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+Project Gutenberg’s The Thirty Years War, Complete, by Frederich Schiller
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Thirty Years War, Complete
+
+Author: Frederich Schiller
+
+Release Date: October 25, 2006 [EBook #6775]
+Last Updated: August 31, 2016
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE THIRTY YEARS WAR, COMPLETE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+THE WORKS
+
+OF
+
+FREDERICK SCHILLER
+
+
+
+Translated from the German
+
+
+
+Illustrated
+
+
+
+
+HISTORY OF THE THIRTY YEARS’ WAR IN GERMANY.
+
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE TO THE SIXTH 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
+judgment 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 WAR.
+
+THE CAMP OF WALLENSTEIN was translated by Mr. James Churchill, and first
+appeared in “Frazer’s Magazine.” It is an exceedingly happy version of
+what has always been deemed the most untranslatable of Schiller’s works.
+
+THE PICCOLOMINI and DEATH 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 assistance, 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, 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 improvement, 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.
+carefully 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:
+
+
+
+   Book I.
+
+   Introduction.--General effects of the Reformation.--Revolt of Matthias.
+   --The Emperor cedes Austria and Hungary to him.--Matthias acknowledged
+   King of Bohemia.--The Elector of Cologne abjures the Catholic Religion.
+   --Consequences.--The Elector Palatine.--Dispute respecting the
+   Succession of Juliers.--Designs of Henry IV. of France.--Formation of
+   the Union.--The League.--Death of the Emperor Rodolph.--Matthias
+   succeeds him.--Troubles in Bohemia.--Civil War.--Ferdinand extirpates
+   the Protestant Religion from Styria.--The Elector Palatine, Frederick
+   V., is chosen King by the Bohemians.--He accepts the Crown of Bohemia.--
+   Bethlen Gabor, Prince of Transylvania, invades Austria.--The Duke of
+   Bavaria and the Princes of the League embrace the cause of Ferdinand.--
+   The Union arm for Frederick.--The Battle of Prague and total subjection
+   of Bohemia.
+
+
+   Book II.
+
+   State of the Empire.--Of Europe.--Mansfeld.--Christian, Duke of
+   Brunswick.--Wallenstein raises an Imperial Army at his own expense.
+   --The King of Denmark defeated.--Death of Mansfeld.--Edict of
+   Restitution in 1628.--Diet at Ratisbon.--Negociations.--Wallenstein
+   deprived of the Command.--Gustavus Adolphus.--Swedish Army.--Gustavus
+   Adolphus takes his leave of the States at Stockholm.--Invasion by the
+   Swedes.--Their progress in Germany.--Count Tilly takes the Command of
+   the Imperial Troops.--Treaty with France.--Congress at Leipzig.--Siege
+   and cruel fate of Magdeburg.--Firmness of the Landgrave of Cassel.--
+   Junction of the Saxons with the Swedes.--Battle of Leipzig.--
+   Consequences of that Victory.
+
+
+   Book III.
+
+   Situation of Gustavus Adolphus after the Battle of Leipzig.--Progress of
+   Gustavus Adolphus.--The French invade Lorraine.--Frankfort taken.--
+   Capitulation of Mentz.--Tilly ordered by Maximilian to protect Bavaria.
+   --Gustavus Adolphus passes the Lech.--Defeat and Death of Tilly.--
+   Gustavus takes Munich.--The Saxon Army invades Bohemia, and takes
+   Prague.--Distress of the Emperor.--Secret Triumph of Wallenstein.--
+   He offers to Join Gustavus Adolphus.--Wallenstein re-assumes the
+   Command.--Junction of Wallenstein with the Bavarians.--Gustavus Adolphus
+   defends Nuremberg.--Attacks Wallenstein’s Intrenchments.--Enters
+   Saxony.--Goes to the succour of the Elector of Saxony.--Marches against
+   Wallenstein.--Battle of Lutzen.--Death of Gustavus Adolphus.--Situation
+   of Germany after the Battle of Lutzen.
+
+
+   Book IV.
+
+   Closer Alliance between France and Sweden.--Oxenstiern takes the
+   Direction of Affairs.--Death of the Elector Palatine.--Revolt of the
+   Swedish Officers.--Duke Bernhard takes Ratisbon.--Wallenstein enters
+   Silesia.--Forms Treasonable Designs.--Forsaken by the Army.--Retires to
+   Egra.--His associates put to death.--Wallenstein’s death.--His
+   Character.
+
+
+   Book V.
+
+   Battle of Nordlingen.--France enters into an Alliance against Austria.--
+   Treaty of Prague.--Saxony joins the Emperor.--Battle of Wistock gained
+   by the Swedes.--Battle of Rheinfeld gained by Bernhard, Duke of Weimar.
+   --He takes Brisach.--His death.--Death of Ferdinand II.--Ferdinand III.
+   succeeds him.--Celebrated Retreat of Banner in Pomerania.--His
+   Successes.--Death.--Torstensohn takes the Command.--Death of Richelieu
+   and Louis XIII.--Swedish Victory at Jankowitz.--French defeated at
+   Freyburg.--Battle of Nordlingen gained by Turenne and Conde.--Wrangel
+   takes the Command of the Swedish Army.--Melander made Commander of the
+   Emperor’s Army.--The Elector of Bavaria breaks the Armistice.--He adopts
+   the same Policy towards the Emperor as France towards the Swedes.--The
+   Weimerian Cavalry go over to the Swedes.--Conquest of New Prague by
+   Koenigsmark, and Termination of the Thirty Years’ War.
+
+
+
+
+
+HISTORY OF THE THIRTY YEARS’ WAR IN GERMANY.
+
+
+
+
+BOOK I.
