, 
 cut off from the city and the camp of Gustavus all sup- 
 plies from Franconia, Swabia, and Thuringia. Thus he 
 held in siege at once the city and the king, and flattered 
 himself with the hope of slowly, but surely, wearing out 
 by famine and pestilence the courage of his opponent 
 whom he had no wish to encounter in the field. 
 
 Little aware, however, of the resources and strength of 
 his adversary, Wallenstein had not taken sufficient precau- 
 tions to avert from himself the fate he was designing for 
 others. From the whole of the neighboring country, 
 the peasantry had fled with their property ; and what 
 little provision remained must be obstinately contested 
 with the Swedes. The king spared the magazines within 
 the town, as long as it was possible to provision his army 
 from without; and these forays produced constant skir- 
 mishes between the Croats and the Swedish cavalry, of 
 which the surrounding country exhibited the most melan- 
 choly traces. The necessaries of life must be obtained 
 sword in hand ; and the foraging parties could not ven- 
 ture out without a numerous escort. And when this 
 supply failed, $he town opened its magazines to the
 
 244 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 
 
 king, but Wallenstein: had to support his troops from 
 a distance. A large convoy from Bavaria was on its way 
 to him with an escort of a thousand men. Gustavus 
 Adolphus having received intelligence of its approach, 
 immediately sent out a regiment of cavalry to intercept 
 it ; and the darkness of the night favored the enterprise. 
 The whole convoy, with the town in which it was, fell 
 into the hands of the Swedes; the imperial escort was 
 cut to pieces ; about twelve hundred cattle carried off ; 
 and a thousand wagons loaded with bread, which could 
 not be brought away, were set on fire. Seven regiments, 
 which Wallenstein had sent forward to Altdorp to cover 
 the entrance of the long and anxiously expected convoy, 
 were attacked by the king, who had, in like manner, 
 advanced to cover the retreat of his cavalry, and routed 
 after an obstinate action, being driven back into the 
 imperial camp with the loss of four hundred men. So 
 many checks and difficulties, and so firm and unexpected 
 a resistance on the part of the king, made the Duke of 
 Friedland repent that he had declined to hazard a battle. 
 The strength of the Swedish camp rendered an attack 
 impracticable ; and the armed youth of Kuremberg served 
 the king as a nursery from which he could supply his 
 loss of troops. The want of provisions, which began to be 
 felt in the imperial camp as strongly as in the Swedish, 
 rendered it uncertain which party would be first com- 
 pelled to give way. 
 
 Fifteen days had the two armies now remained in view 
 of each other, equally defended by inaccessible intrench- 
 ments, without attempting anything more than slight 
 attacks and unimportant skirmishes. On both sides in- 
 fectious diseases, the natural consequence of bad food 
 and a crowded population, had occasioned a greater loss 
 than the sword. And this evil daily increased. But at 
 length the long-expected succors arrived in the Swedish 
 camp ; and by this strong reinforcement the king was now 
 enabled to obey the dictates of his native courage, and to 
 break the chains which had hitherto fettered him. 
 
 In obedience to his requisitions, the Duke of Weimar 
 had hastily drawn together a corps from the garrisons in 
 Lower Saxony and Thuringia, which, at Schweinfurt, in
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 245 
 
 Franconia, was joined by four Saxon regiments, and at 
 Kitzingen by the corps of the Rhine, which the Land- 
 grave of Hesse and the Palatine of Birkenfeld despatched 
 to the relief of the king. The chancellor, Oxenstiern, 
 undertook to lead this force to its destination. After 
 being joined at Windsheira by the Duke of Weimar 
 himself, and the Swedish general, Banner, he advanced 
 by rapid marches to Bruck and Eltersdorf, where he 
 passed the Rednitz, and reached the Swedish camp in 
 safety. This reinforcement amounted to nearly fifty 
 thousand men, and was attended by a train of sixty 
 pieces of cannon, and four thousand baggage wagons. 
 Gustavus now saw himself at the head of an army of 
 nearly seventy thousand strong, without reckoning the 
 militia of Nuremberg, which in case of necessity, could 
 bring into the field about thirty thousand fighting men ; 
 a formidable force, opposed to another not less formi- 
 dable. The war seemed at length compressed to the point 
 of a single battle, which was to decide its fearful issue. 
 With divided sympathies, Europe looked with anxiety 
 to this scene, where the whole strength of the two con- 
 tending parties was fearfully drawn, as it were, to a 
 focus. 
 
 If, before the arrival of the Swedish succors, a want 
 of provisions had been felt, the evil was now fearfully 
 increased to a dreadful height in both camps, for Wallen- 
 stein had also received reinforcements from Bavaria. 
 Besides the one hundred and twenty thousand men con- 
 fronted to each other, and more than fifty thousand 
 horses in the two armies, and besides the inhabitants of 
 Nuremberg, whose number far exceeded the Swedish 
 army, there were in the camp of Wallenstein about 
 fifteen thousand women, with as many drivers, and 
 nearly the same number in that of the Swedes. The 
 custom of the time permitted the soldier to carry his 
 family with him to the field. A number of prostitutes 
 followed the Imperialists; while, with the view of pre- 
 venting such excesses, Gustavus' care for the morals of 
 his soldiers promoted marriages. For the rising genera- 
 tion who had this camp for their home and country, 
 regular military schools were established, which educated
 
 246 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 
 
 a race of excellent warriors, by which means the army 
 might in a manner recruit itself in the course of a long 
 campaign. No wonder, then, if these wandering nations 
 exhausted every territory in which they encamped, and 
 by their immense consumption raised the necessaries of 
 life to an exorbitant price. All the mills of Nuremberg 
 were insufficient to grind the corn required for each day ; 
 and fifteen thousand pounds of bread, which were daily 
 delivered by the town into the Swedish camp, excited 
 without allaying the hunger of the soldiers. The laudable 
 exertions of the magistrates of Nuremberg could not 
 prevent the greater part of the horses from dying for 
 want of forage, while the increasing mortality in the 
 camp consigned more than a hundred men daily to the 
 grave. 
 
 To put an end to these distresses, Gustavus Adolphus, 
 relying on his numerical superiority, left his lines on the 
 twenty-fifth day, forming before the enemy in order of 
 battle, while he cannonaded the duke's camp from three bat- 
 teries erected on the side of the Rednitz. But the duke 
 remained immovable in his intrenchments and contented 
 himself with answering this challenge by a distant fire of 
 cannon and musketry. His plan was to wear out the 
 king by his inactivity, and by the force of famine to over- 
 come his resolute determination ; and neither the remon- 
 strances of Maximilian, and the impatience of his army, 
 nor the ridicule of his opponent, could shake his purpose. 
 Gustavus, deceived in his hope of forcing a battle, and 
 compelled by his increasing necessities, now attempted 
 impossibilities, and resolved to storm a position which 
 art and nature had combined to render impregnable. 
 
 Entrusting his own camp to the militia of Nuremberg 
 on the fifty-eighth day of his encampment (the festival 
 of St. Bartholomew), he advanced in full order of battle, 
 and passing the Rednitz at Furth, easily drove the enemy's 
 outposts before him. The main army of the Imperialists 
 was posted on the steep heights between the Biber and 
 the Rednitz, called the Old Fortress and Altenberg; 
 while the camp itself, commanded by these eminences, 
 spread out immeasurably along the plain. On these 
 heights the whole of the artillery was placed. Deep
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 247 
 
 trenches surrounded inaccessible redoubts, while thick 
 barricades, with pointed palisades, defended the ap- 
 proaches to the heights, from the summits of which 
 Wallenstein calmly and securely discharged the lightnings 
 of his artillery from amid the dark thunder-clouds of 
 smoke. A destructive fire of musketry was maintained 
 behind the breastworks, and a hundred pieces of cannon 
 threatened the desperate assailant with certain destruc- 
 tion. Against this dangerous post Gustavus now di- 
 rected his attack; five hundred musketeers, supported 
 by a few infantry (for a greater number could not act 
 in the narrow space), enjoyed the unenvied privilege of 
 first throwing themselves into the open jaws of death. 
 The assault was furious, the resistance obstinate. Ex- 
 posed to the whole fire of the enemy's artillery, and 
 infuriate by the prospect of inevitable death, these deter- 
 mined warriors rushed forward to storm the heights ; 
 which, in an instant, converted into a flaming volcano, 
 discharged on them a shower of shot. At the same 
 moment, the heavy cavalry rushed forward into the 
 openings which the artillery had made in the close ranks 
 of the assailants, and divided them ; till the intrepid 
 band, conquered by the strength of nature and of man, 
 took to flight, leaving a hundred dead upon the field. 
 To Germans had Gustavus yielded this post of honor. 
 Exasperated at their retreat, he now led on his Finlanders 
 to the attack, thinking, by their northern courage, to 
 shame the cowardice of the Germans. But they, also, 
 after a similar hot reception, yielded to the superiority of 
 the enemy ; and a third regiment succeeded them to 
 experience the same fate. This was replaced by a fourth, 
 a fifth, and a sixth ; so that, during a ten hour's action 
 every regiment was brought to the attack to retire with 
 bloody loss from the contest. A thousand mangled 
 bodies covered the field ; yet Gustavus undauntedly 
 maintained the attack, and Wallenstein held his position 
 unshaken. 
 
 In the meantime a sharp contest had taken place be- 
 tween the imperial cavalry and the left wing of the 
 Swedes, which was posted in a thicket on the Rednitz, 
 with varying success, but with equal intrepidity and loss
 
 248 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 
 
 on both sides. The Duke of Friedland and Prince 
 Bernard of Weimar had each a horse shot under them ; 
 the king himself had the sole of his boot carried off by a 
 cannon ball. The combat was maintained with undi- 
 minished obstinacy, till the approach of night separated 
 the combatants. But the Swedes had advanced too far 
 to retreat without hazard. While the king was seeking 
 an officer to convey to the regiments the order to retreat, 
 he met Colonel Hepburn, a brave Scotchman, whose 
 native courage alone had drawn him from the camp to 
 share in the dangers of the day. Offended with the king 
 for having not long before preferred a younger officer 
 for some post of danger, he had rashly vowed never 
 again to draw his sword for the king. To him Gustavus 
 now addressed himself, praising his courage, and re- 
 questing him to order the regiments to retreat. " Sire," 
 replied the brave soldier, " it is the only service I cannot 
 refuse to your Majesty ; for it is a hazardous one," and 
 immediately hastened to carry the command. One of 
 the heights above the old fortress had, in the heat of the 
 action, been carried by the Duke of Weimar. It com- 
 manded the hills and the whole camp. But the heavy 
 rain which fell during the night rendered it impossible 
 to draw up the cannon ; and this post, which had been 
 gained with so much bloodshed, was also voluntarily aban- 
 doned Diffident of fortune, which forsook him on this de- 
 cisive day, the king did not venture the following morning 
 to renew the attack with his exhausted troops; and van- 
 quished for the first time, even because he was not victor, 
 he led back his troops over the Rednitz. Two thousand 
 dead which he left behind him on the field testified to 
 the extent of his loss ; and the Duke of Friedland re- 
 mained unconquered within his lines. 
 
 For fourteen days after this action the two armies still 
 continued in front of each other, each in the hope that 
 the other would be the first to give way. Every day 
 reduced their provisions, and as scarcity became greater, 
 the excesses of the soldiers, rendered furious, exercised 
 the wildest outrages on the peasantry. The increasing 
 distress broke up all discipline and order in the Swedish 
 camp ; and the German regiments, in particular, distin-
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 249 
 
 guished themselves for the ravages they practised indis- 
 criminately on friend and foe. The weak hand of a single 
 individual could not check excesses encouraged by the 
 silence, if not the actual example, of the inferior officers. 
 These shameful breaches of discipline, on the maintenance 
 of which he had hitherto justly prided himself, severely 
 pained the king; and the vehemence with which he 
 reproached the German officers for their negligence be- 
 spoke the liveliness of his emotion. " It is you your- 
 selves, Germans," said he, " that rob your native country 
 and ruin your own confederates in the faith. As God is 
 my judge, I abhor you, I loathe you; my heart sinks 
 Avithin me whenever I look upon you. Ye break my 
 orders ; ye are the cause that the world curses me, that 
 the tears of poverty follow me, that complaints ring in 
 my ear ' The king, our friend, does us more harm than 
 even our worst enemies.' On your account I have 
 stripped my own kingdom of its treasures, and spent 
 upon you more than forty tons of gold ;* while from your 
 German empire I have not received the least aid. I gave 
 you a share of all that God had given tome; and'had ye 
 regarded my orders I would have gladly shared with you 
 all my future acquisitions. Your want of discipline con- 
 vinces me of your evil intentions, whatever cause I might 
 otherwise have to applaud your bravery." 
 
 Nuremberg had exerted itself, almost beyond its power, 
 to subsist for eleven weeks the vast crowd which was 
 compressed within its boundaries; but its means were at 
 length exhausted, and the king's more numerous party 
 was obliged to determine on a retreat. By the casualties 
 of war and sickness Nuremberg had lost more than ten 
 thousand of its inhabitants, and Gustavus Adolphus 
 nearly twenty thousand of his soldiers. The fields 
 around the city were trampled down, the villages lay in 
 ashes, the plundered peasantry lay faint and dying on 
 the highways ; foul odors infected the air, and bad food, 
 the exhalations from so dense a population, and so many 
 putrifying carcasses, together with the heat of the dog- 
 days, produced a . desolating pestilence which raged 
 among men and beasts, and long after the retreat of both 
 
 * A toil of gold in Sweden amounts to one hundred thousand rix dollars.
 
 250 THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 
 
 armies continued to load the country with misery and 
 distress. Affected by the general distress, and despairing 
 of conquering the steady determination of the Duke of 
 Friedland, the king broke up his camp on the 8th Sep- 
 tember, leaving in Nuremberg a sufficient garrison. He 
 advanced in full order of battle before the enemy, who 
 remained motionless, and did not attempt in the least to 
 harass his retreat. His route lay by the Aisch and Wind- 
 sheim towards Neustadt, where he halted five days to 
 refresh his troops, and also to be near to Nuremberg in 
 case the enemy should make an attempt upon the town. 
 But Wallenstein, as exhausted as himself, had only 
 awaited the retreat of the Swedes to commence his own. 
 Five days afterwards he broke up his camp at Zirndorf, 
 and set it on fire. A hundred columns of smoke, rising 
 from all the burning villages in the neighborhood, an- 
 nounced his retreat, and showed the city the fate it had 
 escaped. His march, which was directed on Forchheim, 
 was marked by the most frightful ravages ; but he was 
 too far advanced to be overtaken by the king. The latter 
 now divided his army, which the exhausted country was 
 unable to support, and leaving one division to protect 
 Franconia, with the other he prosecuted in person his 
 conquests in Bavaria. 
 
 In the meantime the imperial Bavarian army had 
 marched into the Bishopric of Bamberg, where the Duke 
 of Friedland a second time mustered his troops. He 
 found this force, which so lately had amounted to sixty 
 thousand men, diminished by the sword, desertion, and 
 disease to about twenty-four thousand, and of these a 
 fourth were Bavarians! Thus had the encampments 
 before Nuremberg weakened both parties more than two 
 great battles would have done, apparently without ad- 
 vancing the termination of the war, or satisfying, by any 
 decisive result, the expectations of Europe. The king's 
 conquests in Bavaria, were, it is true, checked for a time 
 by this diversion before Nuremberg, and Austria itself 
 secured against the danger of immediate invasion ; but 
 by the retreat of the king from that city, he was again 
 left at full liberty to make Bavaria the seat of war. In- 
 different towards the fate of that country, and weary of
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 251 
 
 the restraint which his union with the Elector imposed 
 upon him, the Duke of Friedland eagerly seized the oppor- 
 tunity of separating from this burdensome associate, and 
 prosecuting, with renewed earnestness, his favorite plans. 
 Still adhering to his purpose of detaching Saxony from 
 its Swedish alliance, he selected that country for his win- 
 ter quarters, hoping by his destructive presence to force 
 fie Elector the more readily into his views. 
 
 Xo conjuncture could be more favorable for his designs. 
 The Saxons had invaded Silesia, where, reinforced by 
 troops from Brandenburg and Sweden, they had gained 
 several advantages over the Emperor's troops. Silesia 
 would be saved by a diversion against the Elector in his 
 own territories, and the attempt was the more easy as 
 Saxony, left undefended during the war in Silesia, lay 
 open on every side to attack. The pretext of rescuing 
 from the enemy an hereditary dominion of Austria would 
 silence the remonstrances of the Elector of Bavaria, and, 
 under the mask of a patriotic zeal for the Emperor's in- 
 terests, Maximilian might be sacrificed without much 
 difficulty. By giving up the rich country of Bavaria to 
 the Swedes he hoped to be left unmolested by them in 
 his enterprise against Saxony, Avhile the increasing cold- 
 ness between Gustavus and the Saxon Court gave him 
 little reason to apprehend any extraordinary zeal for the 
 deliverance of John George. Thus a second time aban- 
 doned by his artful protector, the Elector separated from 
 Wallenstein at Bamberg, to protect his defenceless terri- 
 tory with the small remains of his troops, while the im- 
 perial army, under Wallenstein, directed its march 
 through Beyreuth and Coburg towards the Thuringian 
 Forest. 
 
 An imperial general, Hoik, had previously been sent 
 into Vogtland with six thousand men to waste this 
 defenceless province with fire and sword ; he was soon 
 followed by Gallus, another of the duke's generals, and 
 an equally faithful instrument of his inhuman orders. 
 Finally, Pappenheim, too, was recalled from Lower Sax- 
 ony, to reinforce the diminished army of the duke, and 
 to complete the miseries of the devoted country. Ruined 
 churches, villages in ashes, harvests wilfully destroyed,
 
 252 THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 
 
 families plundered, and murdered peasants marked the 
 progress of these barbarians, under whose scourge the 
 whole of Thuringia, Vogtland, and Meissen lay defence- 
 less. Yet this was but the prelude to greater sufferings, 
 with which Wallenstein himself, at the head of the main 
 army, threatened Saxony. After having left behind him 
 fearful monuments of his fury, in his march through 
 Franconia and Thuringia, he arrived with his whole army 
 in the Circle of Leipzig, and compelled the city, after a 
 short resistance, to surrender. His design was to push on 
 to Dresden, and by the conquest of the whole country, 
 to prescribe laws to the Elector. He had already ap- 
 proached the Mulda, threatening to overpower the Saxon 
 army which had advanced as far as Torgau to meet him, 
 when the King of Sweden's arrival at Erfurt gave an 
 unexpected check to his operations. Placed between the 
 Saxon and Swedish armies, which were likely to be far- 
 ther reinforced by the troops of George, Duke of Lunen- 
 burg, from Lower Saxony, he hastily retired upon Merse- 
 berg, to form a junction there with Count Pappenheim, 
 and to repel the further advance of the Swedes. 
 
 Gustavus Adolphus had witnessed with great uneasi- 
 ness the arts employed by Spain and Austria to detach 
 his allies from him. The more important his alliance with 
 Saxony the more anxiety the inconstant temper of John 
 George caused him. Between himself and the Elector a 
 sincere friendship could never subsist. A prince proud 
 of his political importance, and accustomed to consider 
 himself as the head of his party, could not see without 
 annoyance the interference of a foreign power in the 
 affairs of the Empire ; and nothing but the extreme 
 danger of his dominions could overcome the aversion 
 with which he had long witnessed the progress of this 
 unwelcome intruder. The increasing influence of the 
 king in Germany, his authority with the Protestant states, 
 the unambiguous proofs which he gave of his ambitious 
 views, which were of a character calculated to excite 
 the jealousies of all the states of the Empire, awakened 
 in the Elector's breast a thousand anxieties, which the 
 imperial emissaries did not fail skilfully to keep alive and 
 cherish. Every arbitrary step on the part of the king,
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 253 
 
 every demand, however reasonable, which he addressed 
 to the princes of the Empire, was followed by bitter com- 
 plaints from the Elector, which seemed to announce an 
 approaching rupture. Even the generals of the two 
 powers, whenever they were called upon to act in com- 
 mon, manifested the same jealousy as divided their 
 leaders. John George's natural aversion to war, and a 
 lingering attachment to Austria, favored the efforts of 
 Arnheim ; who, maintaining a constant correspondence 
 with Wallenstein, labored incessantly to effect a private 
 treaty between his master and the Emperor ; and if his 
 representations were long disregarded, still the event 
 proved that they were not altogether without effect. 
 
 Gustavus Adolphus, naturally apprehensive of the con- 
 sequences which the defection of so powerful an ally 
 would produce on his future prospects in Germany, spared 
 no pains to avert so pernicious an event ; and his remon- 
 strances had hitherto had some effect upon the Elector. 
 But the formidable power with which the Emperor sec- 
 onded his seductive proposals, and the miseries which, in 
 the case of hesitation, he threatened to accumulate upon 
 Saxony, might at length overcome the resolution of the 
 Elector should he be left exposed to the vengeance of his 
 enemies ; while an indifference to the fate of so powerful 
 a confederate would irreparably destroy the confidence of 
 the other allies in their protector. This consideration 
 induced the king a second time to yield to the pressing 
 entreaties of the Elector, and to sacrifice his own brilliant 
 prospects to the safety of this ally. He had already re- 
 solved upon a second attack on Ingoldstadt; and the 
 weakness of the Elector of Bavaria gave him hopes of 
 soon forcing this exhausted enemy to accede to a neu- 
 trality. An insurrection of the peasantry in Upper 
 Austria opened to him a passage into that country, and 
 the capital might be in his possession before Wallenstein 
 could have time to advance to its defence. All these 
 views he now gave up for the sake of an ally who, neither 
 by his services nor his fidelity, was worthy of the sacrifice ; 
 who, on the pressing occasions of common good, had 
 steadily adhered to his own selfish projects ; and who was 
 important, not for the services he was expected to render,
 
 254 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 
 
 but merely for the injuries he had it in his power to in- 
 flict. Is it possible, then, to refrain from indignation, 
 when we know that in this expedition, undertaken for 
 the benefit of such an ally, the great king was destined to 
 terminate his career? 
 
 Rapidly assembling his troops in Franconia, he followed 
 the route of \Yallensteiu through Thuringia. Duke Ber- 
 nard of Weimar, who had been despatched to act against 
 Pappenheim, joined the king at Armstadt, who now saw 
 himself at the head of twenty thousand veterans. At 
 Erfurt he took leave of his queen, who was not to behold 
 him, save in his coffin, at Weissenfels. Their anxious 
 adieus seemed to forbode an eternal separation. 
 
 He reached Naumburg on the 1st November, 1632, 
 before the corps, which the Duke of Friedland had de- 
 spatched for that purpose, could make itself master of 
 that place. The inhabitants of the surrounding country 
 flocked in crowds to look upon the hero, the avenger, the 
 great king, who, a year before, had first appeared in that 
 quarter like a guardian angel. Shouts of joy everywhere 
 attended his progress ; the people knelt before him and 
 struggled for the honor of touching the sheath of his 
 sword or the hern of his garment. The modest hero 
 disliked this innocent tribute which a sincerely grateful 
 and admiring multitude paid him. " Is it not," said he, 
 " as if this people would make a God of me ? Our affairs 
 prosper, indeed; but I fear the vengeance of Heaven will 
 punish me for this presumption, and soon enough reveal 
 to this deluded multitude my human weakness and mor- 
 tality!" How amiable do^es Gustavus appear before us 
 at this moment, when about to leave us forever ! Even 
 in the plenitude of success he honors an avenging Ne- 
 mesis, declines that homage which is due only to the Im- 
 mortal, and strengthens his title to our tears the nearer 
 the moment approaches that is to call them forth ! 
 
 In the meantime the Duke of Friedland had deter- 
 mined to advance to meet the king as far as Weissenfels, 
 and, even at the hazard of a battle, to secure his winter- 
 quarters in Saxony. His inactivity before Nuremberg 
 had occasioned a suspicion that he was unwilling to 
 measure his powers with those of the Hero of the North,
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 255 
 
 and his hard-earned reputation would be at stake if a 
 second time he should decline a battle. His present 
 superiority in numbers, though much less than what it 
 was at the beginning of the siege of Nuremberg, was still 
 enough to give him hopes of victory if he could compel 
 the king to give battle before his junction with the 
 Saxons. But his present reliance was not so much in 
 his numerical superiority as in the predictions of his 
 astrologer, Seni, who had read in the stars that the good 
 fortune of the Swedish monarch would decline in the 
 month of November. Besides, between Naurnburg and 
 Weissenfels there was also a range of narrow^ defiles, 
 formed by a long mountainous ridge and the river Saal, 
 which ran at their foot, along which the Swedes could 
 not advance without difficulty, and which might with the 
 assistance of a few troops be rendered almost impassable. 
 If attacked there the king would have no choice but 
 either to penetrate with great danger through the defiles, 
 or commence a laborious retreat through Thuringia, and 
 to expose the greater part of his army to a march through 
 a desert country deficient in every necessary for their 
 support. But the rapidity with which Gustavus Adolphus 
 had taken possession of Naumburg disappointed this 
 plan, and it was now Wallenstein himself who awaited 
 the attack. 
 
 But in this expectation he was disappointed ; for the 
 king, instead of advancing to meet him at Weissenfels, 
 made preparations for intrenching himself near Naum- 
 burg, with the intention of awaiting there the reinforce- 
 ments which the Duke of Lunenburg was bringing up. 
 Undecided whether to advance against the king through 
 the narrow passes between Weissenfels and Naumburg, 
 or to remain inactive in his camp, he called a council of 
 war in order to have the opinion of his most experienced 
 generals. None of these thought it prudent to attack the 
 king in his advantageous position. On the other hand, 
 the preparations which the latter made to fortify his 
 camp plainly showed that it was not his intention soon 
 to abandon it. But the approach of winter rendered it 
 impossible to prolong the campaign, and by a continued 
 encampment to exhaust the strength of the army, already
 
 256 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 
 
 so much in need of repose. All voices were in favor of 
 immediately terminating the campaign ; and the more 
 so as the important city of Cologne upon the Rhine was 
 threatened by the Dutch, while the progress of the enemy 
 in Westphalia and the Lower Rhine called for effective 
 reinforcements in that quarter. Wallenstein yielded to 
 the weight of these arguments, and almost convinced that 
 at this season he had no reason 'to apprehend an attack 
 from the king, he put his troops into winter quarters, but 
 so that, if necessary, they might be rapidly assembled. 
 Count Pappenbeim was despatched, with great part of the 
 army, to the assistance of Cologne, with orders to take 
 possession on his march of the fortress of Moritzburg, in 
 the territory of Halle. Different corps took up their 
 winter quarters in the neighboring towns, to watch on all 
 sides the motions of the enemy. Count Colloredo 
 guarded the castle of Weissenfels, and Wallenstein him- 
 self encamped with the remainder not far from Merse- 
 burg, between Flotzgaben and the Saal, from whence lie 
 purposed to march to Leipzig, and to cut off the com- 
 munication between the Saxons and the Swedish army. 
 
 Scarcely had Gustavus Adolphus been informed of 
 Pappenheim's departure when, suddenly breaking up his 
 camp at Naumburg, he hastened with his whole force to 
 attack the enemy, now weakened to one-half. He ad- 
 vanced by rapid marches towards Weissenfels, from 
 whence the news of his arrival quickly reached the enemy, 
 and greatly astonished the Duke of Friedland. But a 
 speedy resolution was now necessary ; and the measures 
 of Wallenstein were soon taken. Though he had little 
 more than twelve thousand men to oppose to the twenty 
 thousand of the enemy, he might hope to maintain his 
 ground until the return of Pappenheim, who could not 
 have advanced farther than Halle, five miles distant. 
 Messengers were hastily despatched to recall him, while 
 Wallenstein moved forward into the wide plain between 
 the Canal and Lutzen, where he awaited the king in full 
 order of battle, and by this position cut off his commu- 
 nication with Leipzig and the Saxon auxiliaries. 
 
 Three cannon shots, fired by Count Colloredo from the 
 Castle of Weissenfels, announced the king's approach ;
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 257 
 
 and at this concerted signal the light troops of the Duke 
 of Friedland, under the command of the Croatian Gen- 
 eral Isolani, moved forward to possess themselves of 
 the villages lying upon the Rippach. Their weak 
 resistance did not impede the advance of the enemy, 
 who crossed the Rippach, near the village of that name, 
 and formed in line below Lutzen, opposite the Imperialists. 
 The high road which goes from Weissenfels to Leipzig is 
 intersected between Lutzen and Markranstadt by the 
 canal which extends from Zeitz to Merseburg, and unites 
 the Elster with the Saal. On this canal rested the left 
 wing of the Imperialists and the right of the King of 
 Sweden; but so that the cavalry of both extended them- 
 selves along the opposite side. To the northward, behind 
 Lutzen, was Wallensteiu's right wing, and to the south 
 of that town was posted the left wing of the Swedes; 
 both armies fronted the high road, which ran between 
 them and divided their order of battle ; but the evening 
 before the battle Wallenstein, to the great disadvantage 
 of his opponent, had possessed himself of this highway, 
 deepened the trenches which ran along its sides, and 
 planted them with musketeers so as to make the crossing 
 of it both difficult and dangerous. Behind these, again, 
 was erected a battery of seven large pieces of cannon, to 
 support the fire from the trenches; and at the windmills, 
 close behind Lutzen, fourteen smaller field-pieces were 
 ranged on an eminence, from which they could sweep the 
 greater part of the plain. The infantry, divided into no 
 more than five unwieldy brigades, was drawn up at the 
 distance of three hundred paces from the road, and the 
 cavalry covered the flanks. All the baggage was sent 
 to Leipzig, that it might not impede the movements of 
 the army; and the ammunition-wagons alone remained, 
 which were placed in rear of the line. To conceal the 
 weakness of the Imperialists all the camp-followers and 
 sutlers were mounted, and posted on the left wing, but 
 only until Pappenheim's troops arrived. These arrange- 
 ments were made during the darkness of the night; and 
 when the morning dawned all was ready for the reception 
 of the enemy. 
 
 On the evening of the same day Gustavus Adolphus
 
 258 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 
 
 appeared on the opposite plain, and formed his troops in 
 the order of attack. His disposition was the same as 
 that which had been so successful the year befoire at Leip- 
 zig. Small squadrons of horse were interspersed among 
 the divisions of the infantry, and troops of musketeers 
 placed here and there among the cavalry. The army 
 was arranged in two lines, the canal on the right and in 
 its rear, the high road in front, and the town on the left. 
 In the centre the infantry was formed, under the com- 
 mand of Count Brahe; the cavalry on the wings; the 
 artillery in front. To the German hero, Bernard, Duke 
 of Weimar, was entrusted the command of the German 
 cavalry of the left wing ; while on the right the king 
 led on the Swedes in person, in order to excite the emula- 
 tion of the two nations to a noble competition. The 
 second line was formed in the same manner ; and behind 
 these was placed the reserve, commanded by Henderson, 
 a Scotchman. 
 
 In this position they awaited the eventful dawn of 
 morning to begin a contest, which long delay, rather 
 than the probability of decisive consequences, and the 
 picked body, rather than the number of combatants, was 
 to render so terrible and remarkable. The strained 
 expectation of Europe, so disappointed before Nurem- 
 berg, was now to be gratified on the plains of Lutzen. 
 During the whole course of the war two such generals, 
 so equally matched in renown and ability, had not before 
 been pitted against each other. Never as yet had daring 
 been cooled by so awful a hazard, or hope animated by so 
 glorious a prize. Europe was next day to learn who was her 
 greatest general to-morrow, the leader, who had hitherto 
 been invincible, must acknowledge a victor. This morn- 
 ing was to place it beyond a doubt whether the victories 
 of Gustavus at Leipzig and on the Lech were owing to 
 his own military genius or to the incompetency of his 
 opponent ; whether the services of Wallenstein were to 
 vindicate the Emperor's choice, and justify the high price 
 at which they had been purchased. The viftory was as 
 yet doubtful, but certain were the labor and the bloodshed 
 by which it must be earned. Every private in both 
 armies felt a jealous share in their leader's reputation,
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 259 
 
 and under every corslet beat the same emotions that 
 inflamed the bosoms of the generals. Each army knew 
 the enemy to which it was to be opposed ; and the anxiety 
 which each in vain attempted to repress was a convincing 
 proof of their opponent's strength. 
 
 At last the fatal morning dawned ; but an impenetra- 
 ble fog, which spread over the plain, delayed the attack 
 till noon. Kneeling in front of his lines the king offered 
 up his devotions; and the whole army at the same mo- 
 ment dropping on their knees burst into a moving hymn, 
 accompanied by the military music. The king then 
 mounted his horse, and clad only in a leathern doublet 
 and surtout (for a wound he had formerly received pre- 
 vented his wearing armor), he rode along the ranks to 
 animate the courage of his troops with a joyful confi- 
 dence, which, however, the forboding presentment of his 
 own bosom contradicted. "God with us! " was the war- 
 cry of the Swedes; "Jesus Maria!" that of the Imperial- 
 ists. About eleven the fog began to disperse and the 
 enemy became visible. At the same moment Lutzen 
 was seen in flames, having been set on fire by command 
 of the duke to prevent his being outflanked on that side. 
 The charge was now sounded ; the cavalry rushed upon 
 the enemy, and the infantry advanced against the 
 trenches. 
 
 Received by a tremendous fire of musketry and heavy 
 artillery, these intrepid battalions maintained the attack 
 with undaunted courage till the enemy's musketeers 
 abandoned their posts, the trenches were passed, the 
 battery carried and turned against the enemy. They 
 pressed forward with irresistible impetuosity; the first of 
 the five imperial brigades was immediately routed, the 
 second soon after, and the third put to flight. But here 
 the genius of Wallenstein opposed itself to their pro- 
 gress. With the rapidity of lightning he was on the spot 
 to rally his discomfited troops; and his powerful word 
 was itself sufficient to stop the flight of the fugitives. 
 Supported by three regiments of cavalry the vanquished 
 brigades, forming anew, faced the enemy and pressed 
 vigorously into the broken ranks of the Swedes. A 
 murderous conflict ensued. The nearness of the enemy
 
 260 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 
 
 left no room for firearms, the fury of the attack no time 
 for loading ; man was matched to man, the useless musket 
 exchanged for the sword and pike, and science gave way 
 to desperation. Overpowered by numbers the wearied 
 Swedes at last retire beyond the trenches, and the cap- 
 tured battery is again lost by the retreat. A thousand 
 mangled bodies already strewed the plain, and as yet not 
 a single step of ground had been won. 
 