+
+
+From the beginning of the religious wars in Germany, to the peace of
+Munster, scarcely any thing great or remarkable 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 Reformation 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 disorders. 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 the Second 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 endeavour 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 theatre of confusion, but at the same time threw up a 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 movement 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, devastated
+whole countries, destroyed harvests, and reduced towns and villages to
+ashes; which opened a grave for many thousand combatants, and for half a
+century smothered 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
+originated 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
+guarantee 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.
+
+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 connected 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, necessarily revolted the tempers of men, already
+half-won with the promise of a better light, and favourably disposed
+them towards the new doctrines. The charm of independence, the rich
+plunder of monastic institutions, made the Reformation 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 the Fifth, in the
+intoxication of success, made an attempt on the independence 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
+Calvinists 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 enthusiasm
+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 fighting 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 goodwill of his subjects. Yet how
+difficult was it to gain and to set to work this goodwill! 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 the 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
+conclusion. 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 prevented this house, particularly in its
+German branch, from yielding to the pressing demands of so many of its
+subjects, and, after the example of other princes, enriching itself at
+the expense of a defenceless clergy? It is difficult 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 slightest
+approximation, in a Spanish prince, to the obnoxious tenets of Luther
+and Calvin, would have alienated for ever 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 abdication. 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 neighbourhood of the
+Pope, were motives sufficient to prevent the Emperor from declaring in
+favour of a party which strove to annihilate the papal see, and also to
+induce 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 suspicion of heresy. Distrust on the part 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 the Second, a monastic
+education combined with a gloomy and despotic disposition to generate an
+unmitigated hostility to all innovations in religion; a feeling which
+the thought that his most formidable political opponents were also the
+enemies 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 seductions of foreign opinions, the progress of the
+Reformation in other quarters could not well be a matter of indifference
+to him. His immediate interests, therefore, urged him to attach himself
+devotedly to the old church, in 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 actuated the long and active reigns
+of Charles V. and Philip the Second, 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 apparently 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 consistency
+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 imperial dignity, also, required them to preserve the
+existing political system of Germany, with which the maintenance of
+their own 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 Protestants to the Emperor’s necessities and to the
+common dangers of the empire, their encroachments on the temporalities
+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 interwoven with those of the
+Roman 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 Europe
+as the pillars of popery. The hatred, therefore, which the Protestants
+bore against the latter, was turned exclusively upon Austria; and the
+cause became gradually confounded with its protector.
+
+But this irreconcileable enemy of the Reformation--the House of Austria
+--by its ambitious projects and the overwhelming force which it could
+bring to their support, endangered, in no small degree, the freedom of
+Europe, 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 assistance; and, by means of a
+common league, they endeavoured 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 endeavouring to extirpate 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 exchequer 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 subject felt not the
+pressure of those burdens and privations 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, supplies 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 destroyed. 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
+religious confederate which would have been denied to the mere
+neighbour, 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
+completely 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 Muehlberg. With the treaty of
+Smalcalde the freedom of Germany lay, as it seemed, prostrate for ever;
+but it revived under Maurice of Saxony, once its most formidable enemy.
+All the fruits of the victory of Muehlberg were lost again in the
+congress of Passau, and the diet of Augsburg; and every scheme for civil
+and religious oppression 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 Confession of Augsburg
+was allowed temporarily to take a sisterly place alongside of the olden
+religion, though only as a tolerated neighbour.
+
+   [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.]
+
+To every secular state was conceded the right of establishing the
+religion it acknowledged 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 predominated in Saxony and Thuringia. 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 attended to in the pacification. In the
+ecclesiastical territories, indeed, where the unreformed religion
+enjoyed an undisputed supremacy, the free exercise of their religion was
+obtained for all who had previously embraced the Protestant doctrines;
+but this indulgence rested only on the personal guarantee of Ferdinand,
+King of the Romans, by whose endeavours 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 inheritance in common, one now
+remained, while the other was compelled to leave his father’s house, and
+hence arose the necessity of dividing the patrimony. For this
+separation, 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 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 favoured 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
+contributed, 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 perhaps 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 with the Protestants; but, by an express clause, the unreformed
+Catholics provided that none should thereafter be secularized. Every
+impropriator of an ecclesiastical foundation, who held immediately of
+the Empire, whether elector, bishop, or abbot, forfeited his benefice
+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 Ecclesiasticum’,) which makes the temporal existence of a
+spiritual prince entirely dependent on his fidelity 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.
+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 guarantee in favour of
+Protestant subjects of ecclesiastical 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 religious toleration and
+ecclesiastical property: it was the same 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 Empire still exclusively to follow the one?
+The emperors had hitherto been members of the Romish Church, because
+till now that religion had no rival. But was it his connexion with Rome
+which constituted a German emperor, or was it not rather Germany which
+was to be represented 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 representatives of their religion a place in
+the Supreme Council, but still there was far from being a perfect
+equality of voices. To this day 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 conceded, 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
+proceedings 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 Reservation held suspended over the apostacy of
+the spiritual princes. Even to the last, the Romish Church preferred to
+risk to loss of every thing 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 expressly 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 an 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 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 Calvinists; 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 negociation. 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 transitory 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
+penetrated 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 interpretation was nevertheless the
+subject of many disputes. In the heat of conflict it had produced a
+cessation of hostilities; 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 little; and
+the treaty which neither party could venture to violate, was interpreted
+by each in its own favour.
+
+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 immediately of the
+empire, such as were not already in their 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 vehement
+resistance of the Catholics, who had there the preponderance. 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 neighbours. 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 rancour and animosities
+of theologians infused a poison into every occurrence, however
+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 prolonged 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 themselves,
+with little in unison save 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 rancour with which the Protestants
+alternately persecuted 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 honourable antiquity, and a
+yet more honourable 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 unfortunate 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
+continual reforms of one party, and the opposing measures of the other,
+kept both upon the watch, while the interpretation 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.
+
+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
+Netherlands, had suffered; by the disgraceful subterfuge of the Romish
+princes, who held that the Pope had power to relieve them from the
+obligation of the most solemn oaths; and above all, by the detestable
+maxim, that faith was not to be kept with heretics, the Roman Church, in
+the eyes of all honest men, had lost its honour. 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 accommodating the religious differences, or taking a
+single step to effect such accommodation, and 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 abolish? There was then a
+show of right for violating the peace, if only the Romanists possessed
+the power; and henceforward 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 drawn to the confines of Germany. With what ease might they be
+introduced within 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 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 the Second 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 the First, King of Hungary, and his excellent son, Maximilian
+the Second, held at this memorable epoch the reins of government. With
+a heart full of sincerity, with a truly heroic patience, had Ferdinand
+brought about the religious peace of Augsburg, and afterwards, in the
+Council of Trent, laboured 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 Transylvania 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 perpetually
+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 preserved in one body the otherwise divided
+empire. Financial necessities 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
+Maximilian, 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 forbearance 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 Archduke 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 the
+Second, 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 the Second 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, together 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 withdrew, 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 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 the Fifth 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 emperor, 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
+command the latter. What had the Empire to look for from a prince
+incapable even of defending his hereditary dominions 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 disgrace 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 Rodolph for Emperor. At a more peaceful period
+the Germanic Union would have managed its own interests, and 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 Catholics, and in addition
+to that, the supporters of Popery, but their countries were far from
+being so. The reformed opinions had penetrated even these, and favoured
+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 prelates 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 Protestant, and the Reformation
+was making rapid strides towards its public recognition. The prince was
+dependent 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 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 neighbours, 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 unstable, and the most difficult to retain.
+The impossibility of holding these two countries against the
+neighbouring and overwhelming power of the Turks, had already driven
+Ferdinand to the inglorious expedient of recognizing, by an annual
+tribute, the Porte’s supremacy over Transylvania; 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 neighbourhood of
+Turkey, the facility of changing masters with impunity, encouraged the
+magnates still more in their presumption; discontented with the Austrian
+government they threw themselves into the arms of the Turks;
+dissatisfied with these, they returned again to their German sovereigns.
+The frequency and rapidity of these transitions from one government to
+another, had communicated 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 submission. 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 adventurer
+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 time a barrier against the Turks. In this way
+several of these magnates, Batbori, 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 endeavouring 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 incautiously attacked, and party spirit thus became yet more
+dangerous from religious enthusiasm. Headed by a bold rebel, Boschkai,
+the nobles of Hungary and Transylvania 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 decision. 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 the Second.
+Mistaking the voice of an insulated faction for that of the entire
+nation, Matthias obeyed the call. But the event answered the
+expectations of the men of Brabant as little as his own, and from this
+imprudent enterprise he retired with little credit.
+
+Far more honourable was his second appearance in the political world.
+Perceiving that his repeated remonstrances 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 accelerated 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 favourable 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 formidable conspiracy was planned and matured against
+the Emperor. Too late did he resolve to amend his past 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 doctrines, 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 predominant 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 Utraquists, under which they managed to disguise the change of
+their principles, shielded them from persecution.
+
+In truth, they had nothing in common with the Utraquists 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 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 countrymen, 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 favour 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 guarantee 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 advantage 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 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 two 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 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 decision; 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 of the imperial
+prohibition, they carried on their deliberations almost under the very
+eyes of the Emperor. The yielding compliance which he 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 Bohemian Protestants continued to designate themselves, were put in
+possession of the University 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 perseverance, unity, and harmony in their measures. The
+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 reconciliation
+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 continued 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 Graetz, 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 favour of the
+elective freedom of their crown, and their attachment to Leopold’s
+person, seemed to favour this scheme, in which Rodolph consulted rather
+his own partiality and vindictiveness 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 protestations; vainly did he attempt to
+restrain the violence of his soldiery; they disregarded his orders.
+Persuaded 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 councillors. 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 favour of his enemy that
+very throne, of which he had been endeavouring 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 he 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 maintained 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
+indifferent 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 this powerful support which the reformed subjects of
+Austria met, or expected to meet with from their religious 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 Imperial
+Chamber of Spires, in which the Estates of the Empire, that they might
+not be oppressed by the arbitrary 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 Protestant 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 favoured their views,
+soon found means to neutralize the beneficial effects of this
+institution. A supreme jurisdiction over the Imperial States was
+gradually 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,
+properly belonged to the Imperial Chamber. It was not surprising if the
+decrees of this tribunal bore traces of their origin; 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 administration 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 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 unfavourably 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 restoration 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--[Grand-master of the kitchen.]--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 honour 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 connexion 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.
+
+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 apostacy, forfeited all right
+to the temporalities of his bishopric; and if, in any case, it was
+important 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 Reservatum
+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.--[Saxony,
+Brandenburg, and the Palatinate were already Protestant.]--The example
+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 considerations, 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 territories 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 Emperor, 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 ensure also the aid of a strong
+arm, they proceeded forthwith to a new election, and chose the Bishop of
+Liege, a prince of Bavaria.
+
+A civil war now commenced, which, from the strong interest which both
+religious parties in Germany necessarily 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 foundation. 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 for ever 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 rancour
+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 any thing,
+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 vigour. 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 Westphalian territories, Gebhard held out for some time longer,
+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
+Reservation, 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 within this bishopric, where they
+likewise 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 powerful Protestant party among the citizens soon gave them
+the preponderance in the chapter. The other canons thereupon retired to
+Alsace-Saverne, where, under the protection 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 Protestant
+colleagues of high rank, that they could venture, upon the death of the
+bishop, to nominate a new Protestant 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 Lorraine, 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 Brandenburg, while the other party, with the assistance of the
+troops of Lorraine, endeavoured 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 interpose 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 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 Donauwerth, a free city of Suabia, was still more critical for
+the whole of Protestant Germany. 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 favourable 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 colours under foot,
+and followed them home with clamour 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 intrusted 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 Protestants, even if the interests of
+religion had been less powerful on their minds. First of all, the
+sentence had 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
+intrusted to the Duke of Bavaria, the head of another circle. These
+unconstitutional steps seemed to be the harbingers of further violent
+measures on the Roman Catholic side, the result, probably, 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
+connected together 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 divisions 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
+neighbour, and which, by reason of their defection to Calvinism,
+received no protection from the Religious Peace, and had little hope of
+succour from the Lutheran states. No country in Germany had experienced
+so many revolutions in religion in so short a 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 relinquished them for Calvinism. The Elector Frederick III.