 In the meantime the king's right wing, led by himself, 
 had fallen upon the enemy's left. The first impetuous 
 shock of the heavy Finland cuirassiers dispersed the 
 lightly-mounted Poles and Croats who were posted here, 
 and their disorderly flight spread terror and confusion 
 among the rest of the cavalry. At this moment notice 
 was brought to the king that his infantry were retreating 
 over the trenches, and also that his left wing, exposed to 
 a severe fire from the enemy's cannon posted at the wind- 
 mills, was beginning to give way. With rapid decision 
 he committed to General Horn the pursuit of the enemy's 
 left, while he flew, at the head of the regiment of Stein- 
 bock, to repair the disorder of his right wing. His noble 
 charger bore him with the velocity of lightning across 
 the trenches, but the squadrons that followed could not 
 come on with the same speed, and only a few horsemen, 
 among whom was Francis Albert, Duke of Saxe Lauen- 
 burg, were able to keep up with the king. He rode 
 directly to the place where his infantry were most closely 
 pressed, and while he was reconnoitring the enemy's line 
 for an exposed point of attack the shortness of his sight 
 unfortunately led him too close to their ranks. An im- 
 perial Gefreyter,* remarking that every one respectfully 
 made way for him as he rode along, immediately ordered 
 a musketeer to take aim at him. " Fire at him yonder," 
 said he, " that must be a man of consequence." The 
 soldier fired, and the king's left arm was shattered. At 
 that moment his squadrons came hurrying up, and a con- 
 fused cry of " the king bleeds ! the king is shot ! " spread 
 terror and consternation through all the ranks. " It is 
 nothing follow me," cried the king, collecting his whole 
 
 * Gef reyter, a person exempt from watching duty, nearly corresponding to 
 the corporal.
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 261 
 
 strength ; but overcome by pain, and nearly fainting, he 
 requested the Duke of Lauenburg, in French, to lead him 
 unobserved out of the tumult. While the duke proceeded 
 towards the right wing with the king, making a long 
 circuit to keep this discouraging sight from the disordered 
 infantry, his majesty received a second shot through the 
 back, which deprived him of his remaining strength. 
 " Brother," said he, with a dying voice, " I have enough ! 
 look only to your own life. At the same moment he 
 fell from his horse pierced by several more shots, and 
 abandoned by all his attendants he breathed his last 
 amidst the plundering hands of the Croats. His charger, 
 flying without its rider, and covered with blood, soon 
 made known to the Swedish cavalry the fall of their 
 king. They rushed madly forward to rescue his sacred 
 remains from the hands of the enemy. A murderous 
 conflict ensued over the body till his mangled remains 
 were buried beneath a heap of slain. 
 
 The mournful tidings soon ran through the Swedish 
 army ; but instead of destroying the courage of these 
 brave troops, it but excited it into a new, a wild, and 
 consuming flame. Life had lessened in value now that 
 the most sacred life of all was gone ; death had no terrors 
 for the lowly since the anointed head was not spared. 
 With the fury of lions the Upland, Smaland, Finland, 
 East and West Gothland regiments rushed a second time 
 upon the left wing of the enemy, which, already making 
 but feeble resistance to General Horn, was now entirely 
 beaten from the field. Bernard, Duke of Saxe- Weimar, 
 gave to the bereaved Swedes a noble leader in his own 
 person ; and the spirit of Gustavus led his victorious 
 squadrons anew. The left wing quickly formed again 
 and vigorously pressed the right of the Imperialists. 
 The artillery at the windmills, which had maintained so 
 murderous a fire upon the Swedes, was captured and 
 turned against the enemy. The centre also of the 
 Swedish infantry, commanded by the duke and Knyp- 
 hausen, advanced a second time against the trenches, 
 which they successfully passed, and retook the battery of 
 seven cannons. The attack was now renewed with re- 
 doubled fury upon the heavy battalions of the enemy's
 
 262 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 
 
 centre ; their resistance became gradually less, and chance 
 conspired with Swedish valor to complete the defeat. 
 The imperial powder-wagons took fire, and, with a tre- 
 mendous explosion, grenades and bombs filled the air. 
 The enemy, now in confusion, thought they were attacked 
 in the rear, while the Swedish brigades pressed them in 
 front. Their courage began to fail them. Their left 
 wing was already beaten, their right wavering, and their 
 artillery in the enemy's hands. The battle seemed to be 
 almost decided ; another moment would decide the fate 
 of the day, when Pappenheim appeared on the field with 
 his cuirassiers and dragoons; all the advantages already 
 gained were lost, and the battle was to be fought anew. 
 
 The order which recalled that general to Lutzen had 
 reached him in Halle, while his troops were still plunder- 
 ing the town. It was impossible to collect the scattered 
 infantry with that rapidity which the urgency of the 
 order and Pappenheim's impatience required. Without 
 waiting for it, therefore, he ordered eight regiments of 
 cavalry to mount, and at their head he galloped at full 
 speed for Lutzen to share in the battle. He arrived in 
 time to witness the flight of the imperial right wing, 
 which Gustavus Horn was driving from the field, and to 
 be at first involved in their rout. But with rapid pres- 
 ence of mind he rallied the flying troops and led them 
 once more against the enemy. Carried away by his wild 
 bravery, and impatient to encounter the king, who he 
 supposed was at the head of this wing, he burst furiously 
 upon the Swedish ranks, which, exhausted by victory 
 and inferior in numbers, were, after a noble resistance, 
 overpowered by this fresh body of enemies. Pappen- 
 heim's unexpected appearance revived the drooping 
 courage of the Imperialists, and the Duke of Friedland 
 quickly availed himself of the favorable moment to re- 
 form his line. The closely serried battalion of the 
 Swedes were, after a tremendous conflict, again driven 
 across the trenches, and the battery, which had been 
 twice lost, again rescued from their hands. The whole 
 yellow regiment, the finest of all that distingushed 
 themselves in this dreadful day, lay dead on the field, 
 covering the ground almost in the same excellent order
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' AVAR. 263 
 
 which, when alive, they maintained with such unyielding 
 courage. The same fate befel another regiment of Blues 
 which Count Piccolomini attacked with the imperial 
 cavalry, and cut down after a desperate contest. Seven 
 times did this intrepid general renew the attack ; seven 
 horses were shot under him, and he himself was pierced 
 with six musket balls ; yet he would not leave the field 
 until he was carried along in the general rout of the 
 whole army. Wallenstein himself was seen riding 
 through his ranks with cool intrepidity, amidst a shower 
 of balls, assisting the distressed, encouraging the valiant 
 with praise, and the wavering by his fearful glance. 
 Aroun 1 and close by him his men were falling thick, and 
 his own mantle was perforated by several shots. But 
 avenging destiny this day protected that breast for which 
 another weapon was reserved ; on the same field where 
 the noble Gustavus expired Wallenstein was not allowed 
 to terminate his guilty career. 
 
 Less fortunate was Pappenheim, the Telamon of the 
 army, the bravest soldier of Austria and the church. An 
 ardent desire to encounter the king in person carried 
 this daring leader into the thickest of the fight, where he 
 thought his noble opponent was most surely to be met. 
 Gustavus had also expressed a wish to meet his brave 
 antagonist, but these hostile wishes remained ungratified ; 
 death first brought together these two great heroes. 
 Two musket-balls pierced the breast of Pappenheim ; and 
 his men forcibly carried him from the field. AVhile they 
 were conveying him to the rear a murmur reached him 
 that he whom he had sought lay dead upon the plain. 
 When the truth of the report was confirmed to him, his 
 look became brighter, his dying eye sparkled with a last 
 gleam of joy. " Tell the Duke of Friedland," said he, 
 " that I lie without hope of life, but that I die happy, 
 since I know that the implacable enemy of my religion 
 has fallen on the some day." 
 
 With Pappenheim the good fortune of the Imperialists 
 departed. The cavalry of the left Wing, already beaten, 
 and only rallied by his exertions, no sooner missed their 
 victorious leader than they gave up everything for lost, 
 and abandoned the field of battle in spiritless despair.
 
 264 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 
 
 The right wing fell into the same confusion, with the 
 exception of a few regiments, which the bravery of their 
 colonels, Gotz, Terzky, Colloredo, and Piccolomini, com- 
 pelled to keep their ground. The Swedish infantry, with 
 prompt determination, profited by the enemy's confusion. 
 To fill up the gaps which deatli had made in the front 
 line they formed both lines into one, and with it made 
 the final and decisive charge. A third time they crossed 
 the trenches, and a third time they captured the battery. 
 The sun was setting when the two lines closed. The 
 strife grew hotter as it drew to an end ; the last efforts 
 of strength were mutually exerted, and skill and courage 
 did their utmost to repair in these precious moments the 
 fortune of the day. It was in vain ; despair endows 
 every one with superhuman strength ; no one can conquer, 
 no one will give way. The art of war seemed to exhaust 
 its powers on one side only to unfold some new and 
 untried masterpiece of skill on the other. Night and 
 darkness at last put an end to the fight before the fury 
 of the combatants was exhausted ; and the contest only 
 ceased when no one could any longer find an antagonist. 
 Both armies separated as if by tacit agreement ; the 
 trumpets sounded and each party, claiming the victory, 
 quitted the field. 
 
 The artillery on both sides, as the horses could not be 
 found, remained all night upon the field, at once the 
 reward and the evidence of victory to him who should 
 hold it. Wallenstcin, in his haste to leave Leipzig and 
 Saxony, forgot to remove his part. Not long after the 
 battle was ended Pappenheim's infantry, who had been 
 unable to follow the rapid movements of their general, 
 and who amounted to six regiments, marched on the field, 
 but the work was done. A few hours earlier so consid- 
 erable a reinforcement would perhaps have decided the 
 day in favor of the Imperialists ; and, even now, by re- 
 maining on the field, they might have saved the duke's 
 artillery, and made a prize of that of the Swedes. But 
 they had received no orders to act ; and uncertain as to 
 the issue of the battle, they retired to Leipzig, where 
 they hoped to join the main body. 
 
 The Duke of Friedland had retreated thither, and was
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 265 
 
 followed on the morrow by the scattered remains of his 
 army, without artillery, without colors, and almost with- 
 out arms. The Duke of Weimar, it appears, after the 
 toils of this bloody day, allowed the Swedish army some 
 repose, between Lutzen and Weissenfels, near enough to 
 the field of battle to oppose any attempt the enemy 
 might make to recover it. Of the two armies more than 
 nine thousand men lay dead ; a still greater number were 
 wounded, and among the Imperialists scarcely a man 
 escaped from the field uninjured. The entire plain from 
 Lutzen to the Canal was strewed with the wounded, the 
 dying, and the dead. Many of the principal nobility had 
 fallen on both sides. Even the Abbot of Fulda, who had 
 mingled in the combat as a spectator, paid for his curiosity 
 and his ill-timed zeal with his life. History says nothing 
 of prisoners ; a further proof of the animosity of the 
 combatants, who neither gave nor took quarter. 
 
 Pappenheim died the next day of his wounds at Leipzig; 
 an irreparable loss to the imperial army, which this brave 
 warrior had so often led on to victory. The battle of 
 Prague, where, together with Wallenstein, lie was pres- 
 ent as colonel, was the beginning of his heroic career. 
 Dangerously wounded, with a few troops he made an 
 impetuous attack on a regiment of the enemy, and lay for 
 several hours mixed with the dead upon the field beneath 
 the weight of his horse, till he was discovered by some 
 of his own men in plundering. With a small force he 
 defeated, in three different engagements, the rebels in 
 Upper Austria, though forty thousand strong. At 
 the battle of Leipzig he for a long time delayed the 
 defeat of Tilly by his bravery, and led the arms of the 
 Emperor on the Elbe and the Weser to victory. The 
 wild, impetuous fire of his temperament, which no danger, 
 however apparent, could cool, or impossibilities check, 
 made him the most powerful arm of the imperial force, 
 but unfitted him for acting at its head. The battle of 
 Leipzig, if Tilly may be believed, was lost through his 
 rash ardor. At the destruction of Magdeburg his hands 
 were deeply steeped in blood ; war rendered savage and 
 ferocious his disposition, which had been cultivated by 
 youthful studies and various travels. On his forehead
 
 266 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 
 
 two red streaks, like swords, were perceptible, with which 
 nature had marked him at his very birth. Even in his 
 later years these became visible as often as his blood was 
 stirred by passion; and superstition easily persuaded 
 itself that the future destiny of the man was thus im- 
 pressed upon the forehead of the child. As a faithful 
 serv.mt of the House of Austria he had the strongest 
 claims on the gratitude of both its lines, but he did not 
 survive to enjoy the most brilliant proof of their regard. 
 A messenger was already on his way from Madrid, bear- 
 ing to him the order of the Golden Fleece, when death 
 overtook him at Leipzig. 
 
 Though Te Deum, in all Spanish and Austrian lands, 
 was sung in honor of a victory, Wallenstein himself, by 
 the haste with which he quitted Leipzig, and soon after 
 all Saxony, and by renouncing his original design of 
 fixing there his winter quarters, openly confessed his 
 defeat. It is true he made one more feeble attempt to 
 dispute, even in his flight, the honor of victory, by send- 
 ing out his Croats next morning to the field ; but the 
 sight of the Swedish army drawn up in order of battle 
 immediately dispersed these flying bands, and Duke Ber- 
 nard, by keeping possession of the field, and soon after by 
 the capture of Leipzig, maintained indisputably his claim 
 to the title of victor. 
 
 But it was a dear conquest, a dearer triumph ! It was 
 not till the fury of the conquest was over that the full 
 weight of the loss sustained was felt, and the shout of 
 triumph died away into a silent gloom of despair. He 
 who had led them to the charge returned not with them; 
 there he lay upon the field which he had won, mingled 
 with the dead bodies of the common crowd. After a 
 long and almost fruitless search, the corpse of the king 
 was discovered, not far from the great stone, which, for a 
 hundred years before had stood between Lutzen and the 
 Canal, and which, from the memorable disaster of that 
 day, still bears the name of the Stone of the Swede. 
 Covered with blood and wounds so as scarcely to be 
 recognized, trampled beneath the horses' hoofs, stripped 
 by the rude hands of plunderers of his ornaments and 
 clothes, his body was drawn from beneath a heap of dead,
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 267 
 
 conveyed to Weissenfels, and there delivered up to the 
 lamentations of his soldiers and the last embraces of his 
 queen. The first tribute had been paid to revenge, and 
 blood had atoned for the blood of the monarch ; but now 
 affection assumes its rights, and tears of grief must flow 
 for the man. The universal sorrow absorbs all individual 
 woes. The generals, still stupefied by the unexpected 
 blow, stood speechless and motionless around his bier, 
 and no one trusted himself enough to contemplate the full 
 extent of their loss. 
 
 The Emperor, we are told by Khevenhuller, showed 
 symptoms of deep and apparently sincere feeling at the 
 sight of the king's doublet stained with blood, which had 
 been stripped from him during the battle, and carried to 
 Vienna. " Willingly," said he, " would I have granted 
 to the unfortunate prince a longer life, and a safe return 
 to his kingdom, had Germany been at peace." But when 
 a trait, which is nothing more than a proof of a yet 
 lingering humanity, and which a mere regard to appear- 
 ances and even self-love would have extorted from the 
 most insensible, and the absence of which could exist only 
 in the most inhuman heart, has, by a Roman Catholic 
 writer of modern times and acknowledged merit, been 
 made the subject of the highest eulogium, and, compared 
 with the magnanimous tears of Alexander for the fall of 
 Darius^ our distrust is excited of the other virtues of the 
 writer's hero, and what is still worse, of his own ideas of 
 moral dignity. But even such praise, whatever its amount, 
 is much for one whose memory his biographer has to clear 
 from the suspicion of being privy to the assassination of a 
 king. 
 
 It was scarcely to be expected that the strong leaning 
 of mankind to the marvellous would leave to the common 
 course of nature the glory of ending the career of Gus- 
 tavus Adol phus. The death of so formidable a rival was 
 too important an event for the Emperor not to excite in 
 his bitter opponent a ready suspicion that what was so 
 much to his interests was also the result of his instiga- 
 tion. For the execution, however, of this dark deed the 
 Emperor would require the aid of a foreign arm, and this 
 it was generally believed he had found in Francis Albert,
 
 268 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 
 
 Duke of Saxe Lauenburg. The rank of the latter per- 
 mitted him a free access to the king's person, while it at 
 the same time seemed to place him above the suspicion 
 of so foul a deed. This prince however was in fact not 
 incapable of this atrocity, and he had moreover sufficient 
 motives for its commission. 
 
 Francis Albert, the youngest of four sons of Francis 
 II., Duke of Lauenburg, and related by the mother's side 
 to the race of Vasa, had in his early years found a most 
 friendly reception at the Swedish court. Some offence 
 which he had committed against Gustavus Adolphus in 
 the queen's chamber was, it is said, repaid by this fiery 
 youth with a box on the ear ; which, though immediately 
 repented of, and amply apologized for, laid the founda- 
 tion of an irreconcilable hate in the vindictive heart of 
 the duke. Francis Albert subsequently entered the im- 
 perial service, where he rose to the command of a reg- 
 iment, and formed a close intimacy with Wallenstein, 
 and condescended to be the instrument of a secret nego- 
 tiation with the Saxon court which did little honor to 
 his rank. Without any sufficient cause being assigned, 
 he suddenly quitted the Austrian service, and appeared 
 in the king's camp at Nuremberg to offer his services as 
 a volunteer. By his show of zeal for the Protestant 
 cause, and prepossessing and flattering deportment, he 
 
 lined the heart of the king, who, warned in vain by 
 xenstiern, continued to lavish his favor and friendship 
 on this suspicious newcomer. The' battle of Lutzen soon 
 followed, in which Francis Albert, like an evil genius, 
 kept close to the king's side and did not leave him till he 
 fell. He owed, it was thought, his own safety amidst the 
 fire of the enemy to a green sash which he wore, the color 
 of the Imperialists. He was at any rate the first to convey 
 to his friend Wallenstein the intelligence of the king's 
 death. After the battle he exchanged "the Swedish service 
 for the Saxon ; and, after the murder of Wallenstein, being- 
 charged with being an accomplice of that general, he only 
 escaped the sword of justice by abjuring his faith. His 
 last appearance in life was as commander of an imperial 
 army in Silesia, where he died of the wounds he had re- 
 ceived before Schweidnitz. It requires some effort to
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 269 
 
 
 
 believe in the innocence of a man who had run through 
 a career like this of the act charged against him ; but 
 however great may be the moral and physical possibility 
 of his committing such a crime, it must still be allowed 
 that there are no certain grounds for imputing it to him. 
 Gustavus Adolphus it is well known exposed himself to 
 danger, like the meanest soldier in his army, and where 
 thousands fell he too might naturally meet his death. 
 How it reached him remains indeed buried in mystery; 
 but here, more than anywhere, does the maxim apply, 
 that where the ordinary course of things is fully sufficient 
 to account for the fact the honor of human nature ought 
 not to be stained by any suspicion of moral atrocity. 
 
 But by whatever hand he fell his extraordinary destiny 
 must appear a great interposition of Providence. History, 
 too often confined to the ungrateful task of analyzing the 
 uniform play of human passions, is occasionally rewarded 
 by the appearance of events which strike, like a hand 
 from heaven, into the nicely adjusted machinery of hu- 
 man plans, and carry the contemplative mind to a higher 
 order of things. Of this kind is the sudden retirement 
 of Gustavus Adolphus from the scene; stopping for a 
 time the whole movement of the political machine, and 
 disappointing all the calculations of human prudence. 
 Yesterday the very soul, the great and animating prin- 
 ciple of his own creation ; to-day struck unpitiably to 
 the ground in the very midst of his eagle flight ; untimely 
 torn from a whole world of great designs, and from the 
 ripening harvest of his expectations, he left his bereaved 
 party disconsolate; and the proud edifice of his past 
 greatness sunk into ruins. The Protestant party had 
 identified its hopes with its invincible leader, and scarcely 
 can it now separate them from him ; with him they now 
 fear all good fortune is buried. But it was no longer the 
 benefactor of Germany who fell at Lutzen ; the beneficent 
 part of his career Gustavus Adolphus had already termi- 
 nated ; and now the greatest service which he could 
 render to the liberties of Germany was to die. The 
 all-engrossing power of an individual was at an end, but 
 many came forward to essay their strength ; the equivo- 
 cal assistance of an over powerful protector gave place to
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 
 
 a more noble self-exertion on the part of the Estates ; and 
 those who were formerly the mere instruments of his 
 aggrandizement, now began to work for themselves. 
 They now looked to their own exertions for the emanci- 
 pation which could not be received without danger from 
 the hand of the mighty; and the Swedish power, now 
 incapable of sinking into the oppressor, was henceforth 
 restricted to the more modest part of an ally. 
 
 The ambition of the Swedish monarch aspired unques- 
 tionably to establish a power within Germany, and to 
 attain a firm footing in the centre of the empire, which 
 was inconsistent with the liberties of the Estates. His 
 aim was the imperial crown ; and this dignity, supported 
 by his power, and maintained by his energy and activity, 
 would in his hands be liable to more abuse than had 
 ever been feared from the House of Austria. Born in a 
 foreign country, educated in the maxims of arbitrary 
 power, and by principles and enthusiasm a determined 
 enemy to Popery, he was ill-qualified to maintain invio- 
 late the constitution of the German States or to respect 
 their liberties. The coercive homage which Augsburg, 
 with many other cities, was forced to pay to the Swedish 
 crown bespoke the conqueror rather than the protector 
 of the empire ; and this town, prouder of the title of a 
 royal city than of the higher dignity of the freedom 
 of the empire, flattered itself with the anticipation of 
 becoming the capital of his future kingdom. His ill- 
 disguised attempts upon the Electorate of Mentz, which 
 he first intended to bestow upon the Elector of Branden- 
 burg as the dower of his daughter Christina, and after- 
 wards destined for his chancellor and friend, Oxenstiern, 
 evinced plainly what liberties he was disposed to take 
 with the constitution of the empire. His allies, the Prot- 
 estant princes, had claims on his gratitude which could 
 be satisfied only at the expense of their Roman Catholic 
 neighbors, and particularly of the immediate Ecclesias- 
 tical Chapters ; and it seems probable a plan was early 
 formed for dividing the conquered provinces (after the 
 precedent of the barbarian hordes who overran the Ger- 
 man empire), as a common spoil, among the German and 
 Swedish confederates. In his treatment of the Elector
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 271 
 
 Palatine he entirely belied the magnanimity of the hero, 
 and forgot the sacred character of a protector. The 
 Palatinate was in his hands, and the obligations both of 
 justice and honor demanded its full and immediate resto- 
 ration to the legitimate sovereign. But by a subtlety 
 unworthy of a great mind, and disgraceful to the honor- 
 able title of protector of the oppressed, he eluded that 
 obligation. He treated the Palatinate as a conquest 
 wrested from the enemy, and thought that this circum- 
 stance gave him a right to deal with it as he pleased. He 
 surrendered it to the Elector as a favor, not as a debt; 
 and that, too, as a Swedish fief, fettered by conditions 
 which diminished half its value, and degraded this unfor- 
 tunate prince into an humble vassal of Sweden. One of 
 these conditions obliged the Elector, after the conclusion 
 of the war, to furnish, along with the other princes, his 
 contribution towards the maintenance of the Swedish 
 army, a condition which plainly indicates the fate which, 
 in the event of the ultimate success of the king, awaited 
 Germany. His sudden disappearance secured the liber- 
 ties of Germany, and saved his reputation, while it prob- 
 ably spared him the mortification of seeing his own allies 
 in arms against him, and all the fruits of his victories 
 torn from him by a disadvantageous peace. Saxony was 
 already disposed to abandon him, Denmark viewed his 
 success with alarm and jealousy ; and even France, the 
 firmest and most potent of his allies, terrified at the 
 rapid growth of his power and the imperious tone which 
 he assumed, looked around at the very moment he passed 
 the Lech for foreign alliances, in order to check the 
 progress of the Goths and restore to Europe the balance 
 of power. 
 
 BOOK IV. 
 
 THE weak bond of union by which Gustavus Adolphus 
 contrived to hold together the Protestant members of 
 the empire was dissolved by his death ; the allies were 
 now again at liberty, and their alliance to last must be
 
 272 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 
 
 formed anew. By the former event, if unremedied, they 
 would lose all the advantages they had gained at the cost 
 of so much bloodshed, and expose themselves to the inev- 
 itable danger of becoming, one after the other, the prey 
 of an enemy whom, by their union alone, they had been 
 able to oppose and to master. Neither Sweden nor any 
 of the states of the empire was singly a match with the 
 Emperor and the League ; and, by seeking a peace under 
 the present state of things, they would necessarily be 
 obliged to receive laws from the enemy. Union was, 
 therefore, equally indispensable, either for concluding a 
 peace or continuing the war. But a peace sought under 
 the present circumstances could not fail to be disadvan- 
 tageous to the allied powers. With the death of Gus- 
 tavus Adolphus the enemy had formed new hopes ; and 
 however gloomy might be the situation of his affairs 
 after the battle of Lutzen, still the death of his dreaded 
 rival was an event too disastrous to the allies, and too 
 favorable for the Emperor, not to justify him in enter- 
 taining the most brilliant expectations, and not to en- 
 courage him to the prosecution of the war. Its inevitable 
 consequence, for the moment at least, must be want of 
 union among the allies, and what might not the Emperor 
 and the League gain from such a division of their ene- 
 mies ? He was not likely to sacrifice such prospects as 
 the present turn of affairs held out to him for any peace 
 not highly beneficial to himself ; and such a peace the 
 allies would not be disposed to accept. They natm-ally 
 determined, therefore, to continue the war, and for this 
 purpose the maintenance of the existing union was ac- 
 knowledged to be indispensable. 
 
 But how was this union to be renewed ; and whence 
 were to be derived the necessary means for continuing 
 the war? It was not the power of Sweden, but the talents 
 and personal influence of its late king, which had given 
 him so overwhelming an influence in Germany, so great 
 a command over the minds of men ; and even he had 
 innumerable difficulties to overcome before he could estab- 
 lish among the states even a weak and wavering alliance. 
 With his death vanished all which his personal qualities 
 alone had rendered practicable ; and the mutual obliga-
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 273 
 
 tion of the states seemed to cease with the hopes on which 
 it had been founded. Several impatiently threw off the 
 yoke which had always been irksome ; others hastened to 
 seize the helm which they had unwillingly seen in the 
 hands of Gustavus, but which, during his lifetime, they 
 did not dare to dispute with him. Some were tempted 
 by the seductive promises of the Emperor to abandon 
 the alliance ; others, oppressed by the heavy burdens of 
 a fourteen years' war, longed for the repose of peace 
 upon any conditions, however ruinous. The generals of 
 the army, partly German princes, acknowledged no com- 
 mon head, and no one would stoop to receive orders from 
 another. Unanimity vanished alike from the cabinet and 
 the field, and their common weal was threatened with ruin 
 by the spirit of disunion. 
 
 Gustavus had left no male heir to the crown of Sweden ; 
 his daughter, Christina, then six years old, was the natural 
 heir. The unavoidable weakness of a regency suited ill 
 with the energy and resolution which Sweden would be 
 called upon to display in this trying conjuncture. The 
 wide-reaching mind of Gustavus Adolphus had raised this 
 unimportant and hitherto unknown kingdom to a rank 
 among the powers of Europe which it could not retain 
 without the fortune and genius of its author, and from 
 which it could not recede without a humiliating confession 
 of weakness. Though the German war had been con- 
 ducted chiefly on the resources of Germany, yet even the 
 small contribution of men and money which Sweden fur- 
 nished had sufficed to exhaust the finances of that poor 
 kingdom, and the peasantry groaned beneath the imposts 
 necessarily laid upon them. The plunder gained in Ger- 
 many enriched only a few individuals among the nobles 
 and the soldiers, while Sweden itself remained poor as 
 before. For a time, it is true, the national glory recon- 
 ciled the subject to these burdens, and the sums exacted 
 seemed but as a loan placed at interest in the fortunate 
 hand of Gustavus Adolphus, to be richly repaid by the 
 grateful monarch at the conclusion of a glorious peace. 
 But with the king's death this hope vanished, and the 
 deluded people now loudly demanded relief from their 
 burdens.
 
 274 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 
 
 But the spirit of Gustavus Adolphus still lived in the 
 men to whom he had confided the administration of 
 the kingdom. However dreadful to them and unexpected 
 was the intelligence of his death, it did not deprive them 
 of their manly courage ; and the spirit of ancient Rome, 
 under the invasion of Brennus and Hannibal, animated 
 this noble assembly. The greater the price at which 
 these hard-gained advantages had been purchased the 
 less readily could they reconcile themselves to renounce 
 them ; not unrevenged was a king to be sacrified. Called 
 on to choose between a doubtful and exhausting war and 
 a profitable but disgraceful peace, the Swedish council of 
 state boldly espoused the side of danger arid honor; and 
 with agreeable surprise men beheld this venerable senate 
 acting with all the energy and enthusiasm of youth. Sur- 
 rounded with watchful enemies, both within and without, 
 and threatened on every side with danger, they armed 
 themselves against them all, with equal prudence and 
 heroism, and labored to extend their kingdom, even at 
 the moment when they had to struggle for its existence. 
 
 The decease of the king, and the minority of his 
 daughter Christina, renewed the claims of Poland to the 
 Swedish throne ; and King Ladislaus, the son of Sigis- 
 mund, spared no intrigues to gain a party in Sweden. On 
 this ground the regency lost no time in proclaiming the 
 young queen and arranging the administration of the 
 regency. All the officers of the kingdom were summoned 
 to do homage to their new princess ; all correspondence 
 with Poland prohibited, and the edicts of previous 
 monarchs against the heirs of Sigismund confirmed by a 
 solemn act of the nation. The alliance with the Czar of 
 Muscovy was carefully renewed in order, by the arms of 
 this prince, to keep the hostile Poles in check. The death 
 of Gustavus Adolphus had put an end to the jealousy of 
 Denmark, and removed the grounds of alarm which had 
 stood in the way of a good understanding between the 
 two states. The representations by which the enemy 
 sought to stir up Christian TV. against Sweden were no 
 longer listened to ; and the strong wish the Danish 
 monarch entertained for the marriage of his son Ulrick 
 with the young princess, combined, with the dictates of a
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 275 
 
 sounder policy, to incline him to a neutrality. At the 
 same time England, Holland, and France came forward 
 with the gratifying assurances to the regency of continued 
 friendship and support, and encouraged them, with one 
 voice, to prosecute with activity the war which hitherto 
 had been conducted with so much glory. Whatever 
 reason France might have to congratulate itself on the 
 death of the Swedish conqueror, it was as fully sensible 
 of the expediency of maintaining the alliance with Swe- 
 den. Without exposing itself to great danger it could 
 not allow the power of Sweden to sink in Germany. 
 Want of resources of its own would either drive Sweden 
 to conclude a hasty and disadvantageous peace with 
 Austria, and then all the past efforts to lower the ascend- 
 ancy of this dangerous power would be thrown away; 
 or necessity and despair would drive the armies to extort 
 from the Roman Catholic states the means of support, 
 and France would then be regarded as the betrayer of 
 those very states who had placed themselves under her 
 powerful protection. The death of Gustavus, far from 
 breaking up the alliance between France and Sweden, 
 had only rendered it more necessary for both and more 
 profitable for France. Now, for the first time, since he 
 was dead who had stretched his protecting arm over 
 Germany, and guarded its frontiers against the encroach- 
 ing designs of France, could the latter safely pursue its 
 designs upon Alsace, and thus be enabled to sell its aid to 
 the German Protestants at a dearer rate. 
 
 Strengthened by these alliances, secured in its interior, 
 and defended from without by strong frontier garrisons 
 and fleets, the regency did not delay an instant to con- 
 tinue a war by which Sweden had little of its own to 
 lose, while, if success attended its arms, one or more of 
 the German provinces might be won, either as a conquest 
 or indemnification of its expenses. Secure amidst its 
 seas, Sweden, even if driven out of Germany, would 
 scarcely be exposed to greater peril than if it voluntarily 
 retired from the contest, while the former measure \vas 
 as honorable as the latter was disgraceful. The more 
 boldness the regency displayed the more confidence 
 would they inspire among their confederates, the more
 
 276 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAK. 
 
 respect among their enemies, and the more favorable con- 
 ditions might they anticipate in the event of peace. If 
 they found themselves too weak to execute the wide- 
 ranging projects of Gustavus they at least owed it to 
 this lofty model to do their utmost and to yield to no 
 difficulty short of absolute necessity. Alas, that motives 
 of self-interest had too great a share in this noble deter- 
 mination to demand our unqualified admiration ! For 
 those who had nothing themselves to suffer from the 
 calamities of war, but were rather to be enriched by it, 
 it was an easy matter to resolve upon its continuation ; 
 for the German empire was, in the end, to defray the 
 expenses ; and the provinces on which they reckoned 
 would be cheaply purchased with the few troops they 
 sacrificed to them, and with the generals who were placed 
 at the head of armies, composed for the most part of 
 Germans, and with the honorable superintendence of all 
 the operations, both military and political. 
 
 But this superintendence was irreconcilable with the 
 distance of the Swedish regency from the scene of action, 
 and with the slowness which necessarily accompanies all 
 the movements of a council. 
 