+first abandoned the confession of Augsburg, which his eldest son and
+successor, Lewis, immediately re-established. 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 testament 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 doubtful assistance of the Lutherans against a
+near and overwhelming 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 opinions.
+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 misrepresented by invidious
+constructions, and the whole conduct of the professors of the olden
+religion was interpreted as the result of a well-weighed and systematic
+plan, which, in all probability, they were very far from having
+concerted.
+
+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 Margrave of Baden, and the
+Duke John Frederick of Wirtemburg,--Lutherans as well as Calvinists,--
+who for themselves and their heirs entered into a close confederacy
+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, support 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 limited power. To meet the
+necessary expenses, subsidies were demanded, and a common fund
+established. Differences of religion (betwixt the Lutherans and the
+Calvinists) 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
+Luneburg also hesitated. But the three cities of the Empire, Strasburg,
+Nuremburg, and Ulm, were no unimportant 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 Emperor; among which the principal were the
+restoration of Donauwerth, the abolition of the Imperial Court, the
+reformation 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 succession of Juliers
+he was already threatened with the distant prospect of a new war. No
+wonder, then, that this dilatory 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 and
+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 indivisibility 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 Margrave
+of Burgau, 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 houses
+by Maximilian I. The pretensions of some foreign princes were little
+regarded. The best right was perhaps on the side of Brandenburg and
+Neuburg, and between the claims of these two it was not easy to decide.
+Both courts, as soon as the succession was vacant, proceeded to take
+possession; Brandenburg beginning, and Neuburg 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 proceeding 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 agreement, 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 masters; in vain did
+he send his own relation, the Archduke Leopold, Bishop of Passau and
+Strasburg, into the territory 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 important one to the
+whole German empire, and also attracted 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 territory 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 encroachments. The disputed succession of Juliers,
+therefore, was matter which interested all who were favourable 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 persevering 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 Germany.
+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 the Fourth had before his eyes
+for half a lifetime, the uninterrupted spectacle of Austrian ambition
+and Austrian lust of dominion, 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 permitted 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
+labours for eternity; and what security had Henry for the endurance 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
+re-united, 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 must be for ever
+disarmed. This was the source of that irreconcileable enmity which
+Henry had sworn to the House of Austria, a hatred 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 enlightened 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 success, and may reckon upon aid and admiration when it finds
+a place in its intellectual plans for barbarism, rapacity, 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, deserves 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 excellent 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 enterprise. 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 Protestants 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 Flemings, 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 for ever 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 power remained undisturbed. France might
+magnanimously 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 condition 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 delivered Austria
+from her danger, to postpone for some centuries 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 important 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 overthrow the Spanish dominion in that
+quarter. This victorious army was then to penetrate by Lombardy into
+the hereditary dominions of Hapsburg; and there, favoured 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 Hollanders, supported by French auxiliaries, would in the
+meantime shake off the Spanish tyranny in the Netherlands; 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.
+
+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 execution 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 with 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 passions 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 instruments. It is an
+unfailing maxim, that, if policy enjoins an act of violence, its
+execution ought never to be entrusted 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 condemned even by several
+of the evangelical states, and the apprehension of even worse 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 and so insolent; and another
+union must now be opposed to them.
+
+The Bishop of Wurtzburg formed the plan of the Catholic 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 acquired 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 even communicating its existence to him as emperor, the League
+arose at once formidable and threatening; with strength sufficient to
+crush the Protestant 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
+achievements 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 enterprize, Henry IV., was no more! Their supplies were on the
+wane; the Estates refused to grant new subsidies; and the confederate
+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 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 vigour 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 withdraw 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 Catholics 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 fortunate in obtaining it. The one party promised
+restitution, 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 hereditary 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, 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
+opposition. The Roman Catholics gave him their voices, because they
+hoped the best from his vigour and activity; the Protestants gave him
+theirs, because they hoped every thing from his weakness. It is 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 religious 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 favour 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 a humble petition awaited him
+which was quite sufficient to poison his whole triumph. They required,
+before doing homage, unlimited religious toleration 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 state. In several places, they of themselves assumed these
+privileges, and, reckoning on a change of administration, 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 presumptuous 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 neighbours, the inhabitants of Styria, to the Archduke
+Ferdinand, who, however, had soon reason to repent of it. Warned 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 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 determined 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
+80 Papists were to be found, 300 Protestant barons might be counted.
+The example of Rodolph should be a warning to Matthias. He should take
+care that he did not lose the terrestrial, in attempting 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 declaration in favour of the Evangelical Church.
+
+This behaviour 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 favourable results. At his first
+Diet at Ratisbon in 1613, when the most pressing affairs were waiting
+for decision--when a general contribution was indispensable 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 demand.
+The Roman Catholic votes were still the most numerous in the Diet; and
+as every thing was decided by a plurality 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 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
+possibility of making use of that privilege, merely from the
+constitution of the Diet itself. Complaints of the judicial usurpations
+of the Aulic Council, and of the oppression of the Protestants,
+accompanied this demand, and the deputies of the Estates were instructed
+to take no part in any general deliberations till a favourable answer
+should be given on this preliminary point.
+
+The Diet was torn asunder by this dangerous division, which threatened
+to destroy for ever the unity of its deliberations. 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 hereditary
+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 favour the Protestant at the expense of the
+Romish religion.
+
+So critical a situation would have paralysed 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
+acquainted 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 support gave him greater boldness to oppose
+the Protestants. 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 Bethlem 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 Brandenburg and the Palatine of Neuburg; and a
+marriage between the Prince of Neuburg and a Princess of Brandenburg 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 Neuburg embraced popery. The hand
+of a princess of Bavaria rewarded his apostacy, 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 neighbouring 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 Hollanders bursting through the
+frontiers of the empire. It was in the west that the mine was expected
+to explode 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 which Rodolph II.’s ‘Letter of Majesty’ 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., Emperor of Germany, had, by the
+violent extirpation of the Protestant religion within his hereditary
+dominions, announced himself as an inexorable zealot for popery, and was
+consequently looked upon by the Roman Catholic part of Bohemia as the
+future pillar of their church. The 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 incautious enough to speak somewhat loudly of their
+hopes, and by threatening hints to awaken among the Protestants 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 temper would not have ventured upon--unscrupulous
+enough, where the gratification of his passions was concerned, 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
+intrusted 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 protector of the faith. The aristocracy by which
+the Emperor was ruled, imprudently deprived him of this harmless
+guardianship of the dead, to leave him his full influence over the
+living. They took from him 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 actuated 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 favour 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; while the ecclesiastical,
+in whose case the declaration of Ferdinand had limited this privilege,
+disputed, not without 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 Protestants, 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 in 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 liberation 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
+Klostergrab and Braunau as the result of an imperial mandate, and
+contained some passages that might be construed into threats.
+
+Count Thurn did not fail to augment the unfavourable 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, Burgrave of Calstein. Both had long before evinced pretty openly
+their hostile feelings towards the Protestants, 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 endeavouring 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 23rd 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 Sternberg, 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. 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 favour 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
+irresolution 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 organise 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 necessary 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
+favour.
+
+The emotion which the news of the Bohemian insurrection excited at the
+imperial court, was much less lively than such intelligence deserved.
+The Emperor Matthias 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, deserted him in a legitimate
+self-defence. The Bohemian rebels had first taken up arms, and the
+nature of circumstances 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
+formidable 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. “Disobedience, 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
+remained 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 upon the ruins of their dangerous privileges;
+security for the Catholic belief was to be found only in the total
+destruction 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 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 himself,
+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 not 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 endeavoured 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 resolutions 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 principally 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. With prompt determination
+he appeared before Budweiss and Krummau, in the hope of terrifying them
+into a surrender. 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
+Emperor 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 appeared to them a defender equally intrepid and
+unexpected, 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 confederates 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 Leopold, against the Protestant religion and
+the liberties of Germany. But insensibly won by the principles of this
+religion, he abandoned a leader whose selfishness denied him the
+reimbursement of the monies 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 instructions to raise an army of
+4000 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 confederates
+in Bohemia, at the cost of a third party. Mansfeld received orders
+forthwith to march with these 4000 men into that kingdom; and a
+pretended Bohemian commission was 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 favourable to the Emperor, obtained a firm
+footing in the country. The courage of the rebels was farther increased
+by succours 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 war. To check the vigour
+of his military operations, a negotiation was entered into with the
+Emperor, and a disposition was shown to accept the proffered mediation
+of Saxony. But before the event could prove how little sincerity there
+was in these proposals, the Emperor was removed from the scene by death.
+
+What now had Matthias done to justify the expectations which he had
+excited by the overthrow of his predecessor? Was it worth while to
+ascend a brother’s throne through guilt, and then maintain it with so
+little dignity, and leave it with so little renown? As long as Matthias
+sat on the throne, he had to atone for the imprudence by which he had
+gained it. To enjoy the regal dignity a few years sooner, he had
+shackled the free exercise of its prerogatives. The slender portion of
+independence 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 impatiently 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 childless Archduke Albert, in the Netherlands, who
+had already renounced his claims to the inheritance in favour 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 the Emperor Maximilian II.; his
+mother a princess of Bavaria. Having lost his father at twelve years of
+age, he was intrusted 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 government of his hereditary dominions. The
+Estates of Carniola, Carinthia, and Styria, who, before doing homage,
+demanded a guarantee for freedom of religion, were told that religious
+liberty has nothing to do with their allegiance. 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 favour 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 unquestioned 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 was 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, without cruelty, he
+suppressed the Protestant service in one town after another, and in a
+few years, to the astonishment 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 against
+their most dangerous enemy. And yet Matthias’s intention to bequeath to
+him the succession, 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 favourable conditions. It was not until
+afterwards, when they had experienced the pernicious influence of his
+councils on the administration of the Emperor, that their anxiety was
+first excited; and then several projects, in his handwriting, which an
+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, Ferdinand
+bequeathed to that crown the kingdom of Bohemia, without first
+consulting the wishes of that nation, and without regard to its right 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 ardour of
+insurrection had cooled; when the nation had just recovered its dignity,
+and reasserted its rights; when they still held arms in their hands, 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 submission were at an end, and if Ferdinand wished still to
+wear the crown of Bohemia, he must choose between purchasing 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 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 every thing, 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
+appearance of their friends is the signal of revolt for the Moravian
+Protestants. Bruenn 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. 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 Protestants. 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
+reproaches, endeavoured 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 abandoned 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 citizens 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 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, laboured 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 incapacitate 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 favourable to him, Brandenburg made no 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
+contravention 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
+Protestants, 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 of 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,
+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 Calvinists, 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 confederacy, 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?
+
+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 temptation 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 ardour of the Calvinistic 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 underrated 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 coronation was celebrated
+with unexampled pomp at Prague, for the nation displayed all its riches
+in honour 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 sovereign, 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
+seized this opportunity of aggrandizing himself at the expense of
+Austria, which had hesitated to acknowledge him as sovereign of
+Transylvania. An attack upon Hungary and Austria was concerted with the
+Bohemian rebels, and both armies were to unite before the capital.