 To one comprehensive mind must be entrusted the 
 management of Swedish interests in Germany, and with 
 full powers to determine at discretion all questions of war 
 and peace, the necessary alliances, or the acquisitions 
 made. With dictatorial power, and with the whole 
 influence of the crown which he was to represent, must 
 this important magistrate be invested, in order to main- 
 tain its dignity, to enforce united and combined opera- 
 tions, to give effect to his orders, and to supply the place 
 of the monarch whom he succeeded. Such a man was 
 found in the Chancellor Oxenstiern, the first minister, 
 and, what is more, the friend of the deceased king, M ho, 
 acquainted with all the secrets of his master, versed in 
 the politics of Germany, and in the relations of all the 
 states of Europe, was unquestionably the fittest instru- 
 ment to carry out the plans of Gustavus Adolphus in 
 their full extent. 
 
 Oxenstiern was on his way to Upper Germany in order 
 to assemble the four Upper Circles when the news of the
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS* WAK. 277 
 
 king's death reached him at Hanau. This was a heavy 
 blow, both to the friend and the statesman. Sweden, 
 indeed, had lost but a king, Germany a protector; but 
 Oxenstiern, the author of his fortunes, the friend of his 
 soul, and the object of his admiration. Though the 
 greatest sufferer in the general loss, he was the first who 
 by his energy rose from the blow, and the only one quali- 
 fied to repair it. His penetrating glance foresaw all the 
 obstacles which would oppose the execution of his plans, 
 the discouragements of the estates, the intrigues of hos- 
 tile courts, the breaking up of the confederacy, the jeal- 
 ousy of the leaders, and the dislike of princes of the 
 empire to submit to foreign authority. But even this 
 deep insight into the existing state of things, which 
 revealed the whole extent of the evil, showed him also 
 the means by which it might be overcome. It was essen- 
 tial to revive the drooping courage of the weaker states, 
 to meet the secret machinations of the enemy, to allay 
 the jealousy of the more powerful allies, to rouse the 
 friendly powers, and France in particular, to active 
 assistance ; but, above all, to repair the ruined edifice of 
 the German alliance, and to reunite the scattered strength 
 of the party by a close and permanent bond of union. 
 The dismay which the loss of their leader occasioned the 
 German Protestants might as readily dispose them to a 
 closer alliance with Sweden as to a hasty peace with the 
 Emperor ; and it depended entirely upon the course pur- 
 sued which of these alternatives they would adopt. 
 Everything might be lost by the slightest sign of despond- 
 ency ; nothing but the confidence which Sweden showed 
 in herself could kindle among the Germans a noble feel- 
 ing of self-confidence. All the attempts of Austria to 
 detach these princes from the Swedish alliance would be 
 unavailing the moment their eyes became opened to their 
 true interests, and they were instigated to a public and 
 formal breach with the Emperor. 
 
 Before these measures could be taken, and the neces- 
 sary points settled between the regency and their minis- 
 ter, a precious opportunity of action would, it is true, be 
 lost to the Swedish army, of which the enemy would 
 be sure to take the utmost advantage. It was, in short,
 
 278 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 
 
 in the power of the Emperor totally to ruin the Swedish 
 interest in Germany, and to this he was actually invited 
 by the prudent councils of the Duke of Friedland. 
 Wallenstein advised him to proclaim an universal am- 
 nesty and to meet the Protestant states with favorable 
 conditions. In the first consternation produced by the 
 fall of Gustavus Adolphus such a declaration would have 
 had the most powerful effects, and probably would have 
 brought the wavering states back to their allegiance. 
 But blinded by this unexpected turn of fortune, and in- 
 fatuated by the Spanish counsels, he anticipated a more 
 brilliant issue from war; and instead of listening to these 
 propositions of an accommodation he hastened to aug- 
 ment his forces. Spain, enriched by the grant of the 
 tenth of the ecclesiastical possessions, which the Pope 
 confirmed, sent him considerable supplies, negotiated for 
 him at the Saxon court, and hastily levied troops for him 
 in Italy to be employed in Germany. The Elector of 
 Bavaria also considerably increased his military force; 
 and the restless disposition of the Duke of Lorraine did 
 not permit him to remain inactive in this favorable change 
 of fortune. But while the enemy were thus busy to 
 profit by the disaster of Sweden Oxenstiern was diligent 
 to avert its most fatal consequences. 
 
 Less apprehensive of open enemies than of the jealousy 
 of the friendly powers, he left L T pper Germany, which 
 he had secured by conquests and alliances, and set out 
 in person to prevent a total defection of the Lower Ger- 
 man states, or, what would have been almost equally 
 ruinous to Sweden, a private alliance among themselves. 
 Offended at the boldness with which the chancellor 
 assumed the direction of affairs, arid inwardly exasper- 
 ated at the thought of being dictated to by a Swedish 
 nobleman, the Elector of Saxony again meditated a dan- 
 gerous separation from Sweden ; and the only question 
 in his mind was whether he should make full terms with 
 the Emperor or place himself at the head of the Prot- 
 estants and form a third party in Germany. Similar 
 ideas were cherished by Duke Illric of Brunswick, who, 
 indeed, showed them openly enough by forbidding the 
 Swedes from recruiting within his dominions, and in-
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 279 
 
 viting the Lower Saxon states to Luneburg for the 
 purpose of forming a confederacy among themselves. 
 The Elector of Brandenburg, jealous of the influence 
 which Saxony was likely to attain in Lower Germany, 
 alone manifested any zeal for the interests of the Swedish 
 throne, which, in thought, he already destined for his 
 son. At the court of Saxony Oxenstiern was no doubt 
 honorably received ; but, notwithstanding the personal 
 efforts Of the Elector of Brandenburg, empty promises of 
 continued friendship were all which he could obtain. 
 With the Duke of Brunswick he was more successful, 
 for with him he ventured to assume a bolder tone. Swe- 
 den was at the time in possession of the see of Magde- 
 burg, the bishop of which had the power of assembling 
 the Lower. Saxon circle. The chancellor* now asserted 
 the rights of the crown, and by this spirited proceeding 
 put a stop for the present to this dangerous assembly 
 designed by the duke. The main object, however, of his 
 present journey and of his future endeavors, a general 
 confederacy of the Protestants, miscarried entirely, and 
 he was obliged to content himself with some unsteady 
 alliances in the Saxon circles, and with the weaker assist- 
 ance of Upper Germany. 
 
 As the Bavarians were too powerful on the Danube 
 the assembly of the four Upper Circles, which should 
 have been held at Ulm, was removed to Heilbronn, where 
 deputies of more than twelve cities of the empire, with 
 a brilliant crowd of doctors, counts, and princes, attended. 
 The ambassadors of foreign powers, likewise, France, 
 England, and Holland, attended this congress, at which 
 Oxenstiern appeared in person with all the splendor of 
 the crown whose representative he was. He himself 
 opened the proceedings and conducted the deliberations. 
 After receiving from all the assembled estates assurances 
 of unshaken fidelity, perseverance, and unity, he required 
 of them solemnly and formally to declare the Emperor 
 and the League as enemies. But desirable as it was for 
 Sweden to exasperate the ill-feeling between the Emperor 
 and the estates into a formal rupture, the latter, on the 
 other hand, were equally indisposed to shut out the possi- 
 bility of reconciliation by so decided a step, and to place
 
 280 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 
 
 themselves entirely in the hands of the Swedes. They 
 maintained that any formal declaration of war was useless 
 and superfluous, where the act would speak for itself, 
 and their firmness on this point silenced at last the chan- 
 cellor. Warmer disputes arose on the third and principal 
 article of the treaty, concerning the means of prosecuting 
 the war, and the quota which the several states ought to 
 furnish for the support of the army. Oxenstiern's maxim, 
 to throw as much as possible of the common "burden on 
 the states, did not suit very well with their determination 
 to give as little as possible. The Swedish chancellor 
 now experienced Avhat had been felt by thirty emperors 
 before him to their cost, that of all difficult undertakings 
 the most difficult was to extort money from the Germans. 
 Instead of granting the necessary sums for the new armies 
 to be raised, they eloquently dwelt upon the calamities 
 occasioned by the former, and demanded relief from the 
 old burdens when they were required to submit to new. 
 The irritation which the chancellor's demand for money 
 raised among the states gave rise to a thousand com- 
 plaints ; and the outrages committed by the troops in 
 their marches and quarters were dwelt upon with a 
 startling minuteness and truth. 
 
 In the service of two absolute monarchs Oxenstiern 
 had but little opportunity to become accustomed to the 
 formalities and cautious proceedings of republican de- 
 liberations, or to bear opposition with patience. Ready 
 to act the instant the necessity of action was apparent, 
 and inflexible in his resolution when he had once taken 
 it, he was at a loss to comprehend the inconsistency of 
 most men, who, while they desire the end, are yet averse 
 to the means. Prompt and impetuous by nature, he was 
 so on this occasion from principle ; for everything de- 
 pended on concealing the weakness of Sweden under a 
 firm and confident speech, and by assuming the tone of a 
 lawgiver, really to become so. It was nothing wonderful, 
 therefore, if, amidst these interminable discussions with 
 German doctors and deputies, he was entirely out of his 
 sphere, and if the deliberateness which distinguishes the 
 character of the Germans in their public deliberations 
 had driven him almost to despair. Without respecting a
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 281 
 
 custom, to which even the most powerful of the emperors 
 had been obliged to conform, he rejected all written de- 
 liberations, which suited so well with the national slow- 
 ness of resolve. He could not conceive how ten days 
 could be spent in debating a measure which with him- 
 self was decided upon its bare suggestion. Harshly, 
 however, as he treated the states he found them ready 
 enough to assent to his fourth motion, which concerned 
 himself. When he pointed out the necessity of giving a 
 director to the new confederation that honor was un- 
 animously assigned to Sweden, and he himself was 
 humbly requested to give to the common cause the bene- 
 fit of his enlightened experience, and to take upon him- 
 self the burden of the supreme command. But in order 
 to prevent his abusing the great powers thus conferred 
 upon him it was proposed, not without French influence, 
 to appoint a number of overseers, in fact, under the name 
 of assistants, to control the expenditure of the common 
 treasure and to consult with him as to the levies, 
 marches, and quarterings of the troops. Oxenstiern 
 long and strenuously resisted this limitation of his au- 
 thority, which could not fail to trammel him in the exe- 
 cution of every enterprise requiring promptitude or 
 secrecy, and at last succeeded, with difficulty, in obtain- 
 ing so far a modification of it that his management in 
 affairs of war was to be uncontrolled. The chancellor 
 finally approached the delicate point of the indemnifica- 
 tion which Sweden was to expect at the conclusion of the 
 war from the gratitude of the allies, and flattered him- 
 self with the hope that Pomerania, the main object of 
 Sweden, -would be assigned to her, and that he would 
 obtain from the provinces assurances of effectual co- 
 operation in its acquisition. But he could obtain nothing 
 more than a vague assurance that in a general peace the 
 interests of all parties would be attended to. That on- 
 this point the caution of the estates was not owing to any 
 regard for the constitution of the empire became mani- 
 fest from the liberality they evinced towards the chan- 
 cellor at the expense of the most sacred laws of the 
 empire. They were ready to grant him the archbishopric 
 of Mentz (which he already held as a conquest), and only
 
 282 THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 
 
 with difficulty did the French ambassador succeed in 
 preventing a step which was as impolitic as it was dis- 
 graceful. Though, on the whole, the result of the con- 
 gress had fallen far short of Oxenstiern's. expectations, 
 he had at least gained for himself and his crown his 
 main object, namely, the direction of the whole con- 
 federacy ; he had also succeeded in strengthening the 
 bond of union between the four upper circles, and ob- 
 tained from the states a yearly contribution of two mil- 
 lions and a half of dollars for the maintenance of the 
 army. 
 
 These concessions on the part of the States demanded 
 some return from Sweden. A few weeks after the death 
 of Gustavus Adolphus sorrow ended the days of the 
 unfortunate Elector Palatine. For eight months he had 
 swelled the pomp of his protector's court and expended 
 on it the small remainder of his patrimony. He was at 
 last approaching the goal of his wishes, and the pros- 
 pect of a brighter future was opening when death 
 deprived him of his protector. But what he regarded as 
 the greatest calamity was highly favorable to his heirs. 
 Gustavus might venture to delay the restoration of his 
 dominions or to load the gift with hard conditions; but 
 Oxenstiern, to whom the friendship of England, Holland, 
 and Brandenburg, and the good opinion of the Reformed 
 States were indispensable, felt the necessity of immedi- 
 ately fulfilling the obligations of justice. At this assem- 
 bly at Heilbronn, therefore, he engaged to surrender to 
 Frederick's heirs the whole Palatinate, both the part 
 already conquered, and that which remained to be con- 
 quered, with the exception of Manheim, which the 
 Swedes were to hold until they should be indemnified 
 for their expenses. The chancellor did not confine his 
 liberality to the family of the Palatine alone ; the other 
 allied princes received proofs, though at a later period, 
 of the gratitude of Sweden, which, however, she dis- 
 pensed at little cost to herself. 
 
 Impartiality, the most sacred obligation of the histo- 
 rian, here compels us to an admission not much to the 
 honor of the champions of German liberty. However 
 the Protestant princes might boast of the justice of their
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS* WAB. ' 283 
 
 cause, and the sincerity of their conviction, still the 
 motives from which they acted were selfish enough ; and 
 the desire of stripping others of their possessions had at 
 least as great a share in the commencement of hostilities 
 ns the fear of being deprived of their own. Gustavus 
 soon found that he might reckon much more on these 
 selfish motives than on their patriotic zeal, and did not 
 fail to avail himself of them. Each of his confederates 
 received from him the promise of some possession, either 
 already wrested or to be afterwards taken from the 
 enemy; and death alone prevented him from fulfilling 
 these engagements. What prudence had suggested to 
 the king necessity now prescribed to his successor. If 
 it was his object to continue the war he must be ready 
 to divide the spoil among the allies, and promise them 
 advantages from the confusion which it was his object 
 to continue. Thus he promised to the Landgrave of 
 Hesse the abbacies of Paderborn, Corvey, Munster, and 
 Fulda ; to Duke Bernard of Weimar the Franconian 
 bishoprics ; to the Duke of Wirtemberg the Ecclesias- 
 tical domains, and the Austrian countries lying within 
 his territories, all under the title of fiefs of Sweden. 
 This spectacle, so strange and so dishonorable to the 
 German character, surprised the chancellor, who found 
 it difficult to repress his contempt, and on one occasion 
 exclaimed, " Let it be writ in our records for an ever- 
 lasting memorial that a German prince made such a 
 request of a Swedish nobleman, and that the Swedish 
 nobleman granted it to the German upon German 
 ground ! " 
 
 After these successful measures he was in a condition 
 to take the field and prosecute the war with fresh vigor. 
 Soon after the victory at Lutzen the troops of Saxony 
 and Lunenburg united with the Swedish main body ; and 
 the Imperialists were in a short time totally driven from 
 Saxony. The united army again divided ; the Saxons 
 marched towards Lusatiaand Silesia, to act in conjunction 
 with Count Thurn against the Austrians in that quarter ; 
 a part of the Swedish army was led by the Duke of 
 Weimar into Franconia, and the other by George, Duke 
 of Brunswick, into Westphalia and Lower Saxony.
 
 284 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 
 
 The conquests on the Lech and the Danube during 
 Gustavus' expedition into Saxony had been maintained 
 by the Palatine of Birkenfeld and the Swedish General 
 Banner against the Bavarians ; but, unable to hold their 
 ground against the victorious progress of the latter, 
 supported as they were by the bravery and military expe- 
 rience of the Imperial General Altringer, they were under 
 the necessity of summoning the Swedish General Horn 
 to their assistance from Alsace. This experienced general 
 having captured the towns of Benfeld, Schlettstadt, Col- 
 mar, and Hagenau, committed the defence of them to the 
 Rhinegrave Otto Louis, and hastily crossed the Rhine to 
 form a junction with Banner's army. But although 
 the combined force amounted to more than sixteen thou- 
 sand they could not prevent the enemy from obtaining a 
 strong position on the Swabian frontier, taking I^empten, 
 and being joined by seven regiments from Bohemia. In 
 order to retain the command of the important banks of 
 the Lech and the Danube they were under the necessity 
 of recalling the Rhiuegrave Otto Louis from Alsace, 
 where he had, after the departure of Horn, found it diffi- 
 cult to defend himself against the exasperated peasantry. 
 With his army he was now summoned to strengthen the 
 army on the Danube, and as even this reinforcement was 
 insufficient, Duke Bernard of Weimar was earnestly 
 pressed to turn his arms into this quarter. 
 
 Duke Bernard, soon after the opening of the campaign 
 of 1633, had made himself master of the town and terri- 
 tory of Barnberg, and was now threatening Wurtzburg. 
 But on receiving the summons of General Horn without 
 delay he began his march towards the Danube, defeated 
 on his way a Bavarian army under John de Werth, and 
 joined the Swedes near Donauwerth. This numerous 
 force, commanded by excellent generals, now threatened 
 Bavaria with a fearful inroad. The Bishopric of Eich- 
 stadt was completely overrun, and Ingoldstadt was on 
 the point of being delivered up by treachery to the 
 Swedes. Altringer, fettered in his movements by the 
 express order of the Duke of Friedland, and left without 
 assistance from Bohemia, was unable to check the pro- 
 gress of the enemy. The most favorable circumstances
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 285 
 
 combined to further the progress of the Swedish arms in 
 this quarter, when the operations of the army were at 
 once stopped by a mutiny among the officers. 
 
 All the previous successes in Germany were owing 
 altogether to arms ; the greatness of Gustavus himself was 
 the work of the army, the fruit of their discipline, their 
 bravery, and their persevering courage under numberless 
 dangers and privations. However wisely his plans were 
 laid in the cabinet it was to the army ultimately that he 
 was indebted for their execution ; and the expanding 
 designs of the general did but continually impose new 
 burdens on the soldiers. All the decisive advantages of 
 the war had been violently gained by a barbarous sacrifice 
 of the soldiers' lives in winter campaigns, forced marches, 
 storrnings, and pitched battles, for it was Gustavus' 
 maxim -never to decline a battle so long as it cost him 
 nothing but men. The soldiers could not long be kept 
 ignorant of their own importance, and they justly 
 demanded a share in the spoil which had been won by 
 their own blood. Yet, frequently they hardly received their 
 pay, and the rapacity of individual generals or the wants 
 of the state generally swallowed up the greater part of 
 the sums raised by contributions or levied upon the con- 
 quered provinces. For all the privations he endured the 
 soldier had no other recompense than the doubtful chance 
 either of plunder or promotion, in both of which he was 
 often disappointed. During the lifetime of Gustavus Adol- 
 phtis the combined influence of fear and hope had sup- 
 pressed any open complaint, but after his death the 
 murmurs were loud and universal, and the soldiery seized 
 the most dangerous moment to impress their superiors with 
 a sense of their importance. Two officers, Pf uhl and Mits- 
 chefal, notorious as restless characters even during the 
 king's life, set the example in the camp on the Danube, 
 which in a few days was imitated by almost all the officers 
 of the army. They solemnly bound themselves to obey no 
 orders till these arrears, now outstanding for months, and 
 even years, should be paid up, and a gratuity, either in 
 money or lands, made to each man according to his ser- 
 vices. "Immense sums," they said, " were daily raised 
 by contributions and all dissipated by a few. They were
 
 286 THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 
 
 called out to serve amidst frost and snow and no reward 
 requited their incessant labors. The soldiers' excesses at 
 Heilbronn had been blamed, but no one ever talked of 
 their services. The world rung with the tidings of con- 
 quests and victories, but it was by their hands that they 
 had been fought and won." 
 
 The number of the malcontents daily increased, and 
 they even attempted by letters (which were fortunately 
 intercepted) to seduce the armies on the Rhine and in 
 Saxony. Neither the representations of Bernard of 
 Weimar nor the stern reproaches of his harsher associate 
 in command could suppress the mutiny, while the vehe- 
 mence of Horn seemed only to increase the insolence of 
 the insurgents. The conditions they insisted on were that 
 certain towns should be assigned to each regiment for the 
 payment of arrears. Four weeks were allowed to the 
 Swedish chancellor to comply with these demands ; and 
 in case of refusal they announced that they would pay 
 themselves, and never more draw a sword for Sweden. 
 
 These pressing demands made at the very time when 
 the military chest was exhausted, and credit at a low ebb, 
 greatly embarassed the chancellor. The remedy he saw 
 must be found quickly before the contagion should spread 
 to the other troops, and he should be deserted by all his 
 armies at once. Among all the Swedish generals there 
 was only one of sufficient authority and influence with 
 the soldiers to put an end to this dispute. The Duke of 
 Weimar was the favorite of the army, and his prudent 
 moderation had won the good-will of the soldiers, while 
 his military experience had excited their admiration. He 
 now undertook the task of appeasing the discontented 
 troops ; but, aware of his importance, he embraced the 
 opportunity to make advantageous stipulations for him- 
 self, and to make the embarassment of the chancellor 
 subservient to his own views. 
 
 Gustavus Adolphus had flattered him with the promise 
 of the Duchy of Franconia, to be formed out of the Bishop- 
 rics of Wurtzburg and Bamberg, and he now insisted on 
 the performance of this pledge. He at the same time 
 demanded the chief command as generalissimo of Sweden. 
 The abuse which the Duke of Weimar thus made of his
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 287 
 
 influence so irritated Oxenstiern that, in the first mo- 
 ment of his displeasure, he gave him his dismissal from the 
 Swedish service. But he soon thought better of it, and 
 determined, instead of sacrificing so important a leader, 
 to attach him to the Swedish interests at any cost. He 
 therefore granted to him the Franconian bishoprics as a 
 fief of the Swedish crown, reserving, however, the two 
 fortresses of Wurtzburg and Konigshofen, which were to 
 be garrisoned by the Swedes; and also engaged in name 
 of the Swedish crown to secure these territories to the 
 duke. His demand of the supreme authority was evaded 
 on some specious pretext. The duke did not delay to 
 display his gratitude for this valuable grant, and by his 
 influence and activity soon restored tranquillity to the 
 army. Large sums of money, and still more extensive 
 estates, were divided among the officers, amounting in 
 value to about five millions of dollars, and to which they 
 had no other right but that of conquest. In the mean- 
 time, however, the opportunity for a great undertaking 
 had been lost, and the united generals divided their forces 
 to oppose the enemy in other quarters. 
 
 Gustavus Horn, after a short inroad into the Upper 
 Palatinate and the capture of Neurnark, directed his 
 march towards the Swabian frontier, where the Imperi- 
 alists, strongly reinforced, threatened Wurtemberg. At 
 his approach the enemy retired to the Lake of Constance, 
 but only to show the Swedes the road into a district 
 hitherto un visited by war. A post on the entrance to 
 Switzerland would be highly serviceable to the Swedes, 
 and the town of Kostnitz seemed peculiarly well-fitted to 
 be a point of communication between him and the con- 
 federated cantons. Accordingly Gustavus Horn immedi- 
 ately commenced the siege of it ; but destitute of artillery, 
 for which he was obliged to send to Wirtemberg, he could 
 not press the attack with sufficient vigor to prevent the 
 enemy from throwing supplies into the town, which the 
 lake afforded them convenient opportunity of doing. 
 He therefore, after an ineffectual attempt, quitted the 
 place and its neighborhood and hastened to meet a more 
 threatening danger upon the Danube. 
 
 At the Emperor's instigation the Cardinal Infante, the
 
 288 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 
 
 brother of Philip IV. of Spain, and the Viceroy of Milan, 
 had raised an army of fourteen thousand men, intended 
 to act upon the Rhine independently of Wallenstein, and 
 to protect Alsace. This force now appeared in Bavaria, 
 under the command of the Duke of Feria, a Spaniard ; 
 and that they might be directly employed against the 
 Swedes Altringer was ordered to join them with his 
 corps. Upon the first intelligence of their approach 
 Horn had summoned to his assistance the Palsgrave of 
 Birkenfeld from the Rhine ; and, being joined by him 
 at Stockach, boldly advanced to meet the enemy's army 
 of thirty thousand men. 
 
 The latter had taken the route across the Danube into 
 Swabia, where Gustavus Horn came so close upon them 
 that the two armies were only separated from each other 
 by half a German mile. But instead of accepting the offer 
 of battle the Imperialists moved by the Forest towns 
 towards Briesgau and Alsace, where they arrived in time 
 to relieve Breysack and to arrest the victorious progress 
 of the Rhinegrave, Otto Louis. The latter had shortly 
 before taken the Forest towns, and, supported by the 
 Palatine of Birkenfeld, who had liberated the Lower 
 Palatinate and beaten the Duke of Lorraine out of the 
 field, had once more given the superiority to the Swedish 
 arms in that quarter. He was now forced to retire 
 before the superior numbers of the enemy; but Horn and 
 Birkenfeld quickly advanced to his support, and the 
 Imperialists after a brief triumph were again expelled 
 from Alsace. The severity of the autumn in which this 
 hapless retreat had to be conducted proved fatal to most 
 of the Italians ; and their leader, the Duke of Feria, died 
 of grief at the failure of his enterprise. 
 
 In the meantime Duke Bernard of Weimar had taken 
 up his position on the Danube, with eighteen regiments 
 of infantry and one hundred and forty squadrons of 
 horse, to cover Franconia and to watch the movements 
 of the Imperial-Bavarian army upon that river. No 
 sooner had Altringer departed to join the Italians under 
 Feria than Bernard, profiting by his absence, hastened 
 across the Danube, and with the rapidity of lightning 
 appeared before Ratisbon. The possession of this town
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 289 
 
 would insure the success of the Swedish designs upon 
 Bavaria and Austria; it would establish them firmly on 
 the Danube, and provide a safe refuge in case of defeat, 
 while it alone could give permanence to their conquests 
 in that quarter. To defend Ratisbon was the urgent 
 advice which the dying Tilly left to the Elector; and 
 Gustavus Adolphus had lamented it as an irreparable 
 loss that the Bavarians had anticipated him in taking 
 possession of this place. Indescribable, therefore, was 
 the consternation of Maximilian when Duke Bernard 
 suddenly appeared before the town and prepared in 
 earnest to besiege it. 
 
 The garrison consisted of not more than fifteen com- 
 panies, mostly newly-raised soldiers ; although that num- 
 ber was more than sufficient to weary out an enemy of 
 far superior force if supported by well-disposed and 
 warlike inhabitants. But this was not the greatest dan- 
 ger which the Bavarian garrison 'had to contend against. 
 The Protestant inhabitants of Ratisbon, equally jealous 
 of their civil and religious freedom, had unwillingly sub- 
 mitted to the yoke of Bavaria, and had long looked with 
 impatience for the appearance of a deliverer. Bernard's 
 arrival before the walls filled them with lively joy, and 
 there was much reason to fear that they would support 
 the attempts of the besiegers without by exciting a tumult 
 within. In this perplexity the Elector addressed the 
 most pressing entreaties to the Emperor and the Duke of 
 Friedland to assist him, were it only with five thousand 
 men. Seven messengers in succession were despatched 
 by Ferdinand to Wallenstein, who promised immediate 
 succors, and even announced to the Elector the near 
 advance of twelve thousand men under Gallas, but at 
 the same time forbade that general, under pain of death, 
 to march. Meanwhile the Bavarian commandant of Rat- 
 isbon, in the hope of speedy assistance, made the best 
 preparations for defence, armed the Roman Catholic 
 peasants, disarmed and carefully watched the Protestant 
 citizens lest they should attempt any hostile design 
 against the garrison. But as no relief arrived, and the 
 enemy's artillery incessantly battered the walls, he con- 
 sulted his own safety and that of the garrison by an hon-
 
 290 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 
 
 onible capitulation, and abandoned the Bavarian officials 
 and ecclesiastics to the conqueror's mercy. 
 
 The possession of Ratisbon enlarged the projects of 
 the duke, and Bavaria itself now appeared too narrow a 
 field for his bold designs. He determined to penetrate 
 to the frontiers of Austria, to arm the Protestant peas- 
 antry against the Emperor, and restore to them their 
 religious liberty. He had already taken Straubingen, 
 while another Swedish army was advancing successfully 
 along the northern bank of the Danube. At the head of 
 his Swedes, bidding defiance to the severity of the 
 weather, he reached the mouth of the Iser, which he 
 passed in the presence of the Bavarian General Werth, 
 who was encamped on that river. Passau and Lintz 
 trembled for their fate ; the terrified Emperor redoubled 
 his entreaties and commands to Wallenstein to hasten 
 with all speed to the relief of the hard-pressed Bavarians. 
 But here the victorious Bernard of his own accord 
 checked his career of conquest. Having in front of him 
 the river Inn, guarded by a number of strong fortresses, 
 and behind him two hostile armies, a disaffected country, 
 and the river Iser, while his rear was covered by no ten- 
 able position, and no intrenchment could be made in the 
 frozen ground ; and threatened by the whole force of 
 Wallenstein, who had at last resolved to march to the 
 Danube, by a timely retreat he escaped the danger of 
 being cut off from Ratisbon and surrounded by the 
 enemy. He hastened across the Iser to the Danube to 
 defend the conquests he had made in the Upper Palatin- 
 ate against Wallenstein, and fully resolved not to decline 
 a battle, if necessary, with that general. But Wallen- 
 stein, who was not disposed for any great exploits on the 
 Danube, did not wait for his approach, and before the 
 Bavarians could congratulate themselves on his arrival 
 he suddenly withdrew again into Bohemia. The duke 
 thus ended his victorious campaign, and allowed his 
 troops their well-earned repose in winter quarters upon 
 an enemy's country. 
 
 While in Swabia the war was thus successfully con- 
 ducted by Gustavus Horn, and on the Upper and Lower 
 Rhine by the Palatine of Birkenfeld, General Baudissen,
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 291 
 
 and the Rhinegrave, Otto Louis, and by Duke Bernard on 
 the Danube, the reputation of the Swedish arms was as 
 gloriously sustained in Lower Saxony and Westphalia by 
 the Duke of Lunenburg and the Landgrave of Hesse Cas- 
 sel. The fortress of Harael was taken by Duke George, 
 after a brave defence, and a brilliant victory obtained over 
 the imperial General Gronsfeld by the united Swedish 
 and Hessian armies near Oldendorf. Count Wasaburg, 
 a natural son of Gustavus Adolphus, showed himself in 
 this battle worthy of his descent. Sixteen pieces of can- 
 non, the whole baggage of the Imperialists, together with 
 seventy-four colors, fell into the hands of the Swedes ; 
 three thousand of the enemy perished on the field, and 
 nearly the same number were taken prisoners. The town 
 of Osnaburg surrendered to the Swedish Colonel Knyp- 
 hausen, and Paderborn to the Landgrave of Hesse ; while, 
 on the other hand, Biickeburg, a very important place for 
 the Swedes, fell into the hands of the Imperialists. The 
 Swedish banners were victorious in almost every quarter 
 of Germany; and the year after the death of Gustavus 
 left no trace of the loss which had been sustained in the 
 person of that great leader. 
 
 In a review of the important events which signalized 
 the campaign of 1633 the inactivity of a man of whom 
 the highest expectations had been formed justly excites 
 astonishment. Among all the generals who distinguished 
 themselves in this campaign none could be compared 
 with Wallenstein in experience, talents, and reputation ; 
 and yet after the battle of Lutzen we lose sight of him 
 entirely. The fall of his great rival had left the whole 
 theatre of glory open to him ; all Europe was now atten- 
 tively awaiting those exploits which should efface the 
 remembrance of his defeat and still prove to the world 
 his military superiority. Nevertheless, he continued inac- 
 tive in Bohemia, while the Emperor's losses in Bavaria, 
 Lower Saxony, and the Rhine pressingly called for his 
 presence a conduct equally unintelligible to friend and 
 foe the terror, and at the same time the last hope of 
 the Emperor. After the defeat of Lutzen he had hastened 
 into Bohemia, where he instituted the strictest inquiry 
 into the conduct of his officers in that battle. Those whom
 
 292 THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 
 
 the council of war declared guilty of misconduct were 
 put to death without mercy, those who had behaved with 
 bravery rewarded with princely munificence, and the 
 memory of the dead honored by splendid monuments. 
 During the winter he oppressed the imperial provinces by 
 enormous contributions, and exhausted the Austrian terri- 
 tories by his winter quarters, which he purposely avoided 
 taking up in an enemy's country. And in the spring of 
 1633, instead of being the first to open the campaign with 
 this well-chosen and well-appointed army, and to make a 
 worthy display of his great abilities, he was the last who 
 appeared in the field ; and even then it was an hereditary 
 province of Austria which he selected as the seat of war. 
 Of all the Austrian provinces Silesia was most exposed 
 to danger. Three different armies, a Swedish under 
 Count Thurn, a Saxon under Arnheim and the Duke of 
 Lauenburg, and one of Brandenburg under Borgsdorf, 
 had at the same time carried the war into this country ; 
 they had already taken possession of the most important 
 places, ^uid even Breslau had embraced the cause of the 
 allies. But this crowd of commanders and armies was 
 the very means of saving this province to the Emperor ; 
 for the jealousy of the generals, and the mutual hatred of 
 the Saxons and the Swedes, never allowed them to act 
 with unanimity. Arnheim and Thurn contended for the 
 chief command ; the troops of Brandenburg and Saxony 
 combined against the Swedes, whom they looked upon as 
 troublesome strangers who ought to be got rid of as soon 
 as possible. The Saxons, on the contrary, lived on a very 
 intimate footing with the Imperialists, and the officers of 
 both these hostile armies often visited and entertained 
 each other. The Imperialists were allowed to remove 
 their property without hinderance, and many did not affect 
 to conceal that they had received large sums from Vienna. 
 Among such equivocal allies the Swedes saw themselves 
 sold and betrayed ; and any great enterprise was out of 
 the question while so bad an understanding prevailed be- 
 tween the troops. General Arnheim, too, was absent the 
 greater part of the time ; and when he at last returned 
 Wallenstein was fast approaching the frontiers with a 
 formidable force.
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 293 
 
 His army amounted to forty thousand men, while to 
 oppose him the allies had only twenty-four thousand. 
 They nevertheless resolved to give him battle, and 
 marched to Munsterberg, where he had formed an in- 
 trenched camp. But Wallenstein remained inactive for 
 eight days ; he then left his intrenchments and marched 
 slowly and with composure to the enemy's camp. But 
 even after quitting his position, and when the enemy, em- 
 boldened by his past delay, manfully prepared to receive 
 him, he declined the opportunity of fighting. The 
 caution with which he avoided a battle was imputed to 
 fear ; but the well-established reputation of Wallenstein 
 enabled him to despise this suspicion. The vanity of 
 the allies allowed them not to see that he purposely 
 saved them a defeat because a victory at that time would 
 not have served his own ends. To convince them of his 
 superior power, and that his inactivity proceeded not 
 from any fear of them, he put to death the commander 
 of a castle that fell into his hands because he had refused 
 at once to surrender an untenable place. 
 