+Meantime, Bethlen Gabor, under the mask of friendship, disguised 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 prudence 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 Frankfort, 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 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 interest 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 tremble for their possessions; if they
+failed, the Emperor would give laws to Protestant Germany. 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, combined 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 every thing 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 emergency 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; his
+concession, if he 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 Netherlands, 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 Union were
+diligent in propagating a rumour that the preparations of the League had
+for their object to deprive them of the ecclesiastical foundations they
+had secularized. A written 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 never 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 unfavourable situation
+of his affairs, Frederick was daily injuring his good cause. By his
+close and questionable connexion with the Prince of Transylvania, the
+open ally of the Porte, he gave offence to weak minds; and a general
+rumour accused him of furthering his own ambition at the expense of
+Christendom, and arming the Turks against Germany. His inconsiderate
+zeal for the Calvinistic 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 disappointed hopes of the Bohemian nobles cooled their
+zeal; the absence of foreign succours 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 had erred in their opinion of him, Frederick 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 Ferdinand; Lower Austria, on which side a powerful
+diversion 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 every thing changed.
+
+In the mean time, 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 Ulm, 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 settle 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 Protestant 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 the
+Fifth, to his Palatine territories.” To this disgraceful treaty, the
+Union were moved by the firmness of Maximilian, 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
+rumour 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 unconditional
+submission. In Lower Austria, the duke formed a junction with the
+troops from the Low Countries under Bucquoi, and without loss of time
+the united Imperial and Bavarian forces, amounting to 50,000 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 neighbourhood 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 movements, and secured him the
+victory. Frederick’s army did not amount to 30,000 men. Eight thousand
+of these were furnished by the Prince of Anhalt; 10,000 were Hungarians,
+whom Bethlen Gabor had despatched to his assistance. An inroad of the
+Elector of Saxony upon Lusatia, had cut off all succours 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 Transylvania; the Union had betrayed his
+cause to the Emperor. Nothing remained to him but his Bohemians; and
+they were without goodwill to his cause, and without unity and courage.
+The Bohemian magnates were indignant 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 necessaries, 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
+appearance in the camp, in the hope of reviving the courage of the
+soldiers by his presence, and of kindling the emulation of the nobles by
+his example.
+
+The Bohemians had begun to entrench themselves on the White Mountain
+near Prague, when they were attacked by the Imperial and Bavarian
+armies, on the 8th November, 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 the
+Bavarians and Walloons 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 himself 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 endeavoured 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.
+
+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, however, 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 clemency, 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 common 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 enriched
+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
+whatever 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 magnanimously left them the prerogative of taxing
+themselves.
+
+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 disband 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 privileges of its members
+were divided among the Roman Catholics and the Protestants, neither
+party could hope to maintain itself against the encroachments of its
+adversary otherwise than by a prudent use of its peculiar advantages,
+and by a politic union among themselves. If the Roman Catholics were
+the more numerous party, and more favoured by the constitution of the
+empire, the Protestants, on the other hand, had the advantage of
+possessing a more compact and populous line of territories, 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 favour, the republics of Venice, Holland, and England, 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. Brandenburg, Saxony, and the Palatinate, opposed three
+Protestant 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 doubtful. But, unfortunately,
+private interests dissolved the band of union which should have held
+together the Protestant members of the empire. This critical
+conjuncture 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 Maurice, 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 declaration 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 sovereign to risk both crown and life on the
+hazard of war, John George aspired to the more solid renown of improving
+and advancing the interests of his territories. His cotemporaries
+accused him of forsaking the Protestant 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 confidence.
+
+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 Brandenburg, 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 preserved 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 capacity. 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 Augsburg, had placed itself under the Emperor’s
+protection, who favoured 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
+against the formidable Charles V., espoused the cause of danger and of
+honour. Superior to that pusillanimity which made far more powerful
+princes bow before Ferdinand’s might, the Landgrave William was the
+first to join the hero of Sweden, and to 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
+valour 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 immortality with the heroic
+race of Ernest. Thy day of vengeance was long delayed, unfortunate John
+Frederick! Noble! never-to-be-forgotten prince! Slowly but brightly it
+broke. Thy times returned, and thy heroic spirit descended 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 electoral 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 undertake; 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 prosperity 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, Brandenburg, 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, Mecklenburg,
+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 labouring 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
+unwarlike 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 re-conquest of
+Holland, in the chimerical project of changing the succession 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 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 splendour concealed the inward wounds 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 dependence by
+which the emperors purchased it. The fate of Europe was decided behind
+the Pyrenees by ignorant monks or vindictive favourites. Yet, even in
+its debasement, a power must always be formidable, which yields to none
+in extent; which, from custom, if not from the steadfastness of its
+views, adhered faithfully to one system of policy; which possessed
+well-disciplined armies and consummate generals; which, where the sword
+failed, did not scruple to employ the dagger; and converted even its
+ambassadors 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
+neighbouring sovereigns to tremble for their own possessions. The Pope
+himself was in the most dangerous situation; hemmed in on both sides by
+the Spanish Viceroys of Naples on the one side, and that of Milan upon
+the other. Venice was confined between 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 contradictory systems of policy. If the successors of St.