 For nine days did the two armies remain within 
 musket-shot of each other, when Count Terzky, from the 
 camp of the Imperialists, appeared with a trumpeter in 
 that of the allies inviting General Arnheim to a confer- 
 ence. The purport was that Wallenstein, notwithstand- 
 ing his superiority, was willing to agree to a cessation of 
 arms for six weeks. " He was come," he said, " to con- 
 clude a lasting peace with the Swedes, and with the 
 princes of the empire, to pay the soldiers, and to satisfy 
 every one. All this was in his power ; and if the Aus- 
 trian court hesitated to confirm his agreement he would 
 unite with the allies, and (as he privately whispered to 
 Arnheim) hunt the Emperor to the devil." At the sec- 
 ond conference he expressed himself still more plainly to 
 Count Thurn. " All the privileges of the Bohemians," 
 he engaged, "should be confirmed anew, the exiles re- 
 called and restored to their estates, and he himself would 
 be the first to resign his share of them. The Jesuits, as 
 the authors of all past grievances, should be banished, 
 the Swedish crown indemnified by stated payments, and 
 all the superfluous troops on both sides employed against
 
 294 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 
 
 the Turks." The last article explained the whole mys- 
 tery. " If," he continued, " he should obtain the crown 
 of Bohemia all the exiles would have reason to applaud 
 his generosity ; perfect toleration of religions should be 
 established within the kingdom, the Palatine family be 
 reinstated in its rights, and he would accept the Mar- 
 graviate of Moravia as a compensation for Mecklenburg. 
 The allied armies would then, under his command, ad- 
 vance upon Vienna, and, sword in hand, compel the 
 Emperor to ratify the treaty." 
 
 Thus was the veil at last removed from the schemes 
 over which he had brooded for years in mysterious 
 silence. Every circumstance now convinced him that 
 not a moment was to be lost in its execution. Nothing 
 but a blind confidence in the good fortune and military 
 genius of the Duke of Friedland had induced the Em- 
 peror, in the face of the remonstrances of Bavaria and 
 Spain, and at the expense of his own reputation, to con- 
 fer upon this imperious leader such an unlimited com- 
 mand. But this belief in Wallenstein's being invincible 
 had been much weakened by the inaction, and almost 
 entirely overthrown by the defeat at Lutzen. His ene- 
 mies at the imperial court now renewed their intrigues ; 
 and the Emperor's disappointment at the failure of his 
 hopes procured for their remonstrances a favorable recep- 
 tion. Wallenstein's whole conduct was now reviewed witli 
 the most malicious criticism; his ambitious haughtiness, 
 his disobedience to the Emperor's orders, were recalled to 
 the recollection of that jealous prince, as well as the com- 
 plaints of the Austrian subjects against his boundless 
 oppression ; his fidelity was questioned, and alarming 
 hints thrown out as to his secret views. These insinua- 
 tions, which the conduct of the duke seemed but too well 
 to justify, failed not to make a deep impression on Fer- 
 dinand ; but the step had been taken, and the great power 
 with \vhich Wallenstein had been invested could not be 
 taken from him without danger. Insensibly to diminish 
 that power was the only course that now remained, and 
 to effect this it must in the first place be divided ; but, 
 above all, the Emperor's present dependence on the good- 
 will of his general put an end to. But even this right
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 295 
 
 had been resigned in his engagement with Wallenstein, 
 and the Emperor's own handwriting secured him against 
 every attempt to unite another general with him in the 
 command or to exercise any immediate act of authority 
 over the troops. As this disadvantageous contract could 
 neither be kept nor broken recourse was had to artifice. 
 Wallenstein was Imperial Generalissimo in Germany, 
 but his command extended no further, and he could not 
 presume to exercise any authority over a foreign army. 
 A Spanish army was accordingly raised in Milan and 
 marched into Germany under a Spanish general. Wal- 
 lenstein now ceased to be indispensable because he was 
 no longer supreme, and in case of necessity the Emperor 
 was now provided with the means of support even against 
 him. 
 
 The duke quickly and deeply felt whence this blow 
 came and whither it was aimed. In vain did he protest 
 against this violation of the compact to the Cardinal 
 Infante ; the Italian army continued its march and he 
 was forced to detach General Altringer to join it with a 
 reinforcement. He took care, indeed, so closely to fetter 
 the latter as to prevent the Italian army from acquiring 
 any great reputation in Alsace and Swabia ; but this bold 
 step of the court awakened him from his security, and 
 warned him of the approach of danger. That he might 
 not a second time be deprived of his command and lose the 
 fruit of all his labors he must accelerate the accomplish- 
 ment of his long-meditated designs. He secured the 
 attachment of his troops by removing the doubtful offi- 
 cers and by his liberality to the rest. He had sacrificed 
 to the welfare of the army every other order in the state, 
 every consideration of justice and humanity, and there- 
 fore he reckoned upon their gratitude. At the very 
 moment when he meditated an unparalleled act of ingrati- 
 tude against the author of his own good fortune he 
 founded all his hopes upon the gratitude which was due 
 to himself. 
 
 The leaders of the Silesian armies had no authority 
 from their principals to consent on their own discretion 
 to such important proposals as those of Wallenstein, and 
 they did not even feel themselves warranted in granting
 
 296 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 
 
 for more than a fortnight the cessation of hostilities 
 which he demanded. Before the duke disclosed his 
 designs to Sweden and Saxony he had deemed it advis- 
 able to secure the sanction of France to his bold under- 
 taking. For this purpose a secret negotiation had been 
 carried on with the greatest possible caution and distrust 
 by Count Kinsky with Feuquieres, the French ambassador 
 at Dresden, and had terminated according to his wishes. 
 Feuquieres received orders from his court to promise 
 every assistance on the part of France, and to offer the 
 duke a considerable pecuniary aid in case of need. 
 
 But it was this excessive caution to secure himself on 
 all sides that led to his ruin. The FVench ambassador 
 with astonishment discovered that a plan which, more 
 than any other, required secrecy, had been communicated 
 to the Swedes and the Saxons. And yet it was generally 
 known that the Saxon ministry was in the interests of 
 the Emperor, and on, the other hand, the conditions 
 offered to the Swedes fell too far short of their expecta- 
 tions to be likely to be accepted. Feuquieres therefore 
 could not believe that the duke could be serious in calcu- 
 lating upon the aid of the latter and the silence of the 
 former. He communicated accordingly his doubts and 
 anxieties to the Swedish chancellor, who equally dis- 
 trusted the views of Wallenstein and disliked his plans. 
 Although it was no secret to Oxenstiern that the duke 
 had formerly entered into a similar negotiation with Gus- 
 tavus Adolphus he could not credit the possibility of 
 inducing a whole army to revolt, and of his extravagant 
 promises. So daring a design, and such imprudent con- 
 duct, seemed not to be consistent with the duke's reserved 
 and suspicious temper, and he was the more inclined to 
 consider the whole as the result of dissimulation and 
 treachery because he had less reason to doubt his pru- 
 dence than his honesty. 
 
 Oxenstiern's doubts at last affected Arnheim himself, 
 who, in full confidence in Wallenstein's sincerity, had re- 
 paired to the chancellor at Gelnhausen to persuade him 
 to lend some of his best regiments to the duke to aid him 
 in the execution of the plan. They began to suspect that 
 the whole proposal was only a snare to disarm the allies,
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 297 
 
 and to betray the flower of their troops into the hands of 
 the Emperor. Wallenstein's well-known character did 
 not contradict the suspicion, and the inconsistencies in 
 which he afterwards involved himself entirely destroyed 
 all confidence in his sincerity. While he was endeavor- 
 ing to draw the Swedes into this alliance, and requiring 
 the help of their best troops, he declared to Arnheim that 
 they must begin with expelling the Swedes from the 
 empire ; and while the Saxon officers, relying upon the 
 security of the truce, repaired in great numbers to his 
 camp he made an unsuccessful attempt to seize them. 
 He was the first to break the truce, which some months 
 afterwards he renewed, though not without great diffi- 
 culty. All confidence in his sincerity was lost ; his whole 
 conduct was regarded as a tissue of deceit and low cun- 
 ning, devised to weaken the allies and repair his own 
 strength. This indeed he actually did effect, as his own 
 army daily augmented, while that of the allies was re- 
 duced nearly one-half by desertion and bad provisions. 
 But he did not make that use of his superiority which 
 Vienna expected. When all men were looking for a deci- 
 sive blow to be struck he suddenly renewed -the negotia- 
 tions ; and when the truce lulled the allies into security he 
 as suddenly recommenced hostilities. All these contradic- 
 tions arose out of the double and irreconcilable designs to 
 ruin at once the Emperor and the Swedes, and to con- 
 clude a separate peace with the Saxons. 
 
 Impatient at the ill-success of his negotiations he at 
 last determined to display his strength ; the more so as 
 the pressing distress within the empire, and the growing 
 dissatisfaction of the imperial court, admitted not of his 
 making any longer delay. Before the last cessation of 
 hostilities General Hoik from Bohemia had attacked the 
 circle of Meissen, laid waste everything on his route with 
 fire and sword, driven the Elector into his fortresses, 
 and taken the town of Leipzig. But the truce in Silesia 
 put a period to his ravages, and the consequences of his 
 excesses brought him to the grave at Adorf. As soon as 
 hostilities were recommenced Wallenstein made a move- 
 ment as if he designed to penetrate through Lusatia into 
 Saxony, and circulated the report that Piccolomini had
 
 298 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 
 
 already invaded that country. Arnheim immediately 
 broke up his camp in Silesia to follow him, and hastened 
 to the assistance of the Electorate. By this means the 
 Swedes were left exposed, who were encamped in small 
 force under Count Thurn at Steinau, on the Oder, and 
 this was exactly what Wallenstein desired. He allowed 
 the Saxon general to advance sixteen miles towards 
 Meissan, and then, suddenly turning towards the Oder, 
 surprised the Swedish army in the most complete security. 
 Their cavalry were first beaten by General Schafgotseh, 
 who was sent against them, and the infantry completely 
 surrounded at Steinau by the duke's army, which followed. 
 Wallenstein gave Count Thurn half an hour to deliberate 
 whether he would defend himself with two thousand five 
 hundred men against more than twenty thousand, or 
 surrender at discretion. But there was no room for de- 
 liberation. The army surrendered, and the most com- 
 plete victory was obtained without bloodshed. Colors, 
 baggage, and artillery all fell into the hands of the victors, 
 the officers were taken into custody, the privates drafted 
 into the army of Wallenstein. And now at last", after a 
 banishment of fourteen years, after numberless changes of 
 fortune, the author of the Bohemian insurrection, and the 
 remote origin of this destructive war, the notorious Count 
 Thurn, was in the power of his enemies. With blood- 
 thirsty impatience the arrival of this great criminal was 
 looked for in Vienna, where they already anticipated 
 the malicious triumph of sacrificing so distinguished a 
 victim to public justice. But to deprive the Jesuits of 
 this pleasure was still a sweeter triumph to Wallenstein, 
 and Thurn was set at liberty. Fortunately for him he 
 knew more than it was prudent to have divulged in 
 Vienna, and his enemies were also those of Wallenstein. 
 A defeat might have been forgiven in Vienna, but this 
 disappointment of their hopes they could not pardon. 
 "What should I have done with this madman?" he 
 writes with a malicious sneer to the minister \vho called 
 him to account for this unseasonable magnanimity. 
 "Would to Heaven the enemy had no generals but such 
 as he. At the head of the Swedish army he will render 
 us much better service than in prison."
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 299 
 
 The victory of Steinau was followed by the capture of 
 Liegnitz, Grossglogau, and even of Frankfort on the 
 Oder. Schafgotsch, who remained in Silesia to complete 
 the subjugation of that province, blockaded Breig, and 
 threatened Breslau, though in vain, as that free town was 
 jealous of its privileges and devoted to the Swedes. 
 Colonels Illo and Goetz were ordered by Wallenstein to 
 the Warta, to push forward into Pomerania, and to the 
 coasts of the Baltic, and actually obtained possession of 
 Landsberg, the key of Pomerania. While thus the 
 Elector of Brandenburg and the Duke of Pomerania were 
 made to tremble for their dominions, Wallenstein himself 
 with the remainder of his army burst suddenly into 
 Lusatia, where he took Goerlitz by storm, and forced 
 Bautzen to surrender. But his object was merely to 
 alarm the Elector of Saxony, not to follow up the ad- 
 vantages already obtained ; and therefore, even with the 
 sword in his hand, he continued his negotiations for peace 
 with Brandenburg and Saxony, but with no better suc- 
 cess than before, as the inconsistencies of his conduct had 
 destroyed all confidence in his sincerity. He was there- 
 fore on the point of turning his whole force in earnest 
 against the unfortunate Saxons, and effecting his object 
 by force of arms, when circumstances compelled him to 
 leave these territories. The conquests of Duke Bernard 
 upon the Danube, which threatened Austria itself with 
 immediate danger, urgently demanded his presence in 
 Bavaria; and the expulsion of the Saxons and Swedes 
 from Silesia deprived him of every pretext for longer 
 resisting the imperial orders and leaving the Elector of 
 Bavaria without assistance. With his main body, there- 
 fore, he immediately set out for the Upper Palatinate, 
 and his retreat freed Upper Saxony forever of this formi- 
 dable enemy. 
 
 So long as was possible he had delayed to move to the 
 rescue of Bavaria, and on every pretext evaded the 
 commands of the Emperor. He had, indeed, after reiter- 
 ated remonstrances, despatched from Bohemia a rein- 
 forcement of some regiments to Count Altringer, who 
 was defending the Lech and the Danube against Horn 
 and Bernard, but under the express condition of his
 
 300 THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 
 
 acting merely on the defensive. He referred the Em- 
 peror and the Elector, whenever they applied to him for 
 aid, to Altringer, who, as he publicly gave out, had re- 
 ceived unlimited powers ; secretly, however, he tied up 
 his hands by the strictest injunctions, and even threatened 
 him with death if he exceeded his orders. When Duke 
 Bernard had appeared befoi-e Ratisbon, and the Emperor 
 as well as the Elector repeated still more urgently their 
 demand for succor, he pretended he was about to de- 
 spatch General Gallas with a considerable army to the 
 Danube ; but this movement also was delayed, and Ratis- 
 bon, Straubing, and Cham, as well as the Bishopric of 
 Eichstadt, fell into the hands of the Swedes. When at 
 last he could no longer neglect the orders of the court 
 he marched slowly toward the Bavarian frontier, where 
 he invested the town of Cham, which had been taken 
 by the Swedes. But no sooner did he learn that on 
 the Swedish side a diversion was contemplated by an 
 inroad of the Saxons into Bohemia than he availed him- 
 self of the report as a pretext for immediately retreating 
 into that kingdom. Every consideration, he urged, must 
 be postponed to the defence and preservation of the 
 hereditaiy dominions of the Emperor; and on this plea 
 he remained firmly fixed in Bohemia, Avhich he guarded 
 as if it had been his own property. And when the 
 Emperor laid upon him his commands to move towards 
 the Danube, and prevent the Duke of Weimar from 
 establishing himself in so dangerous a position on the 
 frontiers of Austria, Wallenstein thought proper to con- 
 clude the campaign a second time, and quartered his 
 troops for the winter in this exhausted kingdom. 
 
 Such continued insolence and unexampled contempt 
 of the imperial orders, as well as obvious neglect of the 
 common cause, joined to his equivocal behavior towards 
 the enemy, tended at last to convince the Emperor of the 
 truth of those unfavorable reports with regard to the 
 duke which were current through Germany. The lat- 
 ter had for a long time succeeded in glozing over his 
 criminal correspondence with the enemy, and persuading 
 the Emperor, still prepossessed in his favor, that the sole 
 object of his secret conferences was to obtain peace for
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 301 
 
 Germany. But, impenetrable as he himself believed his 
 proceedings to be, in the course of his conduct enough 
 transpired to justify the insinuations with which his rivals 
 incessantly loaded the ear of the Emperor. In order to 
 satisfy himself of the truth or falsehood of these rumors 
 Ferdinand had already, at different times, sent spies 
 into Wallenstein's camp ; but as the duke took the pre- 
 caution never to commit anything in writing they re- 
 turned with nothing but conjectures. But when at last 
 those ministers who had formerly been his champions at 
 the court, in consequence of their estates not being 
 exempted by Wallenstein from the general exactions, 
 joined his enemies ; when the Elector of Bavaria threat- 
 ened, in case of Wallenstein being any longer retained 
 in the supreme command, to unite with the Swedes ; 
 when the Spanish ambassador insisted on his dismissal, 
 and threatened in case of refusal to withdraw the subsi- 
 dies furnished by his crown, the Emperor found himself 
 a second time compelled to deprive him of the command. 
 
 The Emperor's authoritative and direct interference 
 with the army soon convinced the duke that the com- 
 pact with himself was regarded as at an end, and thr.t 
 his dismissal was inevitable. One of his inferior generals 
 in Austria, whom he had forbidden under pain of death 
 to obey the orders of the court, received the positive 
 commands of the Emperor to join the Elector of Bavaria ; 
 and Wallenstein himself was imperiously ordered to send 
 some regiments to reinforce the army of the Cardinal 
 Infante, who was on his march from Italy. All these 
 measures convinced him that the plan was finally arranged 
 to disarm him by degrees, and at once, when he was weak 
 and defenceless, to complete his ruin. 
 
 In self-defence must he now hasten to carry into execu- 
 tion the plans which he had originally formed only with 
 the view of aggrandizement. He had delayed too long, 
 either because the favorable configuration of the stars 
 had not yet presented itself, or, as he used to say, to 
 check the impatience of his friends, because the time was 
 not yet come. The time even now was not come ; but 
 the pressure of circumstances no longer allowed him to 
 await the favor of the stars. The first step was to assure
 
 302 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 
 
 himself of the sentiments of his principal officers, and 
 then to try the attachment of the army, which lie had 
 so long confidently reckoned on. Three of them, Colonels 
 Kinsky, Terzky, and Illo, had long been in his secrets, 
 and the two first were further united to his interests by 
 the ties of relationship. The same wild ambition, the 
 same bitter hatred of the government, and the hope of 
 enormous rewards, bound them in the closest manner to 
 Wallenstein, who, to increase the number of his adherents, 
 could stoop to the lowest means. He had once advised 
 Colonel Illo to solicit in Vienna the title of count, and 
 had promised to back his application with his powerful 
 mediation. But he secretly wrote to the ministry, advis- 
 ing them to refuse his request, as to grant it would give 
 rise to similar demands from others whose services and 
 claims were equal to his. On Illo's return to the camp 
 Wallenstein immediately demanded to know the success 
 of his mission ; and when informed by Illo of its failure, 
 he broke out into the bitterest complaints against the 
 court. " Thus," said he, " are our faithful services re- 
 warded. My recommendation is disregarded, and your 
 merit denied so' trifling a reward ! Who would any longer 
 devote his services to so ungrateful a master? No, for 
 my part, I am henceforth the determined foe of Austria." 
 Illo agreed with him, and a close alliance was cemented 
 between them. 
 
 But what was known to these three confidants of the 
 duke was long an impenetrable secret to the rest ; and 
 the confidence with which Wallenstein spoke of the devo- 
 tion of his officers was founded merely on the favors he 
 had lavished on them, and on their known dissatisfaction 
 with the court. But this vague presumption must be 
 converted into certainty before he could venture to lay 
 aside the mask or take any open step against the Em- 
 peror. Count Piccolomini, who had distinguished him- 
 self by his unparalleled bravery at Lutzen, was the first 
 whose fidelity he put to the proof. He had he thought 
 gained the attachment of this general by large presents, 
 and preferred him to all others because born under the 
 same constellations with himself. He disclosed to him 
 that in consequence of the Emperor's ingratitude, and the
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 303 
 
 near approach of his own danger, he had irrevocably 
 determined entirely to abandon the party of Austria, to 
 join the enemy with the best part of his army, and to 
 make war upon the House of Austria on all sides of its 
 dominions till he had wholly extirpated it. In the 
 execution of this plan he principally reckoned on the 
 services of Piccolomini, and had beforehand promised 
 him the greatest rewards. When the latter, to conceal 
 his amazement at this extraordinary communication, 
 spoke of the dangers and obstacles which would oppose 
 so hazardous an enterprise, Wallenstein ridiculed his 
 fears. "In such enterprises," he maintained, "nothing 
 was difficult but the commencement. The stars were 
 propitious to him, the opportunity the best that could be 
 wished for, and something must always be trusted to 
 fortune. His resolution was taken, and if it could not be 
 otherwise he would encounter the hazard at the head of 
 a thousand horse." Piccolomini was careful not to excite 
 Wallenstein's suspicions by longer opposition, and yielded 
 apparently to the force of his reasoning. Such was the 
 infatuation of the duke that, notwithstanding the warn- 
 ings of Count Terzky, he never doubted the sincerity of 
 this man, who lost not a moment in communicating to 
 the court at Vienna this important conversation. 
 
 Preparatory to taking the last decisive step he, in 
 January, 1634, called a meeting of all the commanders of 
 the army at Pilsen, whither he had marched after his 
 retreat from Bavaria. The Emperor's recent orders to 
 spare his hereditary dominions from winter quarterings, 
 to recover Ratisbon in the middle of winter, and to 
 reduce the army by a detachment of six thousand horse 
 to the Cardinal Infante, were matters sufficiently grave to 
 be laid before a council of war ; and this plausible pretext 
 served to conceal from the curious the real object of the 
 meeting. Sweden and Saxony received invitations to be 
 present in order to treat with the Duke of Friedland for 
 a peace ; to the leaders of more distant armies written 
 communications were made. Of the commanders thus 
 summoned twenty appeared ; but three most influential, 
 Gallas, Colloredo and Altringer were absent. The duke 
 reiterated his summons to them, and in the meantime, in
 
 304 THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 
 
 expectation of their speedy arrival, proceeded to execute 
 his designs. 
 
 It was no light task that he had to perform ; a noble- 
 man, proud, brave, and jealous of his honor was to 
 declare himself capable of the basest treachery, in the 
 very presence of those who had been accustomed to re- 
 gard him as the representative of majesty, the judge of 
 their actions, and the supporter of their laws, and to 
 show himself suddenly as a traitor, a cheat, and a rebel. 
 It was no easy task either to shake to its foundations a 
 legitimate sovereignty, strengthened by time and conse- 
 crated by laws and religion ; to dissolve all the charms 
 of the senses and the imagination, those formidable 
 guardians of an established throne, and to attempt 
 forcibly to uproot those invincible feelings of duty which 
 plead so loudly and so powerfully in the breast of the 
 subject in favor of his sovereign. But, blinded by the 
 splendor of a crown, Wallenstein observed not the preci- 
 pice that yawned beneath his feet ; and in full reliance 
 on his own strength, the common case with energetic and 
 daring minds, he stopped not to consider the magnitude 
 and the number of the difficulties that opposed him. 
 Wallenstein saw nothing but an army, partly indifferent 
 and partly exasperated against the court, accustomed 
 with a blind submission to do homage to his great name, 
 to bow to him as their legislator and judge, and with 
 trembling reverence to follow his orders as the decrees of 
 fate. In the extravagant flatteries which were paid to 
 his omnipotence, in the bold abuse of the court govern- 
 ment in which a lawless soldiery indulged, and which the 
 wild license of the camp excused, l.e thought he read the 
 sentiments of the army; and the Loldness with which 
 they were ready to censure the monarch's measures, 
 passed w r ith him for a readiness to renounce their alle- 
 giance to a sovereign so little respected. But that which 
 he had regarded as the lightest matter proved the most 
 formidable obstacle with which he had to contend ; the 
 soldiers' feelings of allegiance were the rock on which his 
 hopes were wrecked. Deceived -by the profound respect 
 in which he was held by these lawless bands, he ascribed 
 the whole to his own personal greatness, without distin-
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 305 
 
 guishing how much he owed to himself and how much to tne 
 dignity with which he was invested. All trembled before 
 him while he exercised a legimate authority, while obedi- 
 ence to him was a duty, and while his consequence was 
 supported by the majesty of the sovereign. Greatness in 
 and of itself may excite terror and admiration ; but legit- 
 imate greatness alone can inspire reverence and submis- 
 sion ; and of this decisive advantage he deprived himself 
 the instant he avowed himself a traitor. 
 
 Field-Marshal Illo undertook to learn the sentiments of 
 the officers and to prepare them for the step which was 
 expected of them. He began by laying before them the 
 new orders of the court to the general and the army; 
 and by the obnoxious turn he skilfully gave to them he 
 found it easy to excite the indignation of the assembly. 
 After this well-chosen introduction he expatiated with 
 much eloquence upon the merits of the army and the 
 general and the ingratitude with which the Emperor was 
 accustomed to requite them. Spanish influence, he main- 
 tained, governed the court ; the ministry were in the pay 
 of Spain; the Duke of Friedland alone had hitherto 
 opposed this tyranny, and had thus drawn down upon 
 himself the deadly enmity of the Spaniards. To remove 
 him from the command or to make away with him 
 entirely, he continued, had long been the end of their 
 desires ; and until they could succeed in one or the 
 other they endeavored to abridge his power in the field. 
 The command was to be placed in the hands of the King 
 of Hungary for no other reason than the better to promote 
 the Spanish power in Germany ; because this prince, as 
 the ready instrument of foreign counsels, might be led at 
 pleasure. It was merely with the view of weakening the 
 army that the six thousand troops were required for the 
 Cardinal Infante ; it was solely for the purpose of harass- 
 ing it by a winter campaign that they were now called 
 on in this inhospitable season to undertake the recovery 
 of Ratisbon. The means of subsistence were evervwhere 
 rendered difficult, while the Jesuits and the ministry 
 enriched themselves with the sweat of the provinces and 
 squandered the money intended for the pay of the troops. 
 The general abandoned by the court acknowledges his
 
 306 THE THIKTY YEAUS' WAR. 
 
 inability to keep his engagements to the army. For all the 
 services which for t\vo-and -twenty years he had rendered 
 the House of Austria ; for all the difficulties with which 
 he had struggled ; for all the treasures of his own which 
 he had expended in the imperial service, a second dis- 
 graceful dismissal awaited him. But he was resolved the 
 matter should not come to this ; he was determined 
 voluntarily to resign the command before it should be 
 wrested from his hands ; and this, continued the 
 orator, is Avhat through me he now makes known to his 
 officers. It was now for them to say whether it would be 
 advisable to lose such a general. Let each consider who 
 was to refund him the sums he had expended in the 
 Emperor's service, and where he was now to reap the 
 reward of their bravery when he who was their evidence 
 was removed from the scene." 
 
 A universal cry that they would not allow their general 
 to be taken from them interrupted the speaker. Four 
 of the principal officers were deputed to lay before him 
 the wish of the assembly, and earnestly to request that 
 he would not leave the army. The duke made a show 
 of resistance and only yielded after the second deputa- 
 tion. This concession on his side seemed to demand a 
 return on theirs ; as he engaged not to quit the service 
 without the knowledge and consent of the generals, he 
 required of them, on the other hand, a written promise 
 to truly and firmly adhere to him, neither to separate 
 nor to allow themselves to be separated from him, and 
 to shed their last drop of blood in his defence. Whoever 
 should break this covenant was to be regarded as a 
 perfidious traitor, and treated by the rest as a common 
 enemy. The express condition, which was added, " As 
 long as Wallenstein shall employ the army in the Em- 
 peror's service" seemed to exclude all misconception, and 
 none of the assembled generals hesitated at once to accede 
 to a demand apparently so innocent and so reasonable. 
 
 This document was publicly read before an entertain- 
 ment which Field-Marshal Illo had expressly prepared 
 for the purpose ; it was to be signed after they rose from 
 table. The host did his utmost to stupify his guests by 
 strong potations; and it was not until he saw them
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 307 
 
 affected with the wine that he had produced the paper 
 for signature. Most of them wrote their names without 
 knowing what they were subscribing ; a few only, more 
 curious or more distrustful, read the paper over again, 
 and discovered with astonishment that the clause " as long 
 as Wallenstein shall employ the army for the Emperor's 
 service" was omitted. Illo had, in fact, artfully con- 
 trived to substitute for the first another copy in which 
 these words were wanting. The trick was manifest and 
 many refused now to sign. Piccolomini, who had seen 
 through the whole cheat, and had been present at this 
 scene merely with the view of giving information of the 
 whole to the court, forgot himself so far in his cups as to 
 drink the Emperor's health. But Count Terzky now 
 rose and declared that all were perjured villains who 
 should recede from their engagement. His menaces, the 
 idea of the inevitable danger to which they who resisted 
 any longer would be exposed, the example of the rest, 
 and Illo's rhetoric, at last overcame their scruples, and 
 the paper was signed by all without exception. 
 
 Wallenstein had now effected his purpose ; but the 
 unexpected resistance he had met with from the com- 
 manders roused him at last from the fond illusions in 
 which he had hitherto indulged. Besides, most of the 
 names were scrawled so illegibly that some deceit was 
 evidently intended. But instead of being recalled to his 
 discretion by this warning he gave vent to his injured 
 pride in undignified complaints and reproaches. He 
 assembled the generals the next day, and undertook 
 personally to confirm the whole tenor of the agreement 
 which Illo had submitted to them the day before. After 
 pouring out the bitterest reproaches and abuse against 
 the court, he reminded them of their opposition to the 
 proposition of the previous day, and declared that this 
 circumstance had induced him to retract his own promise. 
 The generals withdrew in silence and confusion ; but 
 after a short consultation in the ante-chamber they re- 
 turned to apologize for their late conduct and offered to 
 sign the paper anew. 
 
 Nothing now remained but to obtain a similar assur- 
 ance from the absent generals, or, on their refusal, to
 
 308 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 
 
 seize their persons. Wallenstein renewed his invitation 
 to them, and earnestly urged them to hasten their arrival. 
 But a rumor of the doings at Pilsen reached them on 
 their journey and suddenly stopped their further pro- 
 gress. Altringer, on pretence of sickness, remained in the 
 strong fortress of Frauenberg. Gallas made his ap- 
 pearance, but merely with the design of better qualifying 
 himself as an eye-witness, to keep the Emperor informed 
 of all Wallenstein's proceedings. The intelligence which 
 he and Piccolomini gave at once converted the suspi- 
 cions of the court into an alarming certainty. Similar 
 disclosures, which were at the same time made from other 
 quarters, left no room for further doubt ; and the sudden 
 change of the commanders in Austria and Silesia ap- 
 peared to be the prelude to some important enterprise. 
 The danger was pressing and the remedy must be speedy, 
 but the court was unwilling to proceed at once to the 
 execution of the sentence till the regular forms of justice 
 were complied with. Secret instructions were therefore 
 issued to the principal officers, on whose fidelity reliance 
 could be placed, to seize the persons of the Duke of 
 Friedland and of his two associates, Illo and Terzky, and 
 keep them in close confinement till they should have an 
 opportunity of being heard and of answering for their 
 conduct ; but if this could not be accomplished quietly 
 the public danger required that they should be taken dead 
 or alive. At the same time General Gallas received a 
 patent commission, by which these orders of the Emperor 
 were made known to the colonels and officers, and the 
 army was released from its obedience to the traitor, and 
 placed under Lieutsnant-General Gallas till a new gene- 
 ralissimo could be appointed. In order to bring back the 
 seduced and deluded to their duty, and not to drive the 
 guilty to despair, a general amnesty was proclaimed in 
 regard to all offences against the imperial majesty com- 
 mitted at Pilsen. 
 
 General Gallas was not pleased with the honor which 
 was done him. He was at Pilsen under the eye of the 
 person whose fate he was to dispose of ; in the power of 
 an enemy who had a hundred eyes to watch his motions. 
 If Wallenstein once discovered the secret of his commis-
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 309 
 
 sion nothing could save him from the effects of his 
 vengeance and despair. But if it was thus dangerous to 
 be the secret depositary of such a commission how much 
 more so to execute it ? The sentiments of the generals, 
 were uncertain ; and it Avas at least doubtful whether, 
 after the step they had taken, they would be ready to 
 trust the Emperor's promises, and at once to abandon the 
 brilliant expectations they had built upon Wallenstein's 
 enterprise. It was also hazardous to attempt to lay hands 
 on the person of a man who till now had been considered 
 inviolable; who from long exercise of supreme power, 
 and from habitual obedience, had become the object of 
 deepest respect ; who was invested with every attribute 
 of outward majesty and inward greatness ; whose very 
 aspect inspired terror, and who by a nod disposed of life 
 and death ! To seize such a man, like a common criminal, 
 in the midst of the guards by whom he was surrounded, 
 and in a city apparently devoted to him ; to convert the 
 object of this deep and habitual veneration into a subject 
 of compassion or of contempt was a commission calcu- 
 lated to make even the boldest hesitate. So deeply was 
 fear and veneration for their general engraven in the 
 breasts of the soldiers that even the atrocious crime of 
 high treason could not wholly eradicate these sentiments. 
 Gallas perceived the impossibility of executing his 
 commission under the eyes of the duke; and his most 
 anxious wish was before venturing on any steps to have 
 an interview with Altringer. As the long absence of 
 the latter had already begun to excite the duke's sus- 
 picions Gallas offered to repair in person to Frauenberg, 
 and to prevail on Altringer, his relation, to return with 
 him. Wallenstein was so pleased with this proof of his 
 zeal that he even lent him his own equipage for the 
 journey. Rejoicing at the success of his stratagem, he 
 left Pilsen without delay, leaving to Count Piccolomini the 
 task of watching Wallenstein's further movements. He 
 did riot fail as he went along to make use of the imperial 
 patent, and the sentiments of the troops proved more 
 favorable than he had expected. Instead of taking back 
 his friend to Pilsen he despatched him to Vienna, to warn 
 the Emperor against the intended attack, while he him-
 
 310 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 
 
 self repaired to Upper Austria, of which the safety was 
 threatened by the near approach of Duke Bernard. In 
 Bohemia the towns of Budweiss and Tabor were again 
 garrisoned for the Emperor, and every precaution taken 
 to oppose with energy the designs of the traitor. 
 
 As Gallas did not appear disposed to return, Pic- 
 colomini determined to put Wallenstein's credulity once 
 more to the test. He begged to be sent to bring back 
 Gallas, and Wallenstein suffered himself a second time to 
 be overreached. This inconceivable blindness can only 
 be accounted for as the result of his pride, which never 
 retracted the opinion it had once formed of any person, 
 and would not acknowledge even to itself the possibility 
 of being deceived. He conveyed Count Piccolomini in 
 his own carriage to Lintz, where the latter immediately 
 followed the example of Gallas, and even went a step 
 farther. He had promised the duke to return. He did 
 so, but it was at the head of an army, intending to sur- 
 prise the duke in Pilsen. Another army under General 
 Suys hastened to Prague to secure that capital in its alle- 
 giance and to defend it against the rebels. Gallas at the 
 same time announced himself to the different imperial 
 armies as the commander-in-chief, from whom they were 
 henceforth to receive orders. Placards were circulated 
 through all the imperial camps denouncing the duke 
 and his four confidants, and absolving the soldiers from 
 all obedience to him. 
 
 The example which had been set at Lintz was uni- 
 versally followed ; imprecations were showered on the 
 traitor, and he was forsaken by all the armies. At last, 
 when even Piccolomini returned no more, the mist fell 
 from Wallenstein's eyes, and in consternation he awoke 
 from his dream. Yet his faith in the truth of astrology 
 and in the fidelity of the army was unshaken. Immedi- 
 ately after the intelligence of Piccolomini's defection he 
 issued orders that in future no commands were to be 
 obeyed which did not proceed directly from himself, or 
 from Terzky, or Illo. He prepared in all haste to ad- 
 vance upon Prague, where he intended to throw off the 
 mask and to openly- declare against the Emperor. All the 
 troops were to assemble before that city, and from thence
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 311 
 
 to pour down with rapidity upon Austria. Duke Ber- 
 nard, who had joined the conspiracy, was to support the 
 operations of the duke with the Swedish troops, and to 
 effect a diversion upon the Danube. 
 
 Terzky was already upon his inarch towards Prague ; 
 and nothing but the want of horses prevented the duke 
 from following him with the regiments who still adhered 
 faithfully to him. But when with the most anxious ex- 
 pectation he awaited intelligence from Prague he sud- 
 denly received information of the loss of that town, the 
 defection of his generals, the desertion of his troops, the 
 discovery of his whole plot, and the rapid advance of 
 Piccolomini, who was sworn to his destruction. Sud- 
 denly and fearfully had all his projects been ruined all 
 his hopes annihilated. He stood alone, abandoned by all 
 to whom he had been a benefactor, betrayed by all on 
 whom he had depended. But it is under such circum- 
 stances that great minds reveal themselves. Though 
 deceived in all his expectations he refused to abandon 
 one of his designs ; he despaired of nothing so long as 
 life remained. The time was now come when he abso- 
 lutely required that assistance which he had so often 
 solicited from the Swedes and the Saxons, and when all 
 doubts of the sincerity of his purposes must be dispelled. 
 And now, when Oxenstiern and Arnheim were convinced 
 of the sincirity of his intentions, and were aware of his 
 necessities, they no longer hesitated to embrace the 
 favorable opportunity and to offer him their protection. 
 On the part of Saxony, the Duke Francis Albert of Saxe 
 Lauenberg was to join him with four thousand men, and 
 Duke Bernard and the Palatine Christian of Birkenfeld 
 with six thousand from Sweden, all chosen troops. 
 
 Wallenstein left Pilsen with Terzky's regiment and the 
 few who either were or pretended to be faithful to him, 
 and hastened to Egra, on the frontiers of the kingdom, 
 in order to be near the Upper Palatinate and to facili- 
 tate his junction with Duke Bernard. He was not yet 
 informed of the decree by which he was proclaimed a 
 public enemy and traitor; this thunder-stroke awaited 
 him at Egra. He still reckoned on the army which Gen- 
 eral Schafgotsch was preparing for him in Silesia, and
 
 312 THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 
 
 flattered himself with the hope that many even of those 
 who had forsaken him would return with the first dawn- 
 ing of success. Even during his flight to Egra (so little 
 humility had he learned from melancholy experience) he 
 was still occupied with the colossal scheme of dethron- 
 ing the Emperor. It was under these circumstances that 
 one of his suite asked leave to offer him his advice. 
 " Under the Emperor," said he, " your highness is certain 
 of being a great and respected noble ; with the enemy 
 you are at best but a precarious king. It is unwise to 
 risk a certainty for uncertainty. The enemy will avail 
 themselves of your personal influence while the oppor- 
 tunity lasts ; but you will ever be regarded with sus- 
 picion, and they will always be fearful lest you should 
 treat them as you have done the Emperor. Return, 
 then, to your alligiance, while there is yet time." " And 
 how is that to be done?" said Wallenstein, interrupting 
 him. " You have forty thousand men-at-arms," rejoined 
 he (meaning ducats, which were stamped with the 
 figure of an armed man), "take them with you and go 
 straight to the imperial court; then declare that the 
 steps you have hitherto taken were merely designed to 
 test the fidelity of the Emperor's servants, and of dis- 
 tinguishing the loyal from the doubtful ; and since most 
 have shown a disposition to revolt, say you are come to 
 warn his imperial majesty against those dangerous men. 
 Thus you will make those appear as traitors who are 
 laboring to represent you as a false villain. At the im- 
 perial court a man is sure to be welcome with forty 
 thousand ducats, and Friedland will be again as he was 
 at first." " The advice is good," said Wallenstein, after 
 a pause, " but let the devil trust to it." 
 
 While the duke in his retirement in Egra was ener- 
 getically pushing his negotiations with the enemy, con- 
 sulting the stars, and indulging in new hopes, the dagger 
 which was to put an end to his existence was unsheathed 
 almost under his very eyes. The imperial decree which 
 proclaimed him an outlaw had not failed of its effect ; 
 and an avenging Nemesis ordained that the ungrateful 
 should fall beneath the blow of ingratitude. Among 
 his officers Wallenstein had particularly distinguished
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 313 
 
 one Leslie,* an Irishman, and had made his fortune. 
 This was the man who now felt himself called on to 
 execute the sentence against him and to earn the price of 
 blood. No sooner had he reached Egra in the suite of 
 the duke than he disclosed to the commandant of the 
 town, Colonel Butler, and to Lieutenant-Colonel Gordon, 
 two Protestant Scotchmen, the treasonable designs of the 
 duke, which the latter had imprudently enough communi- 
 cated to him during the journey. In these two individu- 
 als he had found men capable of a determined resolution. 
 They were now called upon to chose between treason 
 and duty, between their legitimate sovereign and a fugitive 
 abandoned rebel ; and though the latter was their com- 
 mon benefactor the choice could not remain for a moment 
 doubtful. They were solemnly pledged to the allegiance 
 of the Emperor, and this duty required them to take the 
 most rapid measures against the public enemy. The 
 opportunity was favorable; his evil genius seemed to 
 have delivered him into the hands of vengeance. But 
 not to encroach on the province of justice they resolved 
 to deliver up their victim alive; and they parted with 
 the bold resolve to take their general prisoner. This 
 dark plot was buried in the deepest silence, and Wallen- 
 stein, far from suspecting his impending ruin, flattered 
 himself that in the garrison of Egra he possessed his 
 bravest and most faithful champions. 
 
 At this time he became acquainted with the imperial 
 proclamations containing his sentence and which had 
 been published in all the camps. He now became aware 
 of the full extent of the danger which encompassed him, 
 the utter impossibility of retracing his steps, his fearfully 
 forlorn condition, and the absolute necessity of at once 
 trusting himself to the faith and honor of the Emperor's 
 enemies. To Leslie he poured forth all the anguish of 
 his wounded spirit, and the vehemence of his agitation 
 extracted from him his last remaining secret. He dis- 
 closed to this officer his intention to deliver up Egra and 
 Ellenbogen, the passes of the kingdom to the Palatine of 
 
 * Schiller is mistaken as to this point. Leslie was a Scotchman and Buttler 
 an Irishman and a papist. He died a general in the Emperor's service, and 
 founded at Prague a convent of Irish Franciscans which still exists.
 
 314 THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 
 
 Birkcnfeld, and at the same time informed him of the 
 near approach of Duke Bernard, of whose arrival he 
 hoped to receive tidings that very night. These dis- 
 closures, which Leslie immediately communieated to the 
 conspirators, made them change their original plan. The 
 urgency of the danger admitted not of half measures. 
 Egra might in a moment be in the enemy's hands, and a 
 sudden revolution set their prisoner at liberty. To antici- 
 pate this mischance they resolved to assassinate him and 
 his associates the following night. 
 
 In order to execute this design with less noise it was 
 arranged that the fearful deed should be perpetrated at 
 an entertainment which Colonel Buttler should give in 
 the castle of Egra. All the guests except Wallenstein 
 made their appearance, who, being in too great anxiety 
 of mind to enjoy company, excused himself. With regard 
 to him, therefore, their plan must be again changed ; but 
 they resolved to execute their design against the others. 
 The three colonels, Illo, Terzky, and William Kinsky, 
 came in with careless confidence, and with them Captain 
 Neumann, an officer of ability, whose advice Terzky 
 sought in every intricate affair. Previous to their arrival 
 trusty soldiers of the garrison, to whom the plot had been 
 communicated, were admitted into the castle, all the 
 avenues leading from it guarded, and six of Buttler's 
 dragoons concealed in an appartment close to the ban- 
 queting-room, who, on a concerted signal, were to rush 
 in and kill the traitors. Without suspecting the danger 
 that hung over them, the guests gayly abandoned them- 
 selves to the pleasures of the table, and Wallenstein's 
 health was drunk in full bumpers, not as a servant of the 
 Emperor but as a sovereign prince. The wine opened 
 their hearts, and Illo, with exultation, boasted that in 
 three days an army would arrive such as Wallenstein had 
 never before been at the head of. " Yes," cried Xeu- 
 mann, " and then he hopes to bathe his hands in Austrian 
 blood." During this conversation the desert was brought 
 in, and Leslie gave the concerted signal to raise the draw- 
 bridges, while he himself received the keys of the gates. 
 In an instant the hall was filled with armed men, who, 
 with the unexpected greeting of " Long live Ferdinand ! "
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 315 
 
 placed themselves behind the chairs of the marked guests. 
 Surprised, and with a presentiment of their fate, they 
 sprang from the table. Kinsky and Terzky were killed 
 upon the spot and before they could put themselves upon 
 their guard. Neumann during the confusion in the hall 
 escaped into the court, where, however, he was instantly 
 recognized and cut down. Illo alone had the presence of 
 mind to defend himself. He placed his back against a 
 window, from whence he poured the bitterest reproaches 
 upon Gordon, and challenged him to fight him fairly and 
 honorably. After a gallant resistance, in which he slew 
 two of his assailants, he fell to the ground overpowered 
 by numbers and pierced with ten wounds. The deed 
 was no sooner accomplished than Leslie hastened into the 
 town to prevent a tumult. The sentinels at the castle 
 gate seeing him running and out of breath, and believing 
 he belonged to the rebels, fired their muskets after him, 
 but without effect. The firing, however, aroused the 
 town guard, and all Leslie's presence of mind was requi- 
 site to allay the tumult. He hastily detailed to them all 
 the circumstances of Wallenstein's conspiracy, the meas- 
 ures which had been already taken to counteract it, the 
 fate of the four rebels, as well as that which awaited their 
 chief. Finding the troops well-disposed he exacted from 
 them a new oath of fidelity to the Emperor, and to live 
 and die for the good cause. A hundred of Buttler's 
 dragoons were sent from the castle into the town to 
 patrol the streets, to overawe the pai'tisans of the duke, 
 and to prevent tumult. All the gates of Egra were at 
 the same time seized, and every avenue to Wallenstein's 
 residence, which adjoined the market-place, guarded by a 
 numerous and trusty body of troops sufficient to prevent 
 either his escape or his receiving any assistance from 
 without. 
 
 But before they proceeded finally to execute the deed 
 a long conference was held among the conspirators-in the 
 castle whether they should kill him or content themselves 
 with making him prisoner. Besprinkled as they were 
 with the blood, and deliberating almost over the very 
 corpses of his murdered associates, even these furious 
 men yet shuddered at the horror of taking away so illus-
 
 316 THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 
 
 trious a life. They saw him before their mind's eye 
 their leader in battle in the days of his good fortune, 
 surrounded by his victorious army, clothed with all the 
 pomp of military greatness ; and long-accustomed awe 
 again seized their minds. But this transitory emotion 
 was soon effaced by the thought of the immediate danger. 
 They remembered the hints which Neumann and Illo had 
 thrown out at table, the near approach of a formidable 
 army of Swedes and Saxons, and they clearly saw that 
 the death of the traitor was their only chance of safety. 
 They adhered, therefore, to their first resolution, and 
 Captain Deveroux, an Irishman, who had already been 
 retained for the murderous purpose, received decisive 
 orders to act. 
 
 While these three officers were thus deciding upon his 
 fate in the castle of Egra, Wallenstein was occupied in 
 reading the stars with Seni. "The danger is not yet 
 over, said the astrologer, with prophetic spirit, " It is" 
 replied the duke, who would give the law even to heaven. 
 "But," he continued with equally prophetic spirit, "that 
 thou friend Seni thyself shall soon be thrown into prison, 
 that also is written in the stars." The astrologer had 
 taken his leave and Wallenstein had retired to bed, when 
 Captain Deveroux appeared before his residence with six 
 halberdiers, and was immediately admitted by the guard, 
 who were accustomed to see him visit the general at all 
 hours. A page who met him upon the stairs and attempted 
 to raise an alarm was run through the body with a pike. 
 In the ante-chamber the assassins met a servant who had 
 just come out of the sleeping-room of his master and had 
 taken with him the key. Putting his finger upon his 
 mouth the terrified domestic made a sign to them to make 
 no noise, as the duke was asleep. " Friend," cried 
 Deveroux, " it is time to awake him ; " and with these 
 wards he rushed against the door, which was also bolted 
 from within, and burst it open. 
 
 Wallenstein had been roused from his first sleep by the 
 report of a musket which had accidentally gone off, and 
 had sprung to the window to call the guard. At the same 
 moment he heard from the adjoining building the shrieks 
 of the Countesses Terzky and Kinsky, who had just
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 317 
 
 learned the violent fate of their husbands. Ere he had 
 time to reflect on these terrible events Deveroux, with 
 the other murderers, was in his chamber. The duke was 
 in his shirt, as he had leaped out of bed, and leaning on a 
 table near the window. " Art thou the villain," cried Deve- 
 roux to him, " who intends to deliver up the Emperor's 
 troops to the enemy, and to tear the crown from the head 
 of his majesty? Now thou must die!" He paused for 
 a few moments as if expecting an answer ; but scorn and 
 astonishment kept Wallenstein silent. Throwing his arms 
 wide open he received in his breast the deadly blow of 
 the halberts, and, without uttering a groan, fell weltering 
 in his blood. 
 
 The next day an express arrived from the Duke of 
 Lauenburg announcing his approach. The messenger was 
 secured, and another in Wallenstein's livery despatched to 
 the duke to decoy him into Egra. The stratagem suc- 
 ceeded, and Francis Albert fell into the hands of the 
 enemy. Duke Bernard of Weimar, who was on his march 
 towards Egra, was nearly sharing the same fate. Fortu- 
 nately he heard of Wallenstein's death in time to save 
 himself by a retreat. Ferdinand shed a tear over the fate 
 of his general, and ordered three thousand masses to be 
 said for his soul at Vienna; but at the same time he did 
 not forget to reward his assassins with gold chains, cham- 
 berlains' keys, dignities, and estates. 
 
 Thus did Wallenstein, at the age of fifty, terminate his 
 active and extraordinary life. To ambition he owed both 
 his greatness and his ruin ; with all his failings he pos- 
 sessed great and admirable qualities, and had he kept 
 himself within due bounds he would have lived and died 
 without an equal. The virtues of the ruler and of the 
 hero, prudence, justice, firmness, and courage, are strik- 
 ingly prominent features in his character ; but he wanted 
 the gentler virtues of the man which adorn the hero and 
 make the ruler beloved. Terror was the talisman with 
 which he worked ; extreme in his punishments as in his 
 rewards, he knew how to keep alive the zeal of his fol- 
 lowers, while no general of ancient or modern times could 
 boast of being obeyed with equal alacrity. Submission 
 to his will was more prized by him than bravery ; for if
 
 318 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 
 
 the soldiers work by the latter it is on the former that 
 the general depends. He continually kept up the obe- 
 dience of his troops by capricious orders, and profusely 
 rewarded the readiness to obey even in trifles, because 
 he looked rather to the act itself than its object. He once 
 issued a decree, with the penalty of death on disobedience 
 that none but red sashes should be worn in the army. A 
 captain of horse no sooner heard the order than pulling 
 off his gold-embroidered sash he trampled it under foot ; 
 Wallenstein, on being informed of the circumstance, pro- 
 moted him on the spot to the rank of colonel. His com- 
 prehensive glance was always directed to the whole, and 
 in all his apparent caprice he steadily kept in view some 
 general scope or bearing. The robberies committed by 
 the soldiers in a friendly country had led to the severest 
 orders against marauders ; and all who should be caught 
 thieving were threatened with the halter. Wallenstein 
 himself having met a straggler in the open country upon 
 the field commanded him to be seized without trial as a 
 transgressor of the law, nnd in his usual voice of thunder 
 exclaimed, "Hang the fellow," against which no opposition 
 ever availed. The soldier pleaded and proved his in- 
 nocence, but the irrevocable sentence had gone forth. 
 " Hang, then, innocent," cried the inexorable Wallenstein, 
 " the guilty will have then more reason to tremble." 
 Preparations were already making to execute the sentence 
 when the soldier, who gave himself up for lost, formed the 
 desperate resolution of not dying without revenge. He 
 fell furiously upon his judge, but was overpowered by 
 numbers and disarmed before he could fulfil his design. 
 " Now let him go," said the duke, " it will excite sufficient 
 terror." 
 
 His munificence was supported by an immense income, 
 which was estimated at three millions of florins yearly, 
 without reckoning the enormous sums which he raised 
 under the name of contributions. His liberality and 
 clearness of understanding raised him above the religious 
 prejudices of his age; and the Jesuits never forgave him 
 for having seen through their system and for regarding 
 the Pope as nothing more than a bishop of Rome. 
 
 But as no one ever yet came to a fortunate end who quar-
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 319 
 
 relied with the Church, Wallenstein also must augment 
 the number of its victims. Through the intrigues of 
 monks he lost at Ratisbon the command of the army, and 
 at Egra his life ; by the same arts, perhaps, he lost, what 
 was of more consequence, his honorable name and good 
 repute with posterity. For in justice it must be ad- 
 mitted that the pens which have traced the history of 
 this extraordinary man are not untinged with partiality, 
 and that the treachery of the duke, and his designs upon 
 the throne of Bohemia, rest not so much upon proven 
 facts as upon probable conjecture. No documents have 
 yet been brought to light which disclose with historical 
 certainty the secret motives of his conduct ; and among 
 all his public and well-attested actions there is, perhaps, 
 not one which could not have had an innocent end. 
 Many of his most obnoxious measures proved nothing 
 but the earnest wish he entertained for peace ; most of 
 the others are explained and justified by the well-founded 
 distrust he entertained of the Emperor and the excus- 
 able wish of maintaining his own importance. It is true 
 that his conduct towards the Elector of Bavaria looks 
 too like an unworthy revenge and the dictates of an im- 
 placable spirit ; but still none of his actions, perhaps, 
 warrant us in holding his treason to be proved. If 
 necessity and despair at last forced him to deserve the 
 sentence which had been pronounced against him while 
 innocent, still this, if true, will not justify that sentence. 
 Thus Wallenstein fell, not because he was a rebel, but he 
 became a rebel because he fell. Unfortunate in life that 
 he made a victorious party his enemy, and still more 
 unfortunate in death that the same party survived him 
 and wrote his history. 
 
 BOOK V. 
 
 WALLENSTEIN'S death rendered necessary the appoint- 
 ment of a new generalissimo ; and the Emperor yielded 
 at last to the advice of the Spaniards to raise his son 
 Ferdinand, King of Hungary, to that dignity. Under
 
 320 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 
 
 him Count Gallas commanded, who performed the func- 
 tions of commander-in-chief, while the prince brought to 
 this post nothing but his name and dignity. A consid- 
 erable force was soon assembled under Ferdinand ; the 
 Duke of Lorraine brought up a considerable body of 
 auxiliaries in person, and the Cardinal Infante joined 
 him from Italy with ten thousand men. In order to 
 drive the enemy from the Danube the new general 
 undertook the enterprise in which his predecessor had 
 failed, the siege of Ratisbon. In vain did Duke Bernard 
 of Weimar penetrate into the interior of Bavaria witli a 
 view to draw the enemy from the town ; Ferdinand con- 
 tinued to press the siege with vigor, and the city, after a 
 most obstinate resistance, was obliged to open its gates 
 to him. Donauwerth soon shared the same fate, and 
 Nordlingen in Swabia was now invested. The loss of 
 so many of the imperial cities was severely felt by the 
 Swedish party; as the friendship of these towns had so 
 largely contributed to the success of their arms, indiffer- 
 ence to their fate would have been inexcusable. It 
 would have been an indelible disgrace had they deserted 
 their confederates in their need, and abandoned them to 
 the revenge of an implacable conqueror. Moved by 
 these considerations the Swedish army, under the com- 
 mand of Horn and Bernard of Weimar, advanced upon 
 Nordlingen, determined to relieve it even at the expense 
 of a battle. 
 
 The undertaking was a dangerous one, for in numbers 
 the enemy was greatly superior to that of the Swedes. 
 There was also a further reason for avoiding a battle at 
 present; the enemy's force was likely soon to divide, the 
 Italian troops being destined for the Netherlands. In 
 the meantime such a position might be taken up as to 
 cover Nordlingen and cut off their supplies. All these 
 grounds were strongly urged by Gustavus Horn in the 
 Swedish council of war; but his remonstrances were 
 disregarded by men who, intoxicated by a long career of 
 success, mistook the suggestions of prudence for the voice 
 of timidity. Overborne by the superior influence of 
 Duke Bernard, Gustavus Horn was compelled to risk a 
 contest whose unfavorable issue a dark foreboding seemed
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 321 
 
 already to announce. The fate of the battle depended 
 upon the possession of a height which commanded the 
 imperial camp. An attempt to occupy it during the 
 night failed, as the tedious transport of the artillery 
 through woods and hollow ways delayed the arrival 
 of the troops. When the Swedes arrived about mid- 
 night they found the heights in possession of the enemy, 
 strongly intrenched. They waited, therefore, for day- 
 break to carry them by storm. Their impetuous courage 
 surmounted every obstacle ; the intrenchments, which 
 were in the form of a crescent, were successfully scaled 
 by each of the two brigades appointed to the service ; 
 but as they entered at the same moment from opposite 
 sides they met and threw each other into confusion. At 
 this unfortunate moment a barrel of powder blew up 
 and created the greatest disorder among the Swedes. 
 The imperial cavalry charged upon their broken ranks 
 and the flight became universal. No persuasion on the 
 part of their general could induce the fugitives to renew 
 the assault. 
 
 He resolved, therefore, in order to carry this important 
 post, to lead fresh troops to the attack. But in the inte- 
 rim some Spanish regiments had marched in, and every 
 attempt to gain it was repulsed by their heroic intre- 
 pidity. One of the duke's own regiments advanced seven 
 times, and was as often driven back. The disadvantage 
 of not occupying this post in time was quickly and sen- 
 sibly felt. The fire of the enemy's artillery from the 
 heights caused such slaughter in the adjacent wing of 
 the Swedes that Horn, who commanded there, was 
 forced to give orders to retire. Instead of being able to 
 cover the retreat of his colleague, and to check the pur- 
 suit of the enemy, Duke Bernard, overpowered by 
 numbers, was himself driven into the plain, where his 
 routed cavalry spread confusion among Horn's brigade and 
 rendered the defeat complete. Almost the entire infan- 
 try were killed or taken prisoners. More than twelve 
 thousand men remained dead upon the field of battle ; 
 eighty field-pieces, about four thousand wagons, and three 
 hundred standards and colors fell into the hands of the 
 Imperialists. Horn himself, with three other generals,
 
 322 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 
 
 were taken prisoners. Duke Bernard with difficulty 
 saved a feeble remnant of his army, which joined him at 
 Frankfort. 
 
 The defeat at Nordlingen cost the Swedish Chancellor 
 the second sleepless night * he had passed in Germany. 
 The consequences of this disaster were terrible. The 
 Swedes had lost by it at once their superiority in the 
 field, and with it the confidence of their confederates, 
 which they had gained solely by their previous military 
 success. A dangerous division threatened the Protestant 
 Confederation with ruin. Consternation and terror seized 
 upon the whole party, while the Papists arose with ex- 
 ulting triumph from the deep humiliation into which they 
 had sunk. Swabia and the adjacent circles first felt the 
 consequences of the defeat of Nordlingen ; and Wirtem- 
 berg in particular was overrun by the conquering army. 
 All the members of the League of Heilbronn trembled at 
 the prospect of the Emperor's revenge ; those who could 
 fled to Strasburg, while the helpless free cities awaited 
 their fate with alarm. A' little more of moderation 
 towards the conquered would have quickly reduced all 
 the weaker states under the Emperor's authority ; but the 
 severity which was practised, even against those who 
 voluntarily surrendered, drove the rest to despair, and 
 roused them to a vigorous resistance. 
 
 In this perplexity all looked to Oxenstiern for counsel 
 and assistance ; Oxenstiern applied for both to the Ger- 
 man States. Troops were wanted, money likewise to 
 raise new levies and to pay to the old the arrears which 
 the men were clamorously demanding. Oxenstiern ad- 
 dressed himself to the Elector of Saxony; but he shame- 
 fully abandoned the Swedish cause to negotiate for a 
 separate peace with the Emperor at Pirna. He solicited 
 aid from the Lower Saxon States; but they, long wearied 
 of the Swedish pretensions and demands for money, now 
 thought only of themselves ; and George, Duke of Lunen- 
 burg, in place of flying to the assistance of Upper Ger- 
 many, laid siege to Minden, with the intention of keep- 
 ing possession of it for himself. Abandoned by his Ger- 
 man allies, the chancellor exerted himself to obtain the 
 
 * The first was occasioned by the death of Gustavus Adolphus.
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 323 
 
 assistance of foreign powers. England, Holland, and 
 Venice were applied to for troops and money ; and, driven 
 to the last extremity, the chancellor reluctantly resolved 
 to take the disagreeable step which he had so long 
 avoided, and to throw himself under the protection of 
 Franc . 
 
 The moment had at last arrived which Richelieu had 
 long waited for with impatience. Nothing, he was aware, 
 but the impossibility of saving themselves by any other 
 means could induce the Protestant States in Germany to 
 support the pretensions of France upon Alsace. This 
 extreme necessity had now arrived ; the assistance of 
 that power was indispensable, and she was resolved to be 
 well paid for the active part which she was about to take 
 in the German war. Full of lustre and dignity it now 
 came upon the political stage. Oxenstiern, who felt little 
 reluctance in bestowing the rights and possessions of the 
 empire, had already ceded the fortress of Philipsburg, 
 and the other long-coveted places. The Protestants of 
 Upper Germany now, in their own names, sent a special 
 embassy to Richelieu, requesting him to take Alsace, the 
 fortress of Breyssach, which was still to be recovered 
 from the enemy, and all the places upon the Upper Rhine, 
 which were the keys of Germany, under the protection of 
 France. What was implied by French protection had 
 been seen in the conduct of France towards the Bishoprics 
 of Metz, Toul, and Verdun, which it had held for centu- 
 ries against the rightful owners. Treves was already in 
 the possession of French garrisons ; Lorraine was in a 
 manner conquered, as it might at any time be overrun by 
 an army, and could not alone and with its own strength 
 withstand its formidable neighbor. France now enter- 
 tained the hope of adding Alsace to its large and numer- 
 ous possessions, and, since a treaty was soon to be 
 concluded with the Dutch for the partition of the Spanish 
 Netherlands the prospect of making the Rhine its 
 natural boundary towards Germany. Thus shamefully 
 were the rights of Germany sacrificed by the German 
 States to this treacherous and grasping power, which, un- 
 der the mask of a disinterested friendship, aimed only at 
 its own aggrandizement ; and while it boldly claimed the
 
 324 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 
 
 honorable title of a protectress, was solely occupied with 
 promoting its own schemes and advancing its own inter- 
 ests amid the general confusion. 
 
 In return for these important cessions France engaged 
 to effect a diversion in favor of the Swedes by commenc- 
 ing hostilities against the Spaniards; and if this should 
 lead to an open breach with the Emperor, to maintain an 
 army upon the German side of the Rhine, which was to 
 act in conjunction with the Swedes and Germans against 
 Austria. For a Avar with Spain the Spaniards themselves 
 soon afforded the desired pretext. Making an inroad 
 from the Netherlands upon the city of Treves, they cut 
 in pieces the French garrison ; and, in open violation of 
 the law of nations, made prisoner the Elector, who had 
 placed himself under the protection of France, and carried 
 him into Flanders. When the Cardinal Infante, as Vice- 
 roy of the Spanish Netherlands, refused satisfaction for 
 these injuries, and delayed to t'estore the prince to liberty, 
 Richelieu, after the old custom, formally proclaimed war 
 at Brussels by a herald, and the war was at once opened by 
 three different armies in Milan, in the Valteline, and in 
 Flanders. The French minister was less anxious to 
 commence hostilities with the Emperor, which promised 
 fewer advantages and threatened greater difficulties. A 
 fourth army, however, was detached across the Rhine 
 into Germany, under the command of Cardinal Lavalette, 
 which was to act in conjunction with Duke Bernard 
 against the Emperor without a previous declaration of 
 war. 
 
 A heavier blow for the Swedes than even the defeat of 
 Nordlingen was the reconciliation of the Elector of 
 Saxony with the Emperor. After many fruitless attempts, 
 both to bring about and to prevent it, it was at last ef- 
 fected in 1634, at Pirna, and the following year reduced 
 into a formal treaty of peace at Prague. The Elector of 
 Saxony had always viewed with jealousy the pretensions 
 of the Swedes in Germany ; and his aversion to this for- 
 eign power, which now gave laws within the Empire, had 
 grown with every fresh requisition that Oxenstiern was 
 obliged to make upon the German States. This ill- 
 feeling was kept alive by the Spanish court, who labored
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 325 
 
 earnestly to effect a peace between Saxony and the Em- 
 peror. Wearied with the calamities of a long and de- 
 structive contest which had selected Saxony above all 
 others for its theatre ; grieved by the miseries which both 
 friend and foe inflicted upon his subjects, and seduced by 
 the tempting propositions of the House of Austria, the 
 Elector at last abandoned the common cause ; and caring 
 little for the fate of his confederates, or the liberties of 
 Germany, thought only of securing his own advantages, 
 even at the expense of the whole body. 
 
 In fact the misery of Germany had risen to such a 
 height that all clamorously vociferated for peace ; and 
 even the most disadvantageous pacification would have 
 been hailed as a blessing from heaven. The plains which 
 formerly had been thronged with a happy and industrious 
 population, where nature had lavished her choicest gifts, 
 and plenty and prosperity had reigned, were now a wild 
 and desolate wilderness. The fields, abandoned by the 
 industrious husbandman, lay waste and uncultivated ; and 
 no sooner had the young crops given the promise of a 
 smiling harvest than a single march destroyed the labors 
 of a year and blasted the last hope of an afflicted peas- 
 antry. Burnt castles, wasted fields, villages in ashes, 
 were to be seen extending far and wide on all sides, while 
 the ruined peasantry had no resource left but to swell the 
 horde of incendiaries, and fearfully to retaliate upon their 
 fellows, who had hitherto been spared the miseries which 
 they themselves had suffered. The only safeguard against 
 oppression was to become an oppressor. The towns 
 groaned under the licentiousness of undisciplined and 
 plundering garrisons, who seized and wasted the property 
 of the citizens, and under the license of their position com- 
 mitted the most remorseless devastation and cruelty. If 
 the march of an army converted whole provinces into des- 
 erts, if others were impoverished by winter quarters or 
 exhausted by contributions, these still were but passing 
 evils, and the industry of a year might efface the miseries 
 of a few months. But there was no relief for those who 
 had a garrison within their walls or in the neighborhood ; 
 even the change of fortune could not improve their un- 
 fortunate fate, since the victor trod in the steps of the
 
 326 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 
 
 vanquished, and friends were not more merciful than 
 enemies. The neglected farms, the destruction of the 
 crops, and the numerous armies which overran the ex- 
 hausted country, were inevitably followed by scarcity 
 and the high price of provisions, which in the later years 
 was still further increased by a general failure in the crops. 
 The crowding together of men in camps and quarters 
 want upon one side and excesses on the other, occasioned 
 contagious distempers, which were more fatal than even 
 the sword. In this long and general confusion all the 
 bonds of social life were broken up ; respect for the 
 rights of their fellow-men, the fear of the laws, purity of 
 morals, honor, and religion were laid aside where might 
 ruled supreme with iron sceptre. Under the shelter of 
 anarchy and impunity every vice flourished, and men 
 became as wild as the country. No .station was too 
 dignified for outrage, no property too holy for rapine and 
 avarice. In a word, the soldier reigned supreme ; and 
 that most brutal of despots often made his own officer 
 feel his power. The leader of an army was a far more 
 important person within any country where he appeared 
 than its lawful governor, who was frequently obliged to 
 fly before him into his own castles for safety. Germany 
 swarmed with these petty tyrants, and the country suffered 
 equally from its enemies and its protectors. These wounds 
 rankled the deeper when the unhappy victims recollected 
 that Germany was sacrificed to the ambition of foreign 
 powers, who for their own ends prolonged the miseries 
 of war. Germany bled under the scourge to extend the 
 conquests and influence of Sweden ; and the torch of 
 discord was kept alive within the Empire that the 
 services of Richelieu might be rendered indispensable in 
 France. 
 