+Peter found in the Spanish princes their most obedient 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
+neighbours, 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 dangerous 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 conspire 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 Protestant
+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 adventurous 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 toleration, this civil commotion in
+its birth, and too little 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 the Fourth was now
+compelled to be an inactive spectator of their destruction, happy enough
+if the Calvinists 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 Protestants 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 mercantile people into a nation of heroes,
+and had enabled them to maintain their independence 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
+German brethren in a similar cause, and the more so, as both were
+opposed to the same enemy, and the liberty of Germany 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
+welfare 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 comprehend, than
+of vigour 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 he 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 sovereign 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 favourite Buckingham practised on
+his weakness, and his own complacent vanity rendered him an easy dupe of
+Spanish artifice. While his son-in-law was ruined, and the inheritance
+of his grandson 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 monarchs, 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-ordered finances, and prudent
+alliances, had combined to give her prosperity at home and influence
+abroad. Gustavus 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 neighbourly 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 remembrance 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 commercial 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 altering the religious
+constitution of the kingdom. But the second son and second successor of
+Gustavus had relapsed 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 Gustavus, the Estates made a courageous resistance, which
+terminated, at last, in an open civil war between the 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 gradually 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 favour
+of the Protector, the rule of primogeniture which Gustavus had
+established in the succession, and placed the Duke of Sudermania on the
+throne, from which Sigismund, 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 recognize. But if the obligations
+between monarchy and subjects are reciprocal, and states are not to be
+transmitted, 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 favour the
+legal period of minority. With a glorious conquest over himself 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
+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
+ardour 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’s 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 somewhere 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 unfavourably for him, and the courts of Madrid
+and Vienna failed not to encourage him by high-sounding promises. While
+Sigismund 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 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 power 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
+afterwards to perform such wonders in Germany.
+
+After this necessary digression on the existing circumstances 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 favourites soon squandered this sum, large as it was.
+Maximilian, Duke of Bavaria, to whose victorious 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
+colours 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.
+
+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
+generalissima, 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 favourable circumstances
+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 incalculable. 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 a 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 execution 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 for the Spanish troops in the Lower Palatinate, to contend 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 abandoned
+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 immediately commenced new
+levies in the Upper Palatinate, and enlisted the disbanded troops of the
+Union. A new army of 20,000 men was soon assembled under his banners,
+the more formidable to the provinces which might be the object of its
+attack, because it must subsist by plunder. Uncertain where this swarm
+might light, the neighbouring bishops trembled for their rich
+possessions, 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 Netherlands 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 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 enormous contributions
+could the cities purchase an exemption from plunder. Reinforced by this
+expedition, Mansfeld again appeared on the Rhine to cover the Lower
+Palatinate.
+
+So long as such an arm fought for him, the cause of the Elector
+Frederick was not irretrievably lost. New 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 Union, 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
+Denmark, 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 Transylvania 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 Hungary
+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 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
+irreconcileable 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 Germans 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 vigour.
+
+Meanwhile Frederick had not delayed to join his protector Mansfeld. In
+disguise he entered the Lower Palatinate, of which the possession was at
+that time disputed between 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 destination was kept a secret till he suddenly
+took the field and joined Mansfeld. Before commencing the war, he
+resigned his Margraviate to his son, in the hope of eluding, by this
+precaution, the Emperor’s revenge, if his enterprize should be
+unsuccessful. His neighbour, the Duke of Wirtemberg, likewise began to
+augment his military force. The courage of the Palatine revived, and he
+laboured 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 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
+despaired of. Christian, Duke of Brunswick, administrator of
+Halberstadt, seemed to have learnt from Count Mansfeld the secret of
+keeping in the field an army of 20,000 men without money. Impelled by
+youthful presumption, and influenced partly by the wish of establishing
+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,
+Priest’s 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 Upper 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 Frederick 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 endeavouring 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 ardour
+in the field, and to prevent them from driving matters to extremity.
+James I., ever 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 Administrator, 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 enterprises in the fertile province of East
+Friezeland. Duke Christian, passionately enamoured of the Electress
+Palatine, 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 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 favourable
+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
+successfully, 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 rancour 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 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 Protestant 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, as 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 negociations 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 Cardinal
+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,
+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 vigour. 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 minister 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 Protestant 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
+Administrator’s magazines at Lippstadt. The necessity of observing 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 religious treaty. Had Ferdinand been in reality far from
+disposed to abuse his conquests, still the defenceless position of the
+Protestants was most likely to suggest 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
+predominated; the church had been forcibly deprived of most of its
+endowments; and the present appeared a favourable moment for recovering
+these lost possessions. A great part of the strength of the Lower
+German princes consisted 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 remembrance 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. Extraordinary contributions were levied,
+troops collected, and magazines filled. Negociations for subsidies were
+set on foot with Venice, Holland, and England. They deliberated, 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 indifference the Emperor treating it as a conqueror, and
+establishing himself as their neighbour 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 Germany. 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 honour 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 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 favour to his envied
+neighbour. 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 territories,
+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 generalissimo of the circle of Lower
+Saxony, he soon had an army of 60,000 men in motion; the administrator
+of Magdeburg, and the Dukes of Brunswick and Mecklenburgh, entered into
+an alliance with him. Encouraged by the hope of assistance from
+England, and the possession 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
+peace. But the negociations 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 negociations, 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 he
+quartered his troops. The king conducted his operations 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 conducted
+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 goodwill, but ill
+accorded with the grand schemes, which the brilliant commencement of the
+war had led the imperial cabinet to form.
+
+However active the League had shown itself in the Emperor’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
+continued to lend their armies for that purpose, it was too much to be
+feared that they would share with the Emperor 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 dependence
+upon Bavaria, and restore to him his former pre-eminence in Germany.
+But the war had already exhausted the imperial dominions, and they were
+unequal to the expense of such an armament. In these circumstances,
+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 established his
+reputation. He was present as colonel at the 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
+circumstances, 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 50,000 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 authority to appoint his own officers.
+In a few months he had 20,000 men under arms, with which, quitting the
+Austrian territories, he soon afterwards appeared on the frontiers of
+Lower Saxony with 30,000. 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 imperial army
+appeared in Germany;--an event which if it was menacing to the
+Protestants, was scarcely more acceptable to the Catholics. Wallenstein
+had orders to unite his army with the troops of the League, and in
+conjunction with the Bavarian general to attack the King of Denmark.