 But in truth it was not merely interested voices which 
 opposed a peace ; and if both Sweden and the German 
 States were anxious from corrupt motives to prolong the 
 conflict they were seconded in their views by sound 
 policy. After the defeat of Nordlingen an equitable 
 peace was not to be expected from the Emperor; and 
 this being the case, was it not too great a sacrifice, after 
 seventeen years of war with all its miseries, to abandon
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 327 
 
 the contest, not only without advantage, but even with 
 loss ? What would avail so much bloodshed if all was to 
 remain as it had been ; if their rights and pretensions 
 were neither larger nor safer ; if all that had been won 
 with so much difficulty was to be surrendered for a peace 
 at any cost? Would it not be better to endure for two 
 or three years more the burdens they had borne so long, 
 and to reap at last some recompense for twenty years of 
 suffering ? Neither was it doubtful that peace might at 
 last be obtained on favorable terms, if only the Swedes 
 and the German Protestants should continue united in the 
 cabinet and in the field, and pursued their common in- 
 terests with a reciprocal sympathy and zeal. Their 
 divisions alone had rendered the enemy formidable, and 
 protracted the acquisition of a lasting and general peace. 
 And this great evil the Elector of Saxony had brought 
 upon the Protestant cause by concluding a separate treaty 
 with Austria. 
 
 He, indeed, had commenced his negotiations with the 
 Emperor even before the battle of Xordlingen ; and the 
 unfortunate issue of that battle only accelerated their con- 
 clusion. By it all his confidence in the Swedes was lost ; 
 and it was even doubted whether they would ever recover 
 from the blow. The jealousies among their generals, the 
 insubordination of the army, and the exhaustion of the 
 Swedish kingdom, shut out any reasonable prospect of 
 effective assistance on their part. The Elector hastened, 
 therefore, to profit by the Emperor's magnanimity, who, 
 even after the battle of Xordlingen, did not recall the 
 conditions previously offered. While Oxenstiern, who 
 had assembled the estates in Frankfort, made further 
 demands upon them and him, the Emperor, on the con- 
 trary, made concessions ; and therefore it required no 
 long consideration to decide between them. 
 
 In the meantime, however, he was anxious to escape 
 the charge of sacrificing the common cause and attending 
 only to his own interests. All the German States, and 
 even the Swedes, were publicly invited to become parties 
 to this peace, although Saxony and the Emperor were 
 the only powers who deliberated upon it, and who assumed 
 the right to give law to Germany. By this self-appointed
 
 328 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 
 
 tribunal the grievances of the Protestants were discussed, 
 their rights and privileges decided, and even the fate of 
 religions determined without the presence of those who 
 were most deeply interested in it. Between them a 
 general peace was resolved on, and it was to be enforced 
 by an imperial army of execution as a formal decree of 
 the Empire. Whoever opposed it was to be treated as 
 a public enemy ; and thus, contrary to their rights, the 
 states were to be compelled to acknowledge a law in the 
 passing of which they had no share. Thus, even in form, 
 the pacification at Prague was an arbitrary measure ; nor 
 was it less so in its contents. The Edict of Restitution 
 had been the chief cause of dispute between the Elector 
 and the Emperor ; and therefore it was first considered in 
 their deliberations. Without formally annulling it, it 
 was determined by the treaty of Prague that all the ecclesi- 
 astical domains holding immediately of the Empire, and, 
 among the mediate ones, those which had been seized by 
 the Protestants subsequently to the treaty at Passau, 
 should for forty years remain in the same position as 
 they had been in before the Edict of Restitution, but 
 without any formal decision of the Diet to that effect. 
 Before the expiration of this term a commission, composed 
 of equal numbers of both religions, should proceed to settle 
 the matter peaceably and according to law ; and if this 
 commission should be unable to come to a decision each 
 party should remain in possession of the rights which it 
 had exercised before the Edict of Restitution. This ar- 
 rangement, therefore, far from removing the grounds of 
 dissension, only suspended the dispute for a time; and 
 this article of the treaty of Prague only covered the 
 embers of a future war. 
 
 The Archbishopric of Magdeburg remained in posses- 
 sion of Prince Augustus of Saxony, and Halberstadt in 
 that of the Archduke Leopold William. Four estates 
 were taken from the territory of Magdeburg and given 
 to Saxony, for which the Administrator of Magdeburg, 
 Christian William of Brandenburg, was otherwise to be 
 indemnified. The Dukes of Mecklenburg, upon acceding 
 to this treaty, were to be acknowledged as rightful pos- 
 sessors of their territories, in which the magnanimity of
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 329 
 
 Gustavus Adolphus had long ago reinstated them. Do- 
 nau \verth recovered its liberties. The important claims 
 of the heirs of the Palatine, however important it might 
 be for the Protestant cause not to lose this electorate vote 
 in the Diet, were passed over in consequence of the ani- 
 mosity subsisting between the Lutherans and the Cal- 
 vinists. All the conquests which, in the course of the 
 war, had been made by the German States, or by the 
 League and the Emperor, were to be mutually restored ; 
 all which had been appropriated by the foreign powers of 
 France and Sweden was to be forcibly wrested from 
 them by the united powers. The troops of the contract- 
 ing parties were to be formed into one imperial army, 
 which, supported and paid by the Empire, was, by force 
 of arms, to carry into execution the covenants of the 
 treaty. 
 
 As the peace of Prague was intended to serve as a 
 general law of the Empire, those points which did not 
 immediately affect the latter formed the subject of a 
 separate treaty. By it Lusatia was ceded to the Elector 
 of Saxony as a fief of Bohemia, and special articles guar- 
 anteed the freedom of religion of this country and of 
 Silesia. 
 
 All the Protestant states were invited to accede to the 
 treaty of Prague, and on that condition were to benefit 
 by the amnesty. The Princes of Wurtemberg and Baden, 
 whose territories the Emperor was already in possession 
 of, and which he was not disposed to restore uncondi- 
 tionally ; and such vassals of Austria as had borne arms 
 against their sovereign ; and those states which, under 
 the direction of Oxenstiern, composed the council of the 
 tTpper German Circle, were excluded from the treaty, 
 not so much with the view of continuing the war against 
 them as of compelling them to purchase peace at a dearer 
 rate. Their territories were to be retained in pledge till 
 everything should be restored to its former footing. Such 
 was the treaty of Prague. Equal justice, however, towards 
 all might perhaps have restored confidence between the 
 head of the Empire and its members between the 
 Protestants and the Roman Catholics between the 
 Reformed and the Lutheran party; and the Swedes,
 
 330 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 
 
 abandoned by all their allies, would in all probability 
 have been driven from Germany with disgrace. But this 
 inequality strengthened in those who were more severely 
 treated the spirit of mistrust and opposition, and made 
 it an easier task for the Swedes to keep alive the flames 
 of war and to maintain a party in Germany. 
 
 The peace of Prague, as might have been expected, was 
 received with very various feelings throughout Germany. 
 The attempt to conciliate both parties had rendered it 
 obnoxious to both. The Protestants complained of the 
 restraints imposed upon them ; the Roman Catholics 
 thought that these hated sectaries had been favored at 
 the expense of the true church. In the opinion of the 
 latter the church had been deprived of its inalienable 
 rights by the concession to the Protestants of forty years' 
 undisturbed possession of the ecclesiastical benefices ; 
 while the former murmured that the interests of the 
 Protestant church had been betrayed because toleration 
 had not been granted to their coreligionists in the 
 Austrian dominions. But no one was so bitterly re- 
 proached as the Elector of Saxony, who was publicly 
 denounced as a deserter, a traitor to religion and the 
 liberties of the Empire, and a confederate of the Em- 
 peror. 
 
 In the meantime he consoled himself with the triumph of 
 seeing most of the Protestant states compelled by neces- 
 sity to embrace this peace. The Elector of Brandenburg, 
 Duke William of Weimar, the Princes of Anhalt,the Dukes 
 of Mecklenburg, the Dukes of Brunswick-Lunenburg, the 
 Hanse towns, and most of the imperial cities acceded 
 to it. The Landgrave William of Hesse long wavered, or 
 affected to do so, in order to gain time and to regulate his 
 measures by the course of events. He had conquered 
 several fertile provinces of Westphalia, and derived from 
 them principally the means of continuing the war : these, 
 by the terms of the treaty, he was bound to restore. 
 Bernard, Duke of Weimar, whose states as yet existed 
 only on paper, as a belligerent power was not affected by 
 the treaty, but as a general was so materially ; and in 
 either view he must equally be disposed to reject it. His 
 ivhole riches consisted in his bravery, his possessions in
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 331 
 
 his sword. War alone gave him greatness and importance, 
 and war alone could realize the projects which his ambition 
 suggested. 
 
 But of all who declaimed against the treaty of Prague 
 none were so loud in their clamors as the Swedes, and 
 none had so much reason for their opposition. Invited to 
 Germany by the Germans themselves, the champions of 
 the Protestant church and the freedom of the states 
 which they had defended with so much bloodshed and 
 with the sacred life of their king, they now saw them- 
 selves suddenly and shamefully abandoned, disappointed 
 in all their hopes, without reward and without gratitude 
 driven from the empire for which they had toiled and 
 bled, and exposed to the ridicule of the enemy by the very 
 princes who owed everything to them. No satisfaction, 
 no indemnification for the expenses which they had in- 
 curred, no equivalent for the conquests which they were 
 to* leave behind them, was provided by the treaty of 
 Prague. They were to be dismissed poorer than they 
 came, or if they resisted to be expelled by the very powers 
 who had invited them. The Elector of Saxony at last 
 spoke of a pecuniary indemnification, and mentioned the 
 small sum of two million five hundred thousand florins ; 
 but the Swedes had already expended considerably more, 
 and this disgraceful equivalent in money was both con- 
 trary to their true interests and injurious to their pride. 
 " The Electors of Bavaria and Saxony," replied Oxen- 
 stiern, "have been paid for their services, which, as vas- 
 sals, they were bound to render the Emperor, with the 
 possession of important provinces ; and shall we who have 
 sacrificed our king for Germany be dismissed with the 
 miserable sum of two million five hundred thousand 
 florins?" The disappointment of their expectations was 
 the more severe because the Swedes had calculated upon 
 being recompensed with the Duchy of Pomerania, the 
 present possessor of which was old and without heirs. 
 But the succession of this territory was confirmed by the 
 treaty of Prague to the Elector of Brandenburg; and all 
 the neighboring powers declared against allowing the 
 Swedes to obtain a footing within the empire. 
 
 Never in the whole course of the war had the prospects
 
 332 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 
 
 of the Swedes looked more gloomy than in the year 1635, 
 immediately after the conclusion of the treaty of Prague. 
 Many of their allies, particularly among the free cities, 
 abandoned them to benefit by the peace ; others were 
 compelled to accede to it by the victorious arms of the 
 Emperor. Augsburg, subdued by famine, surrendered 
 under the severest conditions; Wurtzburg and Coburg 
 were lost to the Austrians. The League of Heilbronn 
 was formally dissolved. Nearly the whole of Upper 
 Germany, the chief seat of the Swedish power, was re- 
 duced under the Emperor. Saxony on the strength of the 
 treaty of Prague demanded the evacuation of Thuringia, 
 Halberstadt, and Magdeburg. Philipsburg, the military 
 depot of France, was surprised by the Austrians with all 
 the stores it contained ; and this severe loss checked the 
 activity of France. To complete the embarrassments of 
 Sweden the truce with Poland was drawing to a close. 
 To support a war at the same time with Poland and in 
 Germany was far beyond the power of Sweden ; and all 
 that remained was to choose between them. Pride and 
 ambition declared in favor of continuing the German war 
 at whatever sacrifice on the side of Poland. An army 
 however was necessary to command the respect of Poland 
 and to give weight to Sweden in any negotiations for a 
 truce or a peace. 
 
 The mind of Oxenstiern, firm and inexhaustible in expe- 
 dients, set itself manfully to meet these calamities which 
 all combined to overwhelm Sweden ; and his shrewd un- 
 derstanding taught him how to turn even misfortunes to 
 his advantage. The defection of so many German cities 
 of the empire deprived him, it is true, of a great part of 
 his former allies, but at the same time it freed him from 
 the necessity of paying any regard to their interests. The 
 more the number of his enemies increased the more prov- 
 inces and magazines were opened to his troops. The 
 gross ingratitude of the states and the haughty contempt 
 with which the Emperor behaved (who did not even 
 condescend to treat directly with him about a peace), 
 excited in him the courage of despair and a noble deter- 
 mination to maintain the struggle to the last. The con- 
 tinuance of war, however unfortunate it might prove, could
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 333 
 
 not render the situation of Sweden worse than it now 
 was ; and if Germany was to be evacuated it was at least 
 better and nobler to do so sword in hand, and to yield to 
 force rather than to fear. 
 
 In the extremity in which the Swedes were now placed 
 by the desertion of their allies they addressed themselves 
 to France, who met them with the greatest encouragement. 
 
 o o 
 
 The interest of the two crowns were closely united, and 
 France would have injured herself by allowing the Swedish 
 power in Germany to decline. The helpless situation of 
 the Swedes was rather an additional motive with France 
 to cement more closely their alliance, and to take a more 
 active part in the German war. Since the alliance with 
 Sweden at Beerwald, in 1632, France had maintained the 
 Avar against the Emperor by the arms of Gustavus Adol- 
 phus, without any open or formal breach, by furnishing 
 subsidies and increasing the number of his enemies. But 
 alarmed at the unexpected rapidity and success of the 
 Swedish arms, France, in anxiety to restore the balance 
 of power which was disturbed by the preponderance of 
 the Swedes, seemed for a time to have lost sight of her 
 original designs. She endeavored to protect the Roman 
 Catholic princes of the empire against the Swedish con- 
 queror by the treaties of neutrality, and when this plan 
 failed she even meditated herself to declare war against 
 him. But no sooner had the death of Gustavus Adolphus, 
 and the desperate situation of the Swedish affairs, dis- 
 pelled this apprehension, than she returned with fresh zeal 
 to her first design, and readily afforded in this misfortune 
 the aid which in the hour of success she had refused. 
 Freed from the checks which the ambition and vigilance 
 of Gustavus Adolphus placed upon her plans of aggrand- 
 izement, France availed herself of the favorable oppor- 
 tunity afforded by the defeat of Nordlingen to obtain the 
 entire direction of the war, and to prescribe laws to those 
 who sued for her powerful protection. The moment 
 seemed to smile upon her boldest plans, and those which 
 had formerly seemed chimerical now appeared to be jus- 
 tified by circumstances. She now turned her whole at- 
 tention to the war in Germany ; and as soon as she had 
 secured her own private ends by a treaty with the Ger-
 
 334 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 
 
 mans she suddenly entered the political arena as an active 
 and a commanding power. While the other belligerent 
 states had been exhausting themselves in a tedious con- 
 test, France had been reserving her strength and main- 
 tained the contest by money alone; but now, when the 
 state of things called for more active measures, she seized 
 
 O ' 
 
 the sword and astonished Europe by the boldness and 
 magnitude of her undertakings. At the same moment 
 she fitted out two fleets and sent six different armies into 
 the field, while she subsidized a foreign crown and several 
 of the German princes. Animated by this powerful co- 
 operation, the Swedes and Germans awoke from the con- 
 sternation, and hoped, sword in hand, to obtain a more 
 honorable peace than that of Prague. Abandoned by 
 their confederates, who had been reconciled to the Em- 
 peror, they formed a still closer alliance with France, 
 which increased her support with their growing necessities, 
 at the same time taking a more active although secret 
 share in the German war, until at last she threw off the 
 mask altogether, and in her own name made an unequiv- 
 ocal declaration of war against the Emperor. 
 
 To leave Sweden at full liberty to act against Austria, 
 France commenced her operations by liberating it from 
 all fear of a Polish war. By means of the Count d'Avaux, 
 its minister, an agreement was concluded between the two 
 powers at Stummsdorf in Prussia, by which the truce was 
 prolonged for twenty-six years, though not without a 
 great sacrifice on the part of the Swedes, who ceded by 
 a single stroke of the pen almost the whole of Polish 
 Prussia, the dear-bought conquest of Gustavus Adolphus. 
 The treaty of Beerwald was, with certain modifications, 
 which circumstances rendered necessary, renewed at dif- 
 ferent times at Compiegne, and afterwards atWismarand 
 Hamburg. France had already come to a rupture with 
 Spain in May, 1635, and the vigorous attack which it 
 made upon that power deprived the Emperor of his most 
 valuable auxiliaries from the Netherlands. By supporting 
 the Landgrave William of Cassel and Duke Bernard of 
 Weimar the Swedes were enabled to act with more vigor 
 upon the Elbe and the Danube, and a diversion upon the 
 Rhine compelled the Emperor to divide his force.
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 335 
 
 At length the Elector, having formed a junction with 
 the Imperial General Hatzfeld, advanced against Magde- 
 burg, which Banner in vain hastened to relieve. The 
 united army of the Imperialists and the Saxons now 
 spread itself over Brandenburg, wrested several places 
 from the Swedes, and almost drove them to the Baltic. 
 But, contrary to all expectation, Banner, who had been 
 given up as lost, attacked the allies on the 24th of Sep- 
 tember, 1636, at Wittstock, where a bloody battle took 
 place. The onset was terrific, and the whole force of the 
 enemy was directed against the right wing of the Swedes, 
 which was led by Banner in person. The contest was 
 long maintained with equal animosity and obstinacy on 
 both sides. There was not a squadron among the Swedes 
 which did not return ten times to the charge, to be as 
 often repulsed, when at last Banner was obliged to retire 
 before the superior numbers of the enemy. His left wing 
 sustained the combat until night, and the second line of 
 the Swedes, which had not as yet been engaged, was pre- 
 pared to renew it the next morning. But the Elector 
 did not wait for a second attack. His army was ex- 
 hausted by the efforts of the preceding day ; and as the 
 drivers had fled with the horses his artillery was un- 
 serviceable. He accordingly retreated in the night with 
 Count Hatzfeld and relinquished the ground to the 
 Swedes. About five thousand of the allies fell upon the 
 field, exclusive of those who were killed in the pursuit, 
 or who fell into the hands of the exasperated peasantry. 
 One hundred and fifty standards and colors, twenty- 
 three pieces of cannon, the whole baggage and silver 
 plate of the Elector were captured, and more than two 
 thousand men taken prisoners. This brilliant victory, 
 achieved over an enemy far superior in numbers, and in 
 a very advantageous position, restored the Swedes at once 
 to their former reputation ; their enemies were discour- 
 aged and their friends inspired with new hopes. Banner 
 instantly followed up this decisive success, and, hastily 
 crossing the Elbe, drove the Imperialists before him 
 through Thuringia and Hesse into Westphalia. He then 
 returned and took up his winter quarters in Saxony. 
 
 But, without the material aid furnished by the diver-
 
 336 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 
 
 sion upon the Rhine, and the activity there of Duke 
 Bernard and the French, these important successes would 
 have been unattainable. Duke Bernard, after the defeat 
 of Nordliugeu, reorganized his broken army at Wetterau, 
 but, abandoned by the confederates of the League of 
 Heilbronn, which had been dissolved by the peace of 
 Prague, and receiving but little support from the Swedes, 
 he found himself unable to maintain an army or to per- 
 form any enterprise of importance. The defeat at Nord- 
 lingen had terminated all his hopes on the Duchy of 
 Franconia, while the weakness of the Swedes destroyed 
 the chance of retrieving his fortunes through their assist- 
 ance. Tired, too, of the constraint imposed upon him by 
 the imperious chancellor, he turned his attention to 
 France, who could easily supply him with money, the 
 only aid which he required ; and France readily acceded 
 to his proposals. Richelieu desired nothing so much as 
 to diminish the influence of the Swedes in the German 
 war, and to obtain the direction of it for himself. To 
 secure this end nothing appeared more effectual than to 
 detach from the Swedes their bravest general, to win him 
 to the interests of France, and to secure for the execu- 
 tion of its projects the services of his arm. From a prince 
 like Bernard, who could not maintain himself without 
 foreign support, France had nothing to fear, since no 
 success, however brilliant, could render him independent 
 of that crown. Bernard himself came into France, and 
 in October, 1635, concluded a treaty at St. Germaine en 
 Laye, not as a Swedish general, but in his own name, by 
 which it was stipulated that he should receive for himself a 
 yearly pension of one million five hundred thousand livres, 
 and four millions for the support of his army, which lie was 
 to command under orders of the French king. To in- 
 flame his zeal, and to accelerate the conquest of Alsace, 
 France did not hesitate, by a secret article, to promise 
 him that province for his services; a promise which 
 Richelieu had little intention of performing, and which 
 the duke also estimated at its real worth. But Bernnr;! 
 confided in his good fortune and in his arms, and rm t 
 artifice with dissimulation. If he could once succeed in 
 wresting Alsace from the enemy he did not despair of
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 337 
 
 being able, in case of need, to maintain it also against a 
 friend. He now raised an army at the expense of France, 
 which he commanded nominally under the orders of that 
 power, but in reality without any limitation whatever, 
 and without having wholly abandoned his engagements 
 with Sweden. He began his operations upon the Rhine, 
 where another French army, under Cardinal Lavalette, 
 had already, in 1635, commenced hostilities against the 
 Emperor. 
 
 Against this force the main body of the Imperialists, 
 after the great victory of Nordlingen and the reduction 
 of Swabia and Franconia, had advanced under the com- 
 mand of Gallas, had driven them as far as Metz, cleared 
 the Rhine, and took from the Swedes the towns of Mentz 
 and Frankenthal, of which they were in possession. But 
 frustrated by the vigorous resistance of the French in his 
 main object, of taking up his winter quarters in France, 
 he led back his exhausted troops into Alsace and Swabia. 
 At the opening of the next campaign he passed the 
 Rhine at Breysach and prepared to carry the war into 
 the interior of France. He actually entered Burgundy, 
 while the Spaniards from the Netherlands made progress 
 in Picardy ; and John De Werth, a formidable general 
 of the League and a celebrated partisan, pushed his 
 march into Champagne and spread consternation even to 
 the gates of Paris. But an insignificant fortress in 
 Franche Comte completely checked the Imperialists, 
 and they were obliged a second time to abandon their 
 enterprise. 
 
 The activity of Duke Bernard had hitherto been im- 
 peded by his dependence on a French general more 
 suited to the priestly robe than to the baton of command ; 
 and although in conjunction with him he conquered 
 Alsace Saverne he found himself unable in the years 
 1636 and 1637 to maintain his position upon the Rhine. 
 The ill-success of the French arms in the Netherlands 
 had checked the activity of operations in Alsace and 
 Breisgau, but in 1638 the war in that quarter took a more 
 brilliant turn. Relieved from his former restraint, and 
 witlrunlimited command of his troops, Duke Bernard in 
 the beginning of February left his winter quarters in the
 
 338 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 
 
 Bishopric of Basle and unexpectedly appeared upon the 
 Rhine, where at this rude season of the year an attack 
 was little anticipated. The forest towns of Laufeuburg, 
 Waldshut, and Seckiugen were surprised and Rhinefeldt 
 besieged. The Duke of Savelli, the imperial general 
 who commanded in that quarter, hastened by forced 
 marches to the relief of this important place, succeeded 
 in raising the siege, and compelled the Duke of Weimar, 
 with great loss, to retire. But, contrary to all human 
 expectation, he appeared on the third day after (21st Feb- 
 ruary, 1638) before the Imperialists in order of battle, 
 and defeated them in a bloody engagement, in which the 
 four imperial generals, Savelli, John De Werth, Enke- 
 ford, and Sperreuter, with two thousand men, were taken 
 prisoners. Two of these, De Werth and Enkeford, were 
 afterwards sent by Richelieu's orders into France in order 
 to flatter the vanity of the French by the sight of such 
 distinguished prisoners, and by the pomp of military 
 trophies to withdraw the attention of the populace from 
 the public distress. The captured standards and colors 
 were, with the same view, carried in solemn procession 
 to the church of Notre Dame, thrice exhibited before the 
 altar, and committed to sacred custody. 
 
 The war was now prosecuted with increasing activity. 
 By the treaty of Prague the Emperor had lessened the 
 number of his adversaries within the Empire ; though at 
 the same time the zeal and activity of his foreign enemies 
 had been augmented by it. In Germany his influence 
 was almost unlimited, for, with the exception of a few 
 states, he had rendered himself absolute master of the 
 German body and its resources, and was again enabled to 
 act in the character of emperor and sovereign. The first 
 fruit of his power was the elevation of his son, Ferdinand 
 III., to the dignity of King of the Romans, to which lie 
 was elected by a decided majority of votes notwithstand- 
 ing the opposition of Treves and of the heirs of the 
 Elector Palatine. But, on the other hand, he had exas- 
 perated the Swedes to desperation, had armed the power 
 of France against him, and drawn its troops into the 
 heart of the kingdom. France and Sweden, with their 
 German allies, formed from this moment one firm and
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 339 
 
 % 
 
 compactly-united power ; the Emperor, with the German 
 states which adhered to him, were equally firm and united. 
 The Swedes, who no longer fought for Germany but for 
 their own lives, showed no more indulgence; relieved 
 from the necessity of consulting their German allies, or 
 accounting to them for the plans which they adopted, 
 they acted with more precipitation, rapidity, and boldness. 
 Battles, though less decisive, became more obstinate and 
 bloody ; greater achievements, both in bravery and mili- 
 tary skill, were performed ; but they were but insulated 
 efforts; and being neither dictated by any consistent 
 plan nor improved by any commanding spirit, had com- 
 paratively little influence upon the course of the war. 
 
 Saxony had bound herself by the treaty of Prague to 
 expel the Swedes from Germany. From this moment 
 the banners of the Saxons and Imperialists were united ; 
 the former confederates were converted into implacable 
 enemies. The Archbishopric of Magdeburg, which by the 
 treaty was ceded to the Prince of Saxony, was still held 
 by the Swedes, and every attempt to acquire it by nego- 
 tiations had proved ineffectual. Hostilities commenced 
 by the Elector of Saxony recalling all his subjects from 
 the army of Banner, which was encamped upon the Elbe. 
 The officers, long irritated by the accumulation of their 
 arrears, obeyed the summons and evacuated one quarter 
 after another. As the Saxons at the same time made a 
 movement towards Mecklenburg to take Domitz, and to 
 drive the Swedes from Pomerania and the Baltic, Banner 
 suddenly marched thither, relieved Domitz and totally 
 defeated the Saxon General Baudissin, with seven thou- 
 sand men, of whom one thousand were slain, and about 
 the same number taken prisoners. Reinforced by the 
 troops and artillery which had hitherto been employed 
 in Polish Prussia, but which the treaty of Stummsdorf 
 rendered unnecessary, this brave and impetuous general 
 made the following year (1636) a sudden inroad into the 
 Electorate of Saxony, where he gratified his inveterate 
 hatred of the Saxons by the most destructive ravages. 
 Irritated by the memory of old grievances which, during 
 their common campaigns, he and the Swedes had suffered 
 from the haughtiness of the Saxons, and now exasperated
 
 340 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 
 
 to the utmost by the late defection of the Elector, they 
 wreaked upon the unfortunate inhabitants all their ran- 
 cor. Against Austria and Bavaria the Swedish soldier 
 had fought from a sense, as it were, of duty ; but against 
 the Saxons they contended with all the energy of private 
 animosity and personal revenge, detesting them as de- 
 serters and traitors ; for the hatred of former friends is 
 of all the most fierce and irreconcilable. The powerful 
 diversion made by the Duke of Weimar and the Land- 
 grave of Hesse upon the Rhine and in Westphalia pre- 
 vented the Emperor from affording the necessary assist- 
 ance to Saxony, and left the whole Electorate exposed to 
 the destructive ravages of Banner's army. 
 
 The taking of Rhinefeldt, Roteln, and Fribourg was 
 the immediate consequence of the duke's victory. His 
 army now increased by considerable recruits, and his pro- 
 jects expanded in proportion as fortune favored him. 
 The fortress of Breysach upon the Rhine was looked 
 upon as holding the command of that river and as the 
 key of Alsace. No place in this quarter was of more 
 importance to the Emperor, and upon none had more 
 care been bestowed. To protect Breysach was the prin- 
 cipal destination of the Italian army under the Duke of 
 Feria ; the strength of its works and its natural defences 
 bade defiance to assault, while the imperial generals who 
 commanded in that quarter had orders to retain it at any 
 cost. But the duke, trusting to his good fortune, re- 
 solved to attempt the siege. Its strength rendered it 
 impregnable; it could, therefore, only be starved into a 
 surrender ; and this was facilitated by the carelessness of 
 the commandant, who, expecting no attack, had been 
 selling off his stores. As under these circumstances the 
 town could not long hold out it must be immediately 
 relieved or victualled. Accordingly the imperial General 
 Goetz rapidly advanced at the head of twelve thousand 
 men, accompanied by three thousand wagons loaded with 
 provisions, which he intended to throw into the place. 
 But he was attacked with such vigor by Duke Bernard 
 at Witteweyer that he lost his whole force, except three 
 thousand men, together with the entire transport. A 
 similar fate at Ochsenfeld, near Thann, overtook the
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 341 
 
 Duke of Lorraine, who, with five or six thousand 
 men, advanced to relieve the fortress. After a third 
 attempt of General Goetz for the relief of Breysach had 
 proved ineffectual the fortress, reduced to the greatest 
 extremity by famine, surrendered, after a blockade of 
 four months, on the 17th December, 1638, to its equally 
 persevering and humane conqueror. 
 
 The capture of Breysach opened a boundless field to 
 the ambition of the Duke of Weimar, and the romance of 
 his hopes was fast approaching to reality. Far from 
 intending to surrender his conquests in France he des- 
 tined Breysach for himself, and revealed this intention by 
 exacting allegiance from the vanquished in his own name, 
 and not in that of any other power. Intoxicated by his 
 past success, and excited by the boldest hopes, he believed 
 that he should be able to maintain his conquests even 
 against France herself. At a time when everything 
 depended upon bravery, when even personal strength 
 was of importance, when troops and generals were of 
 more importance than territories, it was natural for a 
 hero like Bernard to place confidence in his own powers, 
 and, at the head of an excellent army, who under his 
 command had proved invincible, to believe himself capa- 
 ble of accomplishing the boldest and largest designs. In 
 order to secure himself one friend among the crowd of 
 enemies whom he was about to provoke, he turned his 
 eyes upon the Landgravine Amelia of Hesse, the widow 
 of the lately desceased Landgrave William, a princess 
 whose talents were equal to her courage, and who, along 
 with her hand, would bestow valuable conquests, an 
 extensive principality, and a well-disciplined army. By 
 the union of the conquests of Hesse with his own upon 
 the Rhine, and the junction of their forces, a power of 
 some importance, and perhaps a third party, might be 
 formed in Germany, which might decide the fate of the 
 war. But a premature death put a period to these extens- 
 ive schemes. 
 
 " Courage, Father Joseph, Breysach is ours ! " whis- 
 pered Richelieu in the ear of the Capuchin who had long 
 held himself in readiness to be despatched into that 
 quarter, so delighted was he with this joyful intelligence.
 
 342 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 
 
 Already in imagination he held Alsace, Breisgau, and all 
 the frontiers in Austria in that quarter without regard to 
 his promise to Duke Bernard. But the firm determina- 
 tion which the latter had unequivocally shown to keep 
 Breysach for himself greatly embarrassed the cardinal, 
 and no efforts were spared to retain the victorious Ber- 
 nard in the interests of France. He was invited to court 
 to witness the honors by which his triumph was to be 
 commemorated; but he perceived and shunned the se- 
 ductive snare. The cardinal even went so far as to offer 
 him the hand of his niece in marriage ; but the proud 
 German prince declined the offer, and refused to sully 
 the blood of Saxony by a misalliance. He was now 
 considered as a dangerous enemy and treated as such. 
 His subsidies were withdrawn ; and the governor of Brey- 
 sach and his principal officers were bribed, at least upon 
 the event of the duke's death, to take possession of his 
 conquests and to secure his troops. These intrigues 
 were no secret to the duke, and the precautions he 
 took in the conquered places clearly bespoke the distrust 
 of France. But this misunderstanding with the French 
 court had the most prejudicial influence upon his future 
 operations. The preparations he was obliged to make in 
 order to secure his conquests against an attack on the 
 side of France compelled him to divide his military 
 strength, while the stoppage of his subsidies delayed his 
 appearance in the field. It had been his intention to 
 cross the Rhine, to support the Swedes, and to act against 
 the Emperor and Bavaria on the banks of the Danube. 
 He had already communicated his plan of operations to 
 Banner, who was about to carry the war into the Austrian 
 territories, and had promised to relieve him so, when a 
 sudden death cut short his heroic career, in the thirty 
 sixth year of his age, at Neuburg upon the Rhine (in 
 July, 1639). 
 
 He died of a pestilential disorder, which, in the course 
 of two days, had carried off nearly four hundred men in 
 his camp. The black spots which appeared upon his 
 body, his own dying expressions, and the advantages 
 which France was likely to reap from his sudden decease, 
 gave rise to a suspicion that he had been removed by
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 343 
 
 poison a suspicion sufficiently refuted by the symptoms 
 of his disorder. In him the allies lost their greatest 
 general after Gustavus Adolphus, France a formidable 
 competitor for Alsace, and the Emperor his most dan- 
 gerous enemy. Trained to the duties of a soldier and a 
 general in the school of Gustavus Adolphus, he success- 
 fully imitated his eminent model, and wanted only a 
 longer life to equal if not to surpass it. With the 
 bravery of the soldier he united the calm and cool pene- 
 tration of the general, the persevering fortitude of the 
 man with the daring resolution of youth ; with the wild 
 ardor of the warrior, the sober dignity of the prince, the 
 moderation of the sage, and the conscientious of the 
 man of honor. Discouraged by no misfortune, he quickly 
 rose again in full vigor from the severest defeats ; no 
 obstacles could check his enterprise, no disappointments 
 conquer his indomitable perseverance. His genius, per- 
 haps, soared after unattainable objects ; but the prudence 
 of such men is to be measured by a different standard 
 from that of ordinary people. Capable of accomplishing 
 more, he might venture to form more daring plans. 
 Bernard affords, in modern history, a spendid example 
 of those days of chivalry, when personal greatness had its 
 full weight and influence, when individual bravery could 
 conquer provinces, and the heroic exploits of a German 
 knight raised him even to the imperial throne. 
 
 The best part of the duke's possessions were his army, 
 which, together with Alsace, he bequeathed to his brother 
 William. But to this army, both France and Sweden 
 thought that they had well-grounded claims ; the latter, 
 because it had been raised in the name of that crown and 
 had done homage to it ; the former because it had been 
 supported by its subsidies. The Electoral Prince of the 
 Palatinate also negotiated for its services, and attempted, 
 first by his agents, and latterly in his own person, to win 
 it over to his interests, with the view of employing it in 
 the reconquest of his territories. Even the Emperor en- 
 deavored to secure it, a circumstance the less surprising, 
 when we reflect that at this time the justice of the cause 
 was comparatively unimportant, and the extent of the 
 recompense the main object to which the soldier looked j
 
 344 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 
 
 and when bravery, like every other commodity, was 
 disposed of to the highest bidder. But France, richer 
 and more determined, outbade all competitors ; it bought 
 over General Erlach, the commander of Breysach, and the 
 other officers, who soon placed that fortress, with the 
 whole army, in their hands. 
 
 The young Palatine, Prince Charles Louis, who had 
 already made an unsuccessful campaign against the 
 Emperor, saw his hopes again deceived. Although in- 
 tending to do France so ill a service as to compete with 
 her for Bernard's army he had the imprudence to travel 
 through that kingdom. The cardinal, who dreaded the 
 justice of the Palatine's cause, was glad to seize any 
 opportunity to frustrate his views. He accordingly caused 
 him to be seized at Moulin, in violation of the law of 
 nations, and did not set him at liberty until he learned 
 that the army of the Duke of Weimar had been secured. 
 France was now in possession of a numerous and well- 
 disciplined army in Germany, and from this moment 
 began to make open war upon the Emperor. 
 
 But it was no longer against Ferdinand II. that its hos- 
 tilities were to be conducted, for that prince had died in 
 February, 1637, in the fifty-ninth year of his age. The war 
 which his ambition had kindled, however, survived him. 
 During a reign of eighteen years he had never once laid 
 aside the sword, nor tasted the blessings of peace as long 
 as his hand swayed the imperial sceptre. Endowed with 
 the qualities of a good sovereign, adorned with many of 
 those virtues which insure the happiness of a people, and 
 by nature gentle and humane, we see him from erroneous 
 ideas of the monarch's duty become at once the instru- 
 ment and the victim of the evil passions of others, his 
 benevolent intentions frustrated, and the friend of justice 
 converted into the oppressor of mankind, the enemy of 
 peace, and the scourge of his people. Amiable in domestic 
 life, and respectable as a sovereign, but in his policy ill- 
 advised, while he gained the love of his Roman Catholic 
 subjects, he incurred the execration of the Protestants. 
 History exhibits many and greater despots than Ferdi- 
 nand II., yet he alone has had the unfortunate celebrity 
 of kindling a thirty years' war; but to produce its
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 345 
 
 lamentable consequences his ambition must have been 
 seconded by a kindred spirit of the age, a congenial state 
 of previous circumstances, and existing seeds of discord. 
 At a less turbulent period the spark would have found no 
 fuel, and the peacefulness of the age would have choked 
 the voice of individual ambition ; but now the flash fell 
 upon a pile of accumulated combustibles, and Europe was 
 in flames. 
 
 His son, Ferdinand III., who a few months before his 
 father's death had been raised to the dignity of King of 
 the Romans, inherited his throne, his principles, and the 
 war which lie had caused. But Ferdinand III. had been 
 a closer witness of the sufferings of the people and the 
 devastation of the country, and felt more keenly and 
 ardently the necessity of peace. Less influenced by the 
 Jesuits and the Spaniards, and more moderate towards 
 the religious views of others, he was more likely than his 
 father to listen to the voice of reason. He did so, and 
 ultimately restored to Europe the blessing of peace, but 
 not till after a contest of eleven years waged with sword 
 and pen ; not till after he had experienced the impossi- 
 bility of resistance, and necessity had laid upon him 'its 
 stern laws. 
 
 Fortune favored him at the commencement of his reign, 
 and his arms were victorious against the Swedes. The 
 latter, under the command of the victorious Banner, had 
 after their success at Wittstock taken up their winter 
 quarters in Saxony, and the campaign of 1637 opened 
 with the siege of Leipzig. The vigorous resistance of 
 the garrison and the approach of the Electoral and 
 Imperial armies saved the town, and Banner, to prevent 
 his communication with the Elbe being cut off, was com- 
 pelled to retreat into Torgau. But the superior number 
 of the Imperialists drove him even from that quarter ; 
 and surrounded by the enemy, hemmed in by rivers, and 
 suffering from famine, he had no course open to him but 
 to attempt a highly dangerous retreat into Pomerania, of 
 which the boldness and successful issue border upon 
 romance. The whole army crossed the Oder at a ford 
 near Furstenberg ; and, the soldiers, wading up to the 
 neck in water, dragged the artillery across, when the
 
 346 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 
 
 horses refused to draw. Banner had expected to be joined 
 by General Wrangel on the farther side of the Oder in 
 Pomerania ; and, in conjunction with him, to be able to 
 make head against the enemy. But Wrangel did not 
 appear, and in his stead he found an imperial army posted 
 at Landsberg with a view to cut off the retreat of the 
 Swedes. Banner now saw that he had fallen into a dan- 
 gerous snare from which escape appeared impossible. In 
 his rear lay an exhausted country, the Imperialists, and 
 the Oder on his left ; the Oder, too, guarded by the Impe- 
 rial General Bucheim, offered no retreat ; in front Lands- 
 berg, Custrin, the Warta, and a hostile army ; and on the 
 right Poland, in which, notwithstanding the truce, little 
 confidence could be placed. In these circumstances his 
 position seemed hopeless, and the Imperialists were 
 already triumphing in the certainty of his fall. Banner, 
 with just indignation, accused the French as the authors of 
 this misfortune. They had neglected to make, according 
 to their promise, a diversion upon the Rhine, and by their 
 inaction allowed" the Emperor to combine his whole force 
 upon the Swedes. " When the day comes," cried the in- 
 censed general to the French commissioner, who followed 
 the camp, " that the Swedes and Germans join their arms 
 against France we shall cross the Rhine with less cere- 
 mony." But reproaches were now useless ; what the 
 emergency demanded was energy and resolution. In the 
 hope of drawing the enemy by stratagem from the 
 Oder, Banner pretended to march towards Poland, and 
 despatched the greater part of his baggage in this direc- 
 tion, with his own wife and those of the other officers. 
 The Imperialists immediately broke up their camp and 
 hurried towards the Polish frontier to block up the route ; 
 Bucheim left his station, and the Oder was stripped of its 
 defenders. On a sudden, and under cloud of night, 
 Banner turned towards that river, and crossed it about a 
 mile above Custrin, with his troops, baggage, and artil- 
 lery, without bridges or vessels, as he had done before at 
 Furstenberg. He reached Pomerania without loss, and 
 prepared to share with Wrangel the defence of that 
 province. 
 
 But the Imperialists, under the command of Gallas, en-
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 347 
 
 tered that duchy at Ribses, and overran it by their 
 superior strength. Usedom and Wolgast were taken by 
 storm, Deminin capitulated, and the Swedes were driven 
 far into Lower Pomerania. It was, too, more important 
 for them at this moment than ever to maintain a footing 
 in that country, for Bogislaus XIV. had died that year, 
 and Sweden must prepare to establish its title to Pom- 
 crania. To prevent the Elector of Brandenburg from 
 making good the title to that duchy, which the treaty of 
 Prague had given him, Sweden exerted her utmost ener- 
 gies, and supported its generals to the extent of her 
 ability, both with troops and money. In other quarters 
 of the kingdom the affairs of the Swedes began to wear a 
 more favorable aspect, and to recover from the humilia- 
 tion into which they had been thrown by the inaction of 
 France and the desertion of their allies. For, after 
 their hasty retreat into Pom crania, they had lost one 
 place after another in Upper Saxony ; the Princes of 
 Mecklenburg, closely pressed by the troops of the Em- 
 peror, began to lean to the side of Austria, and even 
 George, Duke of Lunenburg, declared against them. 
 Ehrenbreitstein was starved into a surrender by .the 
 Bavarian General de "Werth, and the Austrians possessed 
 themselves of all the works which had been thrown up 
 on the Rhine. France had been the sufferer in the con- 
 test with Spain ; and the event had by no means justified 
 the pompous expectations which had accompanied the 
 opening of the campaign. Every place which the Swedes 
 had held in the interior of Germany was lost ; and only 
 the principal towns in Pomerania still remained in their 
 hands. But a single campaign raised them from this 
 state of humiliation ; and the vigorous diversion, which 
 the victorious Bernard had effected upon the Rhine, gave 
 quite a new turn to affairs. 
 
 The misunderstandings between France and Sweden 
 were now at last adjusted, and the old treaty between 
 these powers confirmed at Hamburg, with fresh advan- 
 tages for Sweden. In Hesse the politic Landgravine 
 Amelia had, with the approbation of the Estates, as- 
 sumed the government after the death of her husband, 
 and resolutely maintained her rights against the Emperor
 
 348 THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 
 
 and the House of Darmstadt. Already zealously attached 
 to the Swedish Protestant party on religious grounds, 
 she only awaited a favorable opportunity openly to declare 
 herself. By artful delays and by prolonging the negotia- 
 tions with the Emperor she had succeeded in keeping 
 him inactive, till she had concluded a secret compact with 
 France, and the victories of Duke Bernard had given a 
 favorable turn to the affairs of the Protestants. She now 
 at once threw off the mask, and renewed her former alli- 
 ance with the Swedish crown. The Electoral Prince of 
 the Palatinate was also stimulated by the success of 
 Bernard to try his fortune against the common enemy. 
 Raising troops in Holland with English money, he 
 formed a magazine at Meppen and joined the Swedes in 
 Westphalia. His magazine was, however, quickly lost ; 
 his army defeated near Flotha by Count Hatzfeld ; but 
 his attempt served to occupy for some time the attention 
 of the enemy, and thereby facilitated the operations of 
 the Swedes in other quarters. Other friends began to 
 appear as fortune declared in their favor ; and the cir- 
 cumstance that the states of Lower Saxony embraced a 
 neutrality was of itself no inconsiderable advantage. 
 
 Under these advantages, and reinforced by fourteen 
 thousand fresh troops from Sweden and Livonia, Banner 
 opened with the most favorable prospects the campaign 
 of 1638. The Imperialists who were in possession of 
 Upper Pomerania and Mecklenburg either abandoned 
 their positions or deserted in crowds to the Swedes to 
 avoid the horrors of famine, the most formidable enemy 
 in this exhausted country. The whole country betwixt 
 the Elbe and the Oder was so desolated by the past 
 marchings and quarterings of the troops that, in order to 
 support his army on its march into Saxony and Bohemia, 
 Banner was obliged to take a circuitous route from 
 Lower Pomerania into Lower Saxony, and then into the 
 Electorate of Saxony through the territory of Halber- 
 stadt. The impatience of the Lower Saxon states to 
 get rid of such troublesome guests procured him so plen- 
 tiful a supply of provisions that he was provided with 
 bread in Magdeburg itself, where famine had even over- 
 come the natural antipathy of men to human flesh. His
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 349 
 
 approach spread consternation among the Saxons; but 
 his views were directed not against this exhausted coun- 
 try, but against the hereditary dominions of the Em- 
 peror. The victories of Bernard encouraged him, while 
 the prosperity of the Austrian provinces excited his 
 hopes of booty. After defeating the Imperial General 
 Salis at Elsterberg, totally routing the Saxon army at 
 Chemnitz, and taking Pirna, he penetrated with irresisti- 
 ble impetuosity into Bohemia, crossed the Elbe, threat- 
 ened Prague, took Brandeis and Leutmeritz, defeated 
 General Hofkirchen with ten regiments, and spread ter- 
 ror and devastation through that defenceless kingdom. 
 Booty was his sole object, and whatever he could not 
 carry off he destroyed. In order to remove more of the 
 corn the ears were cut from the stalks, and the latter 
 burnt. Above a thousand castles, hamlets, and villages 
 were laid in ashes; sometimes more than a hundred were 
 seen burning in one night. From Bohemia he crossed 
 into Silesia, and it was his intention to carry his ravages 
 even into Moravia and Austria. But to prevent this 
 Count Hatzfeld was summoned from Westphalia, and 
 Piccolomini from the Netherlands, to hasten with all 
 speed to this quarter. The Archduke Leopold, brother 
 to the Emperor, assumed the command in order to repair 
 the errors of his predecessor, Gallas, and to raise the 
 army from the low ebb to which it had fallen. 
 
 The result justified the change, and the campaign of 
 1640 appeared to take a most unfortunate turn for the 
 Swedes. They were successively driven out of all their 
 posts in Bohemia, and, anxious only to secure their plun- 
 der, they precipitately crossed the heights of Meissen. 
 But being followed into Saxony by the pursuing enemy, 
 and defeated at Plauen, they were obliged to take refuge 
 in Thuringia. Made masters of the field in a single 
 summer, they were as rapidly dispossessed, but only to 
 acquire it a second time, and to hurry from one extreme 
 to another. The army of Banner, weakened and on the 
 brink of destruction in its camp at Erfurt, suddenly 
 recovered itself. The Duke of Lunenburg abandoned 
 the treaty of Prague, and joined Banner with the very 
 troops which the year before had fought against him.
 
 350 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 
 
 Hesse Cassel sent reinforcements, and the Duke of 
 Longueville came to his support with the army of the 
 late Duke Bernard. Once more numerically superior to 
 the Imperialists Banner offered them battle near Saal- 
 feld, but their leader, Piccolomini, prudently declined an 
 engagement, having chosen too strong a position to be 
 forced. When the Bavarians at length separated from 
 the Imperialists and marched towards Franconia Banner 
 attempted an attack upon this divided corps, but the 
 attempt was frustrated by the skill of the Bavarian Gen- 
 eral Von Mercy and the near approach of the main body 
 of the Imperialists. Both armies now moved into the 
 exhausted territory of Hesse, where they formed in- 
 trenched camps near each other, till at last famine and 
 the severity of the winter compelled them both to retire. 
 Piccolomini chose the fertile banks of the Weser for his 
 winter quarters, but being outflanked by Banner he M'as 
 obliged to give way to the Swedes and to impose on the 
 Franconian sees the burden of maintaining his army. 
 
 At this period a diet was held in Ratisbon, where the 
 complaints of the states were to be heard, measures 
 taken for securing the repose of the Empire, and the 
 question of peace or war finally settled. The presence 
 of the Emperor, the majority of the Roman Catholic 
 voices in the Electoral College, the great number of bish- 
 ops, and the withdrawal of several of the Protestant 
 votes, gave the Emperor a complete command of the 
 deliberations of the assembly, and rendered this diet 
 anything but a fair representative of the opinions of the 
 German Empire. The Protestants with reason consid- 
 ered it as a mere combination of Austria and its crea- 
 tures against their party, and it seemed to them a lauda- 
 ble effort to interrupt its deliberations and to dissolve 
 the Diet itself. 
 
 Banner undertook this bold enterprise. His military 
 reputation had suffered by his last retreat from Bohemia, 
 and it stood in need of some great exploit to restore its 
 former lustre. Without communicating his designs to 
 any one, in the depth of the winter of 1641, as soon as 
 the roads and rivers were frozen, he broke up from his 
 quarters in Lunenburg. Accompanied by Marshal Gue-
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 351 
 
 briant, who commanded the armies of France and Wei- 
 mar, he took the route towards the Danube, through 
 Thuringia and Vogtland, and appeared before Ratisbon 
 ere the Diet could be apprised of his approach. The 
 consternation of the assembly was indescribable, and in 
 the first alarm the deputies prepared for flight. The 
 Emperor alone declared that he would not leave the 
 town, and encouraged the rest by his example. Unfor- 
 tunately for the Swedes a thaw came on, which broke up 
 the ice upon the Danube so that it was no longer passable 
 on foot, while no boats could cross it on account of the 
 quantities of ice which were swept down by the current. 
 In order to perform something and to humble the pride 
 of the Emperor, Banner discourteously fired five hundred 
 cannon-shots into the town, which however did little 
 mischief. Baffled in his designs, he resolved to penetrate 
 farther into Bavaria and the defenceless province of 
 Moravia, where a rich booty and comfortable quarters 
 awaited his troops. Guebriant, however, began to fear 
 that the purpose of the Swedes was to draw the army of 
 Bernard away from the Rhine and to cut off its commu- 
 nication with France till it should be either entirely won 
 over or incapacitated from acting independently. He 
 therefore separated from Banner to return to the Maine, 
 and the latter was exposed to the whole force of the 
 Imperialists, which had been secretly drawn together 
 between Ratisbon and Ingoldstadt, and was on its march 
 against him. It was now time to think of a rapid 
 retreat, which having to be effected in the face of an 
 army superior in cavalry, and betwixt woods and rivers 
 through a country entirely hostile, Appeared almost im- 
 practicable. He hastily retired towards the Forest, 
 intending to penetrate through Bohemia into Saxony, 
 but he was obliged to sacrifice three regiments at Neu- 
 burg. These with a truly Spartan courage defended 
 themselves for four days behind an old wall, and gained 
 time for Banner to escape. He retreated by Egra to 
 Annaberg ; Piccolomini took a shorter route in pursuit 
 by Schlakenwald, and Banner succeeded only by a single 
 half hour in clearing the Pass of Prisnitz and saving his 
 whole army from the Imperialists. At Zwickau he was
 
 352 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 
 
 again joined by Guebriant, and both generals directed 
 their march towards Halberstadt after in vain attempting 
 to defend the Saal and to prevent the passage of the 
 Imperialists. 
 
 Banner at length terminated his career at Halberstadt, 
 in May, 1641, a victim to vexation and disappointment. 
 He sustained with great renown though with varying 
 success the reputation of the Swedish arms in Germany, 
 and by a train of victories showed himself worthy of his 
 great master in the art of war. He was fertile in expe- 
 dients, which he planned with secrecy and executed with 
 boldness, cautious in the midst of dangers, greater in 
 adversity than in prosperity, and never more formidable 
 than when upon the brink of destruction. But the vir- 
 tues of the hero were united with all the failings and 
 vices which a military life creates, or at least fosters. As 
 imperious in private life as he was at the head of his 
 army, rude as his profession, and proud as a conqueror, 
 he oppressed the German princes no less by his haughti- 
 ness than their country by his contributions. He con- 
 soled himself for the toils of war in voluptuousness and 
 the pleasures of the table, in which he indulged to 
 excess, and was thus brought to an early grave. But 
 though as much addicted to pleasure as Alexander or 
 Mahomet II., he hurried from the arms of luxury into 
 the hardest fatigues, and placed himself in all his vigor 
 at the head of his army at the very moment his soldiers 
 were murmuring at his luxurious excesses. Nearly 
 eighty thousand men fell in the numerous battles which 
 he fought, and about six hundred hostile standards and 
 colors, which he sent to Stockholm, were the trophies of 
 his victories. The want of this great general was soon 
 severely felt by the Swedes, who feared with justice that 
 the loss would not readily be replaced. The spirit of 
 rebellion and insubordination, which had been overawed 
 by the imperious demeanor of this dreaded commander, 
 awoke upon his death. The officers, with an alarming 
 unanimity, demanded payment of their arrears, and none 
 of the four generals who shared the command possessed 
 influence enough to satisfy these demands or to silence 
 the malcontents. All discipline was at an end ; in-
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 353 
 
 creasing want and the imperial citations were daily 
 diminishing the number of the army; the troops of 
 France and Weimar showed little zeal ; those of Lunen- 
 hurg forsook the Swedish colors; the Princes also of the 
 House of Brunswick, after the death of Duke George, 
 had formed a separate treaty with the Emperor, and at 
 last even those of Hesse quitted them to seek better 
 quarters in Westphalia. The enemy profited by these 
 calamitous divisions, and although defeated with loss in 
 two pitched battles, succeeded in making considerable 
 progress in Lower Saxony. 
 
 At length appeared the new Swedish generalissimo 
 with fresh troops and money. This was Bernard Tor- 
 stensohn, a pupil of Gustavus Adolphus, and his most 
 successful imitator, who had been his page during the 
 Polish war. Though a martyr to the gout and confined to 
 a litter, he surpassed all his opponents in activity; and his 
 enterprises had wings while his body was held by the 
 most frightful of fetters. Under him the scene of war 
 was changed and new maxims adopted which necessity 
 dictated and the issue justified. All the countries in 
 which the contest had hitherto raged were exhausted, 
 while the House of Austria, safe in its more distant ter- 
 tories, felt not the miseries of the war under which the 
 rest of Germany groaned. Torstensohn first furnished 
 them with this bitter experience, glutted his Swedes on 
 the fertile fields of Austria, and carried the torch of war 
 to the very footsteps of the imperial throne. 
 
 In Silesia the enemy had gained considerable advan- 
 tage over the Swedish General Stalhantsch, and driven 
 him as far as Neumark. Torstenohn, who had joined 
 the main body of the Swedes in Lunenburg, summoned 
 him to unite with his force, and in the year 1642 hastily 
 marched into Silesia through Brandenburg, which, under 
 its great Elector, had begun to maintain an armed neu- 
 trality. Glogau was carried, sword in hand, without a 
 breach or formal approaches, the Duke Francis Albert 
 of Lauenburg defeated and killed at Schweidnitz, and 
 Schweidnitz itself with almost all the towns on that side 
 of the Oder taken. He now penetrated with irresistible 
 violence into the interior of Moravia, where no enemy of
 
 354 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 
 
 x 
 
 Austria had hitherto appeared, took Olm utz and threw 
 Vienna itself into consternation. 
 
 But in the meantime Piccolomini and the Archduke 
 Leopold had collected a superior force which speedily 
 drove the Swedish conquerors from Moravia, and, after a 
 fruitless attempt upon Brieg, from Silesia. Reinforced 
 by Wrangel, the Swedes again attempted to make head 
 against the enemy, and relieved Grossglogau, but could 
 neither bring the Imperialists to an engagement nor carry 
 into effect their own views upon Bohemia. Overrunning 
 Lusatia they took Zittau in presence of the enemy, and 
 after a short stay in that country directed their march 
 toward the Elbe, which they passed at Torgau. Torsten- 
 sohn now threatened Leipzig with a siege, and hoped to 
 raise a large supply of provisions and contributions from 
 that prosperous town, which for ten years had been 
 un visited with the scourge of war. 
 
 The Imperialists under Leopold and Piccolomini im- 
 mediately hastened by Dresden to its relief, and Torsten- 
 sohn to avoid being inclosed between this army and the 
 town boldly advanced to meet them in order of battle. 
 By a strange coincidence the two armies met upon the 
 very spot which eleven years before Gustavus Adolphus 
 had rendered remarkable by a decisive victory; and the 
 heroism of their predecessors now kindled in the Swedes 
 a noble emulation on this consecrated ground. The 
 Swedish Generals Stahlhantsch and Wellenberg led their 
 divisions with such impetuosity upon the left wing of the 
 Imperialists, before it was completely formed, that the 
 whole cavalry that covered it were dispersed and ren- 
 dered unserviceable. But the left of the Swedes was 
 threatened with a similar fate when the victorious right 
 advanced to its assistance, took the enemy in flank and 
 rear and divided the Austrian line. The infantry on 
 both sides stood firm as a wall, and when their ammuni- 
 tion was exhausted maintained the combat with the butt 
 ends of their muskets, till at last the Imperialists, com- 
 pletely surrounded, after a contest of three hours, were 
 compelled to abandon the field. The generals on both 
 sides had more than once to rally their flying troops; 
 and the Archduke Leopold with his regiment was the
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 355 
 
 first in the attack and last in fight. But this bloody 
 victory cost the Swedes more than three thousand men 
 and two of their best generals, Schlangen and Lilien- 
 hoeck. More than five thousand of the Imperialists were 
 left upon the field, and nearly as many taken prisoners. 
 Their whole artillery, consisting of forty-six field-pieces, 
 the silver plate and portfolio of the archduke, with the 
 whole baggage of the army, fell into the hands of the 
 victors. Torstensohn, too greatly disabled by his victory 
 to pursue the enemy, moved upon Leipzig. The defeated 
 army retreated into Bohemia, where its shattered regi- 
 ments reassembled. The Ai'chduke Leopold could not 
 recover from the vexation caused by this defeat, and the 
 regiment of cavalry which by its premature flight had 
 occasioned the disaster experienced the effects of his 
 indignation. At Raconitz, in Bohemia, in presence of 
 the whole army, he publicly declared it infamous, de- 
 prived it of its horses, arms, and ensigns, ordered its 
 standards to be torn, condemned to death several of the 
 officers, and decimated the privates. 
 
 The surrender of Leipzig, three weeks after the battle, 
 was its brilliant result. The city was obliged to clothe 
 the Swedish troops anew, and to purchase an exemption 
 from plunder by a contribution of three hundred thou- 
 sand rix-dollars, to which all the foreign merchants who 
 had warehouses in the city were to furnish their quota. In 
 the middle of the winter Torstensohn advanced against 
 Freyberg, and for several weeks defied the inclemency of 
 the season, hoping by his perseverance to weary out the 
 obstinacy of the besieged. But he found that he was 
 merely sacrificing the lives of his soldiers; and at last 
 the approach of the imperial general, Piccolomini, com- 
 pelled him with his weakened army to retire. He con- 
 sidered it, however, as equivalent to a victory to have 
 disturbed the repose of the enemy in their winter quarters, 
 who, by the severity of the Weather, sustained a loss of three 
 thousand horses. He now made a movement towards the 
 Oder, as if with the view of reinforcing himself with the 
 garrisons of Pomerania and Silesia ; but with the rapidity 
 of lightning he again appeared upon the Bohemian front- 
 ier, penetrated through that kingdom and relieved
 
 356 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 
 
 Olmutz in Moravia, which was hard pressed by the Im- 
 perialists. His camp at Dobitschau, two miles from 
 Olmutz, commanded the whole of Moravia, on which he 
 levied heavy contributions, and carried his ravages almost 
 to the gates of Vienna. In vain did the Emperor at- 
 tempt to arm the Hungarian nobility in defence of this 
 province ; they appealed to their privileges and refused 
 to serve beyond the limits of their own country. Thus 
 the time that should have been spent in active resistance 
 was lost in fruitless negotiation, and the entire province 
 was abandoned to the ravages of the Swedes. 
 
 While Torstensohn by his marches and his victories 
 astonished friend and foe the armies of the allies had not 
 been inactive in other parts of the empire. The troops 
 of Hesse, under Count Eberstein, and those of Weimar, 
 under Mareschal de Guebriant, had fallen into the Elec- 
 torate of Cologne, in order to take up their winter quar- 
 ters there. To get rid of these troublesome guests the 
 Elector called to his assistance the imperial General Hatz- 
 feld and assembled his own troops under General Lam- 
 boy. The latter was attacked by the allies in January, 
 1642, and in a decisive action near Kempen defeated 
 with a loss of about two thousand men killed and about 
 twice as many prisoners. This important victory opened 
 to them the whole Electorate and neighboring territories 
 so that the allies were not only enabled to maintain their 
 winter quarters there, but drew from the country large 
 supplies of men and horses. 
 
 Guebriant left the Hessians to defend their conquests 
 on the Lower Rhine against Hatzfeld, and advanced 
 towards Thuringia, as if to second the operations of 
 Torstensohn in Saxony. But instead of joining the 
 Swedes he soon hurried back to the Rhine and the Maine, 
 from which he seemed to think he had removed farther 
 than was expedient. But being anticipated in the Mar- 
 gravate of Baden by the Bavarians under Mercy and 
 John De Werth he was obliged to wander about for sev- 
 eral weeks exposed without shelter to the inclemency of 
 the winter and generally encamping upon the snow till 
 he found a miserable refuge in Bavaria. He at last took 
 the field, and in the next summer by keeping the Bavarian
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 357 
 
 army employed in Swabia prevented it from relieving 
 Thionville, which was besieged by Conde. But the supe- 
 riority of the enemy soon drove him back to Alsace, 
 where he awaited a reinforcement. 
 
 The death of Cardinal Richelieu took place in Novem- 
 ber, 1642, and the subsequent change in the throne and 
 in the ministry, occasioned by the death of Louis XIII., 
 had for some time withdrawn the attention of France 
 from the German war, and was the cause of the inaction 
 of its troops in the field. But Mazarin, the inheritor not 
 only of Richelieu's power, but also of his principles and 
 his projects, followed out with renewed zeal the plans of 
 his predecessor, though the French subject was destined 
 to pay dearly enough for the political greatness of his 
 country. The main strength of its armies, which Riche- 
 lieu had employed against the Spaniards, was by Mazarin 
 directed against the Emperor ; and the anxiety with 
 which he carried on the war in Germany proved the 
 sincerity of his opinion, that the German army was the 
 right arm of his king and a wall of safety around France. 
 Immediately upon the surrender of Thionville he sent a 
 considerable reinforcement to Field-Marshal Guebriant in 
 Alsace ; and to encourage the troops to bear the fatigues 
 of the German war, the celebrated victor of Rocroi, the 
 Duke of Enghien, afterwads Prince of Conde, was placed 
 at their head. Guebriant now felt himself strong enough 
 to appear again in Germany with repute. He hastened 
 across the Rhine with the view of procuring better win- 
 ter quarters in Swabia, and actually made himself master 
 of Rothweil, where a Bavarian magazine fell into his 
 hands. But the place was too dearly purchased for its 
 worth, and was again lost even more speedily than it had 
 been taken. Guebriant received a wound in the arm, 
 which the surgeon's unskilfulness rendered mortal, and 
 the extent of his loss was felt on the very day of his 
 death. 
 
 The French army, sensibly weakened by an expedition 
 undertaken at so severe a season of the year, had after 
 the taking of Rowtheil withdrawn into the neighborhood 
 of Duttlingen, where it lay in complete security without 
 expectation of a hostile attack. In the meantime the
 
 358 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 
 
 enemy collected a considerable force with a view to 
 prevent the French from establishing themselves beyond 
 the Rhine and so near to Bavaria, and to protect that 
 quarter from their ravages. The Imperialists under 
 Hatzfeld had formed a junction with the Bavarians 
 under Mercy ; and the Duke of Lorraine, who, during 
 the whole course of the war, was generally found every- 
 where except in his own duchy, joined their united forces. 
 It was resolved to force the quarters of the French in 
 Duttlingen and the neighboring villages by surprise ; a 
 favorite mode of proceeding in this war, and which being 
 commonly accompanied by confusion occasioned more 
 bloodshed than a regular battle. On the present occasion 
 there was the more to justify it, as the French soldiers, 
 unaccustomed to such enterprises, conceived themselves 
 protected by the security of the winter against any sur- 
 prise. John de Werth, a master in this species of war- 
 fare, which he had often put in practice against Gustavus 
 Horn, conducted the enterprise and succeeded contrary 
 to all expectation. 
 
 The attack was made on a side where it was least 
 looked for, on account of the woods and narrow passes ; 
 and a heavy snow-storm which fell upon the same day (the 
 24th November, 1643), concealed the approach of the 
 vanguard till it halted before Duttlingen. The whole of 
 the artillery without the place, as well as the neighboring 
 Castle of Honberg, were taken without resistance, Dutt- 
 lingen itself was gradually surrounded by the enemy, and 
 all connection with the other quarters in the adjacent 
 villages silently and suddenly cut off. The French were 
 vanquished without firing a cannon. The cavalry owed 
 their escape to the swiftness of their horses and the few 
 minutes in advance which they had gained upon their 
 pursuers. The infantry were cut to pieces or voluntarily 
 laid down their arms. About two thousand men were 
 killed, and seven thousand, with twenty-five staff-officers 
 and ninety captains, taken prisoners. This was perhaps 
 the only battle in the whole course of the war which 
 produced nearly the same effect upon the party which 
 gained and that which lost; both these parties were 
 Germans ; the French disgraced themselves. The mem-
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 359 
 
 ory of this unfortunate day, which was renewed one 
 hundred years after at Rosbach, was indeed erased by 
 the subsequent heroism of a Turenne and Conde ; but 
 the Germans may be pardoned if they indemnified them- 
 selves for the miseries which the policy of France had 
 heaped upon them by these severe reflections upon her 
 intrepidity. 
 
 Meantime this defeat of the French was calculated to 
 prove highly disastrous to Sweden, as the whole power of 
 the Emperor might now act against them, while the num- 
 ber of their enemies was increased by a formidable acces- 
 sion. Torstensohn had, in September, 1643, suddenly left 
 Moravia and moved into Silesia. The cause of this step 
 was a secret, and the frequent changes which .took 
 place in the direction of his march contributed to increase 
 this perplexity. From Silesia after numberless circuits 
 he advanced towards the Elbe, while the Imperialists 
 followed him into Lusatia. Throwing a bridge across 
 the Elbe at Torgau, he gave out that he intended to 
 penetrate through Meissen into the Upper Palatinate in 
 Bavaria ; at Barby he also made a movement as if to pass 
 that river, but continued to move down the Elbe as far 
 as Havelburg, where he astonished his troops by inform- 
 ing them that he was leading them against the Danes in 
 Holstein. 
 
 The partiality which Christian IV. had displayed 
 against the Swedes in his office of mediator, the jealousy 
 which led him to do all in his power to hinder the pro- 
 gress of their arms, the restraints which he laid upon their 
 navigation of the Sound, and the burdens which he im- 
 posed upon their commerce, had long roused the indig- 
 nation of Sweden; and at last when these grievances 
 increased daily had determined the Regency to measures 
 of retaliation. Dangerous as it seemed to involve the 
 nation in a new war, when even amidst its conquests it 
 was almost exhausted by the old, the desire of revenge, 
 and the deep-rooted hatred which subsisted between 
 Danes and Swedes, prevailed over all other considera- 
 tions ; and even the embarassment in which hostilities 
 with Germany had plunged it only served as an additional 
 motive to try its fortune against Denmark.
 
 360 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 
 
 Matters were in fact arrived at last to that extremity, 
 that the war was prosecuted merely for the purpose of 
 furnishing food and employment to the troops ; that good 
 winter quarters formed the chief subject of contention; 
 and that success in this point was more valued than a 
 decisive victory. But now the provinces of Germany 
 were almost all exhausted and laid waste. They were 
 wholly destitute of provisions, horses, and men, which in 
 Holstein were to be found in profusion. If by this 
 movement Torstensohn should succeed merely in recruit- 
 ing his army, providing subsistence for his horses and 
 soldiers, and remounting his cavalry, all the danger and 
 difficulty would be well repaid. Besides it was highly 
 important on the eve of negotiations for peace to dimin- 
 ish the injurious influence which Denmark might exercise 
 upon these deliberations to delay the treaty itself, which 
 threatened to be prejudicial to the Swedisli interests, by 
 sowing confusion among the parties interested, arid with 
 a view to the amount of indemnification to increase the 
 number of her conquests in order to be the more sure of 
 securing those which alone she was anxious to retain. 
 Moreover the present state of Denmark justified even 
 greater hopes, if only the attempts were executed with 
 rapidity and silence. The secret was in fact so well kept 
 in Stockholm that the Danish minister had not the slight- 
 est suspicion of it ; and neither France nor Holland were 
 let into the scheme. Actual hostilities commenced with 
 the declaration of war ; and Torstensohn was in Holstein 
 before even an attack was expected. The Swedish troops 
 meeting with no resistance, quickly overran this duchy 
 and made themselves masters of all its strong places ex- 
 cept Rensburg and Gluckstadt. Another army penetrated 
 into Schonen, which made as little opposition ; and noth- 
 ing but the severity of the season prevented the enemy 
 from passing the Lesser Baltic and carrying the war into 
 Funen and Zealand. The Danish fleet was unsuccessful 
 at Femeru ; and Christian himself, who was on board, lost 
 his right eye by a splinter. Cut off from all communica- 
 tion with the distant force of the Emperor, his ally, this 
 king was on the point of seeing his whole kindom over- 
 run by the Swedes ; and all things threatened the speedy
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 361 
 
 fulfilment of the old prophecy of the famous Tycho 
 Brahe, that in the year 1644 Christian IV. should wander 
 in the greatest misery from his dominions. 
 
 But the Emperor could not look on with indifference 
 while Denmark was sacrificed to Sweden, and the latter 
 strengthened by so great an acquisition. Notwithstand- 
 ing great difficulties lay in the way of so long a march 
 through desolated provinces, he did not hesitate to 
 despatch an army into Holstein under Count Gallas, who, 
 after Piccolomini's retirement, had resumed the supreme 
 command of the troops. Gallas accordingly appeared in 
 the duchy, took Keil, and hoped by forming a junction 
 with the Danes to be able to shut up the Swedish army 
 in Jutland. Meantime the Hessians and the Swedish 
 General Koenigsmark were kept in check by Hatzfeld and 
 the Archbishop of Bremen, the son of Christian IV. ; 
 and afterwards the Swedes drawn into Saxony by an 
 attack upon Meissen. But Torstensohn, with his aug- 
 mented army, penetrated to the unoccupied pass betwixt 
 Schleswig and Stapelholm, met Gallas, and dpove him 
 along the whole course of the Elbe as far as Bernburg, 
 where the Imperialists took up an intrenched position. 
 Torstensohn passed the Saal, and by posting himself in 
 the rear of the enemy, cut off their communication with 
 Saxony and Bohemia. Scarcity and famine began now to 
 destroy them in great numbers, and forced them to retreat 
 to Magdeburg, where, however, they were not much better 
 off. The cavalry which endeavored to escape into Silesia 
 was overtaken and routed by Torstensohn, near Juter- 
 bock ; the rest of the army, after a vain attempt to fight 
 its way through the Swedish lines, was almost wholly 
 destroyed near Magdeburg. From this expedition Gallas 
 brought back only a few thousand men of all his formid- 
 able force, and the reputation of being a consummate 
 master in the art of ruining an army. The King of 
 Denmark after this unsuccessful effort to relieve him sued 
 for peace, which he obtained at Bremsebor in the year 
 1645 under very unfavorable conditions. 
 
 Torstensohn rapidly followed up his victory ; and while 
 Axel Lilienstern, one of the generals who commanded 
 under him, overawed Saxony, and Koenigsmark subdued
 
 362 THE THIKTY YEARS' WAR. 
 
 the whole of Bremen, he himself penetrated into Bohemia 
 with sixteen thousand men and eighty pieces of artillery, 
 and endeavored a second time to remove the seat of war 
 into the hereditary dominions of Austria. Ferdinand, upon 
 this intelligence, hastened in person to Prague, in order 
 to animate the courage of the people by his presence ; and 
 as a skilful general was much required, and so little 
 unanimity prevailed among the numerous leaders, he 
 hoped in the immediate neighborhood of the war to be 
 able to give more energy and activity. In obedience to 
 his orders Hatzfeld assembled the whole Austrian and 
 Bavarian force, and, contrary to his own inclination and 
 advice, formed the Emperor's last army and the last bul- 
 wark of his states in order of battle to meet the enemy, 
 who were approaching, at Jankowitz, on the 24th of Feb- 
 ruary, 1645. Ferdinand depended upon his cavalry, 
 which outnumbered that of the enemy by three thousand, 
 and upon the promise of the Virgin Mary, who had 
 appeared to him in a dream, and given him the strongest 
 assurances of a complete victory. 
 
 The superiority of the Imperialists did not intimidate 
 Torstensohn, who was not accustomed to number his 
 antagonists. On the very first onset the left wing, which 
 Goetz, the general of the League, had entangled in a 
 disadvantageous position among marshes and thickets, 
 was totally routed ; the general, with the greater part of 
 his men, killed, and almost the whole ammunition of the 
 army taken. This unfortunate commencement decided 
 the fate of the day. The Swedes constantly advancing 
 successively carried all the most commanding heights. 
 After a bloody engagement of eight hours, a desperate 
 attack on the part of the imperial cavalry, and a vig- 
 orous resistance by the Swedish infantry, the latter re- 
 mained in possession of the field. Two thousand Aus- 
 trians were killed upon the spot, and Hatzfeld himself, 
 with three thousand men, taken prisoners. Thus on the 
 same day did the Emperor lose his best general and his 
 last army. 
 
 This decisive victory at Jankowitz at once exposed all 
 the Austrian territory to the enemy. Ferdinand hastily 
 fled to Vienna, to provide for its defence and to save his:
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 363 
 
 family and his treasures. In a very short time the vic- 
 torious Swedes poured like an inundation upon Moravia 
 and Austria. After they had subdued nearly the whole 
 of Moravia, invested Brunn, and taken all the strong- 
 holds as far as the Danube, and carried the intrenchments 
 at the Wolfs bridge, near Vienna, they at last appeared 
 in sight of that capital, while 'the care which they had 
 taken to fortify their conquests showed that their visit 
 was not likely to be a short one. After ,a long and 
 destructive circuit through every province of Germany 
 the stream of war had at last rolled backwards to its 
 source, and the roar of the Swedish artillery now reminded 
 the terrified inhabitants of those balls which, twenty- 
 seven years before, the Bohemian rebels had fired into 
 Vienna. The same theatre of war brought again similar 
 actors on the scene. Torstensohn invited Ragotsky, the 
 successor of Bethlen Gabor, to his assistance, as the 
 Bohemian rebels had solicited that of his predecessor ; 
 Upper Hungary was already inundated by his troops, 
 and his union with the Swedes was daily apprehended. 
 The Elector of Saxony, driven to despair by the Swedes 
 taking up their quarters within his territories, and 
 abandoned by the Emperor, who, after the defeat at 
 Jankowitz, was unable to defend himself, at length 
 adopted the last and only expedient which remained, and 
 concluded a truce with Sweden, which was renewed from 
 year to year till the general peace. The Emperor thus 
 lost a friend, while a new enemy was appearing at his 
 very gates, his armies dispersed, and his allies in other 
 quarters of Germany defeated. The French army had 
 effaced the disgrace of their defeat at Duttlingen by a 
 brilliant campaign, and had kept the whole force of 
 Bavaria employed upon the Rhine and in Swabia. Rein- 
 forced with fresh troops from France, which the great 
 Turenne, already distinguished by his victories in Italy, 
 brought to the assistance of the Duke of Enghien, they 
 appeared on the 3d of August, 1644, before Fribourg, 
 which Mercy had lately taken and now covered with his 
 whole army strongly intrenched. But against the steady 
 firmness of the Bavarians all the impetuous valor of the 
 French was exerted in vain, and after a fruitless sacrifice of
 
 364 THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 
 
 six thousand men, the Duke of Enghien was compelled 
 to retreat. Mazarin shed tears over this great loss, which 
 Conde, who had no feeling for anything but glory, dis- 
 regarded. " A single night in Paris," said he, " gives 
 birth to more men than this action has destroyed." The 
 Bavarians, however, were so disabled by this murderous 
 battle that, far from being in a condition to relieve Aus- 
 tria from the menaced dangers, they were too weak even 
 to defend the banks of the Rhine. Spires, Worms, and 
 Manheim capitulated ; the strong fortress of Philipsburg 
 was forced to surrender by famine ; and by a timely sub- 
 mission Mentz hastened to disarm the conquerors. 
 
 Austria and Moravia, however, were now freed from 
 Torstensohn, by a similar means of deliverance as in the 
 beginning of the war had saved them from the Bohemians. 
 Ragotzky, at the head of twenty-five thousand men, had 
 advanced into the neighborhood of the Swedish quarters 
 upon the Danube. But these wild, undisciplined hordes, 
 instead of seconding the operations of Torstensohn by any 
 vigorous enterprise, only ravaged the country, and in- 
 creased the distress which, even before their arrival, had 
 begun to be felt in the Swedish camp. To extort tribute 
 from the Emperor, and money and plunder from his 
 subjects, was the sole object that had allured Ragotzky, 
 or his predecessor, Bethlen Gabor, into the field ; and 
 both departed as soon as they had gained their end. To 
 get rid of him, Ferdinand granted the barbarian whatever 
 he asked, and, by a small sacrifice, freed his states of this 
 formidable enemy. 
 
 In the meantime the main body of the Swedes had 
 been greatly weakened by a tedious encampment before 
 Brunn. Torstensohn, who commanded in person, for four 
 entire months employed in vain all his knowledge of mili- 
 tary tactics ; the obstinacy of the resistance was equal to 
 that of the assault ; while despair roused the courage of 
 Souches, the commandant, a Swedish deserter, who had 
 no hope of pardon. The ravages caused by pestilence, 
 arising from famine, want of cleanliness, and the use of 
 unripe fruit, during their tedious and unhealthy encamp- 
 ment, with the sudden retreat of the Prince of Tran- 
 sylvania, at last compelled the Swedish leader to raise
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 365 
 
 the siege. As all the passes upon the Danube were 
 occupied, and his army greatly weakened by famine and 
 sickness, he at last relinquished his intended plan of 
 operations against Austria and Moravia, and contented 
 himself with securing a key to these provinces by leaving 
 behind him Swedish garrisons in the conquered fortresses. 
 He then directed his march into Bohemia, whither he was 
 followed by the Imperialists under the Archduke Leopold. 
 Such of the lost places as had not been retaken by the 
 latter were recovered after his departure by the Austrian 
 General Bucheim ; so that in the course of the following 
 year the Austrian frontier was again cleared of the enemy, 
 and Vienna escaped with mere alarm. In Bohemia and 
 Silesia, too, the Swedes maintained themselves only with 
 a very variable fortune ; they traversed both countries 
 without being able to hold their ground in either. But 
 if the designs of Torstensohn were not crowned with all 
 the success which they were promised at the commence- 
 ment, they were, nevertheless, productive of the most 
 important consequences to the Swedish party. Den- 
 mark had been compelled to a peace, Saxony to a truce. 
 The Emperor, in the deliberations for a peace, offered 
 greater concessions ; France became more manageable ; 
 and Sweden itself bolder and more confident in its bearing 
 towards these two crowns. Having thus nobly performed 
 his duty, the author of these advantages retired, adorned 
 with laurels, into the tranquillity of private life, and 
 endeavored to restore his shattered health. 
 
 By the retreat of Torstensohn the Emperor was relieved 
 from all fears of an irruption on the side of Bohemia. 
 But a new danger soon threatened the Austrian frontier 
 from Swabia and Bavaria. Turenne, who had separated 
 from Conde and taken the direction of Swabia, had, in 
 the year 1645, been totally defeated by Mercy near Mer- 
 gentheira ; and the victorious Bavarians, under their brave 
 leader, poured into Hesse. But the Duke of Enghien 
 hastened with considerable succors from Alsace, Koenigs- 
 mark from Moravia, and the Hessians from the Rhine, to 
 recruit the defeated army, and the Bavarians were in 
 turn compelled to retire to the extreme limits of Swabia. 
 Here they posted themselves at the village of Allersheim,
 
 366 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 
 
 near Nordlingen, in order to cover the Bavarian frontier. 
 But no obstacle could check the impetuosity of the Duke 
 of Enghien. In person he led on his troops against the 
 enemy's intrenchments, and a battle took place which 
 the heroic resistance of the Bavarians rendered most 
 obstinate and bloody ; till at last the death of the great 
 Mercy, the skill of Turenne, and the iron firmness of the 
 Hessians decided the day in favor of the allies. But even 
 this second barbarous sacrifice of life had little effect 
 either on the course of the war or on the negotiations for 
 peace. The French army, exhausted by this bloody 
 engagement, was still further weakened by the departure 
 of the Hessians, and the Bavarians being reinforced by 
 the Archduke Leopold, Turenne was again obliged hastily 
 to recross the Rhine. 
 
 The retreat of the French enabled the enemy to turn 
 his whole force upon the Swedes in Bohemia. Gustavus 
 Wrangel, no unworthy successor of Banner and Torsten- 
 sohn had, in 1646, been appointed commander-in-chief 
 of the Swedish army, which, besides Koenigsmark's flying 
 corps and the numerous garrisons dispersed throughout 
 the empire, amounted to about eight thousand horse and 
 fifteen thousand foot. The archduke, after reinforcing 
 his army, which already amounted to twenty-four thou- 
 sand men, with twelve Bavarian regiments of cavalry and 
 eighteen regiments of infantry, moved against Wrangel in 
 the hope of being able to overwhelm him by his superior 
 force before Koenigsmark could join him, or the French 
 effect a diversion in his favor. Wrangel, however, did 
 not await him, but hastened through Upper Saxony to 
 the Weser, where he took Hoester and Paderborn. From 
 thence he marched into Hesse in order to join Turenne, 
 and at his camp at Wetzlar was joined by the flying corps 
 of Koenigsmark. But Turenne, fettered by the instruc- 
 tions of Mazarin, who had seen with jealousy the warlike 
 prowess and increasing power of the Swedes, excused 
 himself on the plea of a pressing necessity to defend the 
 frontier of France on the side of the Netherlands in con- 
 sequence of the Flemings having failed to make the 
 promised diversion. But as Wrangel continued to press 
 his just demand, and a longer opposition might have
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 367 
 
 excited distrust on the part of the Swedes, or induce them 
 to conclude a private treaty with Austria, Turenne at last 
 obtained the wished-for permission to join the Swedish 
 army. 
 
 The junction took place at Giessen, and they now felt 
 themselves strong enough to meet the enemy. The latter 
 had followed the Swedes into Hesse in order to inter- 
 cept their commissariat and to prevent their union with 
 Turenne. In both designs they had been unsuccessful ; 
 and the Imperialists now saw themselves cut off from the 
 Maine and exposed to great scarcity and want from 
 the loss of their magazines. Wrangel took advantage of 
 their weakness to execute a plan by which he hoped to 
 give a new turn to the war. He, too, had adopted the 
 maxim of his predecessor, to carry the war into the 
 Austrian States. But discouraged by the ill-success of 
 Torstensohn's enterprise, he hoped to gain his end with 
 more certainty by another way. He determined to fol- 
 low the course of the Danube, and to break into the 
 Austrian territories through the midst of Bavaria. A 
 similar design had been formerly conceived by Gustavus 
 Adolphus, which he had been prevented carrying into 
 effect by the approach of Wallenstein's army and the 
 danger of Saxony. Duke Bernard moving in his foot- 
 steps, and more fortunate than Gustavus, had spread his 
 victorious banners between the Iser and the Inn ; but the 
 near approach of the enemy, vastly superior in force, 
 obliged him to halt in his victorious career, and lead back 
 his troops. Wrangel now hoped to accomplish the object 
 in which his predecessors had failed, the more so as the 
 Imperial and Bavarian army was far in his rear upon the 
 Lahn, and could only reach Bavaria by a long march 
 through Francoma and the Upper Palatinate. He moved 
 hastily upon the Danube, defeated a Bavarian corps near 
 Donauwerth, and passed that river, as well as the Lech, 
 unopposed. But by wasting his time in the unsuccessful 
 siege of Augsburg, he gave opportunity to the Imperialists 
 not only to relieve that city, but also to repulse him as 
 far as Lauingen. No sooner, however, had they turned 
 towards Swabia with a view to remove the war from 
 Bavaria, than, seizing the opportunity, he repassed the
 
 368 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 
 
 Lech, and guarded the passage of it against the Imperial- 
 ists themselves. Bavaria now lay open and defenceless 
 before him ; the French and Swedes quickly overran it ; 
 and the soldiery indemnified themselves for all dangers 
 by frightful outrages, robberies, and extortions. The 
 arrival of the imperial troops, who at last succeeded in 
 passing the Lech at Thierhaupten, only increased the 
 misery of this country, which friend and foe indiscrimi- 
 nately plundered. 
 
 And now for the first time during the whole course of 
 this war the courage of Maximilian, which for eight-and- 
 twenty years had stood unshaken amidst fearful dangers, 
 began to waver. Ferdinand II., his school-companion at 
 Ingoldstadt, and the friend of his youth, was no more, 
 and with the death of his friend and benefactor the 
 strong tie was dissolved which had linked the Elector to 
 the House of Austria. To the father, habit, inclination, 
 and gratitude had attached him ; the son was a stranger 
 to his heart, and political interests alone could preserve 
 his fidelity to the latter prince. 
 
 Accordingly the motives which the artifices of France 
 now put in operation in order to detach him from the 
 Austrian alliance, and to induce him to lay down his 
 arms, were drawn entirely from political considerations. 
 It was not without a selfish object that Mazarin had so 
 far overcome his jealousy of the growing power of the 
 Swedes as to allow the French to accompany them into 
 Bavaria. His intention was to expose Bavaria to all the 
 horrors of war, in the hope that the persevering fortitude 
 of Maximilian might be subdued by necessity and de- 
 spair, and the Emperor deprived of his first and last ally. 
 Brandenburg had under its great sovereign embraced the 
 neutrality ; Saxony had been forced to accede to it ; the 
 war with France prevented the Spaniards from taking 
 any part in that of Germany ; the peace with Sweden 
 had removed Denmark from the theatre of war; and 
 Poland had been disarmed by a long truce. If they 
 could succeed in detaching the Elector of Bavaria also 
 from the Austrian alliance the Emperor would be with- 
 out a friend in Germany and left to the mercy of the 
 allied powers.
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 369 
 
 Ferdinand III. saw his danger and left no means un- 
 tried to avert it. But the Elector of Bavaria was unfor- 
 tunately led to believe that the Spaniards alone were 
 disinclined to peace, and that nothing but Spanish influ- 
 ence had induced the Emperor so long to resist a cessa- 
 tion of hostilities. Maximilian detested the Spaniards, 
 and could never forgive their having opposed his applica- 
 tion for the Palatine Electorate. Could it then be sup- 
 posed that, in order to gratify this hated power, he 
 would see his people sacrificed, his country laid waste, 
 and himself ruined, when, by a cessation of hostilities, 
 he could at once emancipate himself from all these dis- 
 tresses, procure for his people the repose of which they 
 stood so .much in need, and perhaps accelerate the arrival 
 of a general peace? All doubts disappeared; and, con- 
 vinced of the necessity of this step, he thought he should 
 sufficiently discharge his obligations to the Emperor if 
 he invited him also to share in the benefit of the truce. 
 
 The deputies of the three crowns, and of Bavaria, met 
 at Ulm to adjust the conditions. But it was soon evi- 
 dent from the instructions of the Austrian ambassadors 
 that it was not the intention of the Emperor to second 
 the conclusion of a truce, but if possible to prevent it. 
 It was obviously necessary to make the terms acceptable 
 to the Swedes, who had the advantage, and had more to 
 hope than to fear from the continuance of the war. 
 They were the conquerors; and yet the Emperor pre- 
 sumed to dictate to them. In the first transports of 
 their indignation the Swedish ambassadors were on the 
 point of leaving the congress, and the French were 
 obliged to have recourse to threats in order to detain 
 them. 
 
 The good intentions of the Elector of Bavaria to in- 
 clude the Emperor in the benefit of the truce having 
 been thus rendered unavailing, he felt himself justified 
 in providing for his own safety. However hard were 
 the conditions on which the truce was to be purchased, 
 he did not hesitate to accept it on any terms. He agreed 
 to the Swedes extending their quarters in Swabia and 
 Franconia, and to his own being restricted to Bavaria 
 and the Palatinate. The conquests which he had made
 
 370 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 
 
 in Swabia were ceded to the allies, who, on their part, 
 restored to him what they had taken from Bavaria. 
 Cologne and Hesse Cassel were also included in the 
 truce. After the conclusion of this treaty, upon the 
 14th March, 1647, the French and Swedes left Bavaria, 
 and in order not to interfere with each other, took up 
 different quarters, the former in Wurtemburg, the latter 
 in Upper Swabia, in the neighborhood of the Lake of 
 Constance. On the extreme north of this lake, and on 
 the most southern frontier of Swabia, the Austrian town 
 of Bregentz, by its steep and narrow passes, seemed to 
 defy attack; and in this persuasion the whole peasantry 
 of the surrounding villages had, with their property, 
 taken refuge in this natural fortress. The rich booty 
 which the store of provisions it contained gave reason to 
 expect, and the advantage of possessing a pass into the 
 Tyrol, Switzerland, and Italy, induced the Swedish gen- 
 eral to venture an attack upon this supposed impregnable 
 post and town, in which he succeeded. Meantime, 
 Turenne, according to agreement, marched into Wur- 
 temburg, where he forced the Landgrave of Darmstadt 
 and the Elector of Mentz to imitate the example of Ba- 
 varia, and to embrace the neutrality. 
 
 And now at last P" ranee seemed to have attained the 
 great object of its policy, that of depriving the Emperor 
 of the support of the League and of his Protestant 
 allies, and of dictating to him, sword in hand, the con- 
 ditions of peace. Of all his once formidable power an 
 army not exceeding twelve thousand. was all that re- 
 mained to him ; and this force he was driven to the neces- 
 sity of entrusting to the command of a Calvinist, the 
 Hessian deserter, Melander, as the casualties of war had 
 stripped him of his best generals. But as this war had 
 been remarkable for the sudden changes of fortune it 
 displayed, and as every calculation of state policy had 
 been frequently baffled by some unforeseen event, in this 
 case also the issue disappointed expectation ; and after a 
 brief crisis the fallen power of Austria rose again to a for- 
 midable strength. The jealousy Avhich France entertained 
 of Sweden prevented it from permitting the total ruin of 
 the Emperor, or allowing the Swedes to obtain such a
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 371 
 
 preponderance in Germany as might have been destruc- 
 tive to France herself. Accordingly the French minister 
 declined to take advantage of the distresses of Austria; 
 and the army of Turenne, separating from that of 
 Wrangel, retired to the frontier of the Netherlands. 
 Wrangel, indeed, after moving from Swabia into Fran- 
 conia, taking Sell \veinfurt, and incorporating the imperial 
 garrison of that place with his own army, attempted to 
 make his way into Bohemia, and laid siege to Egra, the 
 key of that kingdom. To relieve this fortress the 
 Emperor put his last army into motion, and placed him- 
 self at his head. But obliged to take a long circuit, in 
 order to spare the lands of Von Schlick, the president of 
 the council of war, he protracted his march ; and on his 
 arrival Egra was already taken. Both armies were now 
 in sight of each other, and a decisive battle was moment- 
 arily expected, as both were suffering from want, and 
 the two camps were only separated from each other by 
 the space of the intrenchments. But the Imperialists, 
 although superior in numbers, contented themselves with 
 keeping close to the enemy, and harassing them by 
 skirmishes, by fatiguing marches and famine, until the 
 negotiations which had been opened with Bavaria were 
 brought to a bearing. 
 
 The neutrality of Bavaria was a wound under which 
 the imperial court writhed impatiently, and after in vain 
 attempting to prevent it, Austria now determined, if 
 possible, to turn it to advantage. Several officers of the 
 Bavarian army had been offended by this step of their 
 master, which at once reduced them to inaction, and 
 imposed a burdensome restraint on their restless disposi- 
 tions. Even the brave John de Werth was at the head of 
 the malcontents, and, encouraged by the Emperor, he 
 formed a plot to seduce the whole army from their alle- 
 giance to the Elector and lead it over, to the Emperor. 
 Ferdinand did not blush to patronize this act of treachery 
 against his father's most trusty ally. He formally issued 
 a proclamation to the Bavarian troops, in which he 
 recalled them to himself, reminded them that they were 
 the troops of the Empire, which the Elector had merely 
 commanded in name of the Emperor. Fortunately for
 
 372 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 
 
 Maximilian he detected the conspiracy time enough to 
 anticipate and prevent it by the most rapid and effective 
 measures. 
 
 This disgraceful conduct of the Emperor might have 
 justified a reprisal, but Maximilian was too old a states- 
 man to listen to the voice of passion where policy alone 
 ought to be heard. He had not derived from the truce 
 the advantages he expected. Far from tending to accele- 
 rate a general peace, it had a pernicious influence upon 
 the negotiations at Miinster and Osnaburg, and had made 
 the allies bolder in their demands. The French and 
 Swedes had indeed removed from Bavaria ; but by the 
 loss of his quarters in the Swabian circle he found himself 
 compelled either to exhaust his own territories by the 
 subsistence of his troops, or at once to disband them and 
 throw aside the shield and spear at the very moment 
 when the sword alone seemed to be the arbiter of right. 
 Before embracing either of these certain evils he deter- 
 mined to try a third step, the unfavorable issue of which 
 was, at least, not so uncertain, viz., to renounce the truce 
 and resume the war. 
 
 This resolution, and the assistance which he imme- 
 diately dispatched to the Empei'or in Bohemia, threat- 
 ened materially to injure the Swedes, and Wr angel was 
 compelled in haste to evacuate that kingdom. He retired 
 through Thuringia into Westphalia and Lunenburg, in 
 the hope of forming a junction with the French army 
 under Turenne, while the Imperial and Bavarian army 
 followed him to the Weser, under Melander and Gronsfeld. 
 His ruin was inevitable if the enemy should overtake him 
 before his junction with Turenne ; but the same con- 
 sideration which had just saved the Emperor now 
 proved the salvation of the Swedes. Even amidst all 
 the fury of the conquest cold calculations of prudence 
 guided the course of the war, and the vigilance of the 
 different courts increased as the prospect of peace ap- 
 proached. The Elector of Bavaria could not allow the 
 Emperor to obtain so decisive a preponderance as by the 
 sudden alteration of affairs might delay the chances of a 
 general peace. Every change of fortune was important 
 now, when a pacification was so ardently desired by all, and
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 373 
 
 when the disturbance of the balance of power among the 
 contracting parties might at once annihilate the work of 
 years, destroy the fruit of long and tedious negotiations, 
 and indefinitely protract the repose of Europe. If France 
 sought to restrain the Swedish crown within due bounds, 
 and measured out her assistance according to her suc- 
 cesses and defeats, the Elector of Bavaria silently under- 
 took the same task with the Emperor, his ally, and deter- 
 mined by prudently dealing out his aid to hold the fate 
 of Austria in his own hands. And now that the power 
 of the Emperor threatened once more to attain a dan- 
 gerous superiority, Maximilian at once ceased to pur- 
 sue the Swedes. He was also afraid of reprisals from 
 France, who had threatened to direct Turenne's whole 
 force against him if he allowed his troops to cross the 
 Weser. 
 
 Melander, prevented by the Bavarians from further 
 pursuing Wrangel, crossed by Jena and Erfurt into 
 Hesse, and now appeared as a dangerous enemy in the 
 country which he had formerly defended. If it was the 
 desire of revenge upon his former sovereign which led 
 him to choose Hesse for the scene of his ravage, he cer- 
 tainly had his full gratification. Under this scourge the 
 miseries of that unfortunate state reached their height. 
 But he had soon reason to regret that in the choice of his 
 quarters he had listened to the dictates of revenge rather 
 than of prudence. In this exhausted country his army 
 was oppressed by want, while Wrangel w r as recruiting 
 his strength and remounting his cavalry in Lunenburg. 
 Too weak to maintain his wretched quarters against the 
 Swedish general, when he opened the campaign in the 
 winter of 1648, and marched against Hesse, he was 
 obliged to retire with disgrace, and take refuge on the 
 banks of the Danube. 
 
 France had once more disappointed the expectations of 
 Sweden ; and the army of Turenne, disregarding the re- 
 monstrances of Wrangel, had remained upon the Rhine. 
 The Swedish leader revenged himself by drawing into 
 his service the cavalry of Weimar, which had abandoned 
 the standard of France, though by this step he further 
 increased the jealousy of that power. Turenne received
 
 374 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 
 
 permission to join the Swedes ; and the last campaign of 
 this eventful war was now opened by the united armies. 
 Driving Melander before them along the Danube, they 
 threw supplies into Egra, which was besieged by the Im- 
 perialists, and defeated the Imperial and Bavarian armies 
 on the Danube, which ventured to oppose them at Sus- 
 marshausen, where Melander was mortally wounded. 
 After this overthrow, the Bavarian general, Gronsfeld, 
 placed himself on the farther side of the Lech, in order 
 to guard Bavaria from the enemy. 
 
 But Gronsfeld was not more fortunate than Tilly, who 
 in this same position had sacrificed his life for Bavaria. 
 Wrangel and Turenne chose the same spot for passing the 
 river which was so gloriously marked by the victory of 
 Gustavus Adolphus, and accomplished it by the same 
 means, too, which had favored their predecessor. Bavaria 
 was now a second time overrun, and the breach of the 
 truce punished by the severest treatment of its inhabitants. 
 Maximilian sought shelter in Salzburg, while the Swedes 
 crossed the Iser, and forced their way as far as the Inn. 
 A violent and continued rain, which in a few days swelled 
 this inconsiderable stream into a broad river, saved 
 Austria once more from the threatened danger. The 
 enemy ten times attempted to form a bridge of boats 
 over the Inn, and as often it was destroyed by the current. 
 Never, during the whole course of the war, had the Im- 
 perialists been in so great consternation as at present, 
 when the enemy were in the centre of Bavaria, and when 
 they had no longer a general left who could be matched 
 against a Turenne, a Wrangel, and a Koenigsmark. At 
 last the brave Piccolomini arrived from the Netherlands 
 to assume the command of the feeble wreck of the Im- 
 perialists. By their own ravage in Bohemia the allies 
 had rendered their subsistence in that country impracti- 
 cable, and were at last driven by scarcity to retreat into 
 the Upper Palatinate, where the news of the peace put a 
 period to their activity. 
 
 Koenigsmark, with his flying corps, advanced towards 
 Bohemia, where Ernest Odowalsky, a disbanded captain, 
 who, after being disabled in the imperial service, had been 
 dismissed without a pension, laid before him a plan for
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 375 
 
 surprising the lesser side of the city of Prague. Koenigs- 
 mark successfully accomplished the bold enterprise, and 
 acquired the reputation of closing the thirty years' war 
 by the last brilliant achievement. This decisive stroke, 
 which vanquished the Emperor's irresolution, cost the 
 Swedes only the loss of a single man. But the old town, 
 the larger half of Prague, which is divided into two parts 
 by the Moldau, by its vigorous resistance wearied out the 
 efforts of the Palatine, Charles Gustavus, the successor 
 of Christina on the throne, who had arrived from Sweden 
 with fresh troops, and had assembled the whole Swedish 
 force in Bohemia and Silesia before its walls. The 
 approach of winter at last drove the besiegers into their 
 quarters, and in the meantime, the intelligence arrived 
 that a peace had been signed at Munster, on the 24th 
 October. 
 
 The colossal labor of concluding this solemn, and ever- 
 memorable and sacred treaty, which is known by the 
 name of the peace of Westphalia ; the endless obstacles 
 which were to be surmounted ; the contending interests 
 which it was necessary to reconcile ; the concatenation of 
 circumstances which must have co-operated to bring to a 
 favorable termination this tedious, but precious and per- 
 manent work of policy ; the difficulties which beset the 
 very opening of the negotiations, and maintaining them, 
 when opened, during the ever-fluctuating vicissitudes of 
 the war; finally, arranging the conditions of peace, and, 
 still more, the carrying them into effect ; what were the 
 conditions of this peace ; what each contending power 
 gained or lost, by the toils and sufferings of a thirty years' 
 war; what modification it wrought upon the general 
 system of European policy; these are matters which 
 must be relinquished to another pen. The history of the 
 peace of Westphalia constitutes a whole, as important as 
 the history of the war itself. A mere abridgment of it 
 would reduce to a mere skeleton one of the most inter- 
 esting and characteristic monuments of human policy and 
 passions, and deprive it of every feature calculated to fix 
 the attention of the public, for which I write, and of 
 which I now respectfully take my leave.