+But long jealous of Tilly’s fame, he showed no disposition to share with
+him the laurels of the campaign, or in the splendour 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 independent 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
+junction with the general of the League, he marched 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 situation between
+two such powerful armies. He had already been joined by the
+administrator of Halberstadt, who had lately returned from Holland; he
+now also acknowledged Mansfeld, whom previously he had refused to
+recognise, 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 prevented its junction with that of Tilly, and a
+combined attack on the King of Denmark. Notwithstanding the enemy’s
+superiority, this intrepid general even approached the bridge of Dessau,
+and ventured to entrench himself in presence of the imperial lines. But
+attacked in the rear by the whole force of the Imperialists, he was
+obliged to yield to superior numbers, and to abandon his post with the
+loss of 3,000 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 Austria. 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 the Weser; 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 his
+communication 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 Goettingen, 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 Eichsfeld and Thuringia,
+into the territories of the League. He had already reached Duderstadt,
+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, 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 prevailed, and the general of the League
+obtained a complete victory. The Danes lost sixty standards, and their
+whole artillery, baggage, and ammunition. Several officers of
+distinction and about 4,000 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 surrendered 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; 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 crossing 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
+favour, Mansfeld had drawn upon himself the whole strength of
+Wallenstein, and instead of bringing, required, pecuniary assistance.
+The want of concert in the Protestant counsels cooled Gabor’s ardour;
+and he hastened, 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, 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 army of
+Wallenstein poured like a torrent into Brandenburg, Mecklenburg,
+Holstein and Sleswick. That general, too proud to act in conjunction
+with another, had dispatched 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 conquests. 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 renounce the Danish
+alliance. Wallenstein’s formidable appearance before Berlin reduced the
+Elector of Brandenburgh to submission, and compelled him to recognise,
+as legitimate, Maximilian’s title to the Palatine Electorate. 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 punished 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 surpassed his master. On the principle that
+war must support war, Mansfeld and the Duke of Brunswick had subsisted
+their troops by contributions levied indiscriminately 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 to abandon the most fertile territories whenever they were
+defended by a superior army. If Mansfeld and Duke Christian had done
+such great things 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 hitherto 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 extravagant to no one. The more his army was
+augmented, the less cause was there to fear for its subsistence, because
+it could irresistibly bear down upon the refractory states; the more
+violent its outrages, the more probable was impunity. Towards hostile
+states it had the plea of right; towards the favourably disposed it
+could allege necessity. The inequality, too, with which it dealt out
+its oppressions, prevented any dangerous union among the states; while
+the exhaustion of their territories deprived them of the power of
+vengeance. Thus the whole of Germany 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 dominions. Universal was the
+clamour 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 barbarities, and the general who
+exceeded his power, and openly abused the authority of his master. They
+applied to the Emperor for protection against the outrages of his
+general; but Wallenstein had no sooner felt himself 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 armies until they were at
+least 100,000 men strong. Numberless commissions to colonelcies and
+inferior commands, the regal pomp of the commander-in-chief, immoderate
+largesses to his favourites, (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
+flourished 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 connexion
+became between the army, and the leader from whom flowed favour and
+fortune, the more the ties which united both to the Emperor were
+relaxed. Every thing, it is true, was done in the name of the latter;
+but Wallenstein only availed himself of the supreme 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 were absolute in Germany, who
+then would be equal to the man intrusted with the execution of his will?
+The height to which Wallenstein had raised the imperial authority
+astonished even the Emperor himself; but as the greatness 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 labour 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
+Mecklenburg, 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 German houses was expelled from
+their hereditary dominions, that a creature of the Emperor might be
+enriched by their spoils (1628).
+
+Wallenstein now began to assume the title of generalissimo 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 Hanse 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 compel 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 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 peculiar 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
+ambition, and which should enable him to throw off his dependence on the
+Emperor.
+
+To effect this object, it was of extreme importance to gain possession
+of Stralsund, a town on the Baltic. Its excellent harbour, 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 honourably rejected by the magistracy, who also
+refused his cunningly demanded permission to march his troops through
+the town, Wallenstein, therefore, now proposed to besiege 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 imperial
+generalissimo of the sea had not even ships enough to blockade this
+single harbour.
+
+Nothing could appear more adventurous than to attempt the conquest of a
+strongly fortified seaport without first blockading its harbour.
+Wallenstein, however, who as yet had never experienced a check, wished
+to conquer nature itself, and to perform impossibilities. Stralsund,
+open to the sea, continued to be supplied with provisions and
+reinforcements; yet Wallenstein maintained his blockade on the land
+side, and endeavoured, 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.
+Wallenstein despised the command, and continued to harass the besieged
+by incessant assaults. As the Danish garrison, already much reduced,
+was unequal to the fatigues 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 12,000 men. The necessity 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 islands; 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 most to be dreaded, because, so long as it lasted,
+it effectually prevented the Emperor and his general from acquiring a
+footing on the Baltic, or effecting a landing in Sweden. But if they
+could succeed in dissolving this union, and especially 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 storm 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 neighbour 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 expressly engaged not to
+conclude a separate peace with the Emperor, without the consent of
+Sweden. Notwithstanding, Wallenstein’s proposition was readily received
+by him. In a conference at Lubeck in 1629, from which Wallenstein, with
+studied contempt, 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 Mecklenburgh to their fate. By Christian himself had these princes
+been involved in the war with the Emperor; he now sacrificed them, to
+gain the favour 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 mentioned in the treaty; while in one of
+its articles the legitimacy of the Bavarian election was expressly
+recognised. 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 unfortunate, 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 Brunswick, 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 he
+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, unfortunately, the conditions on which alone the two
+religious parties were willing respectively to sheath the sword, were
+irreconcileable. The Roman Catholics wished to terminate the war to
+their own advantage; the Protestants 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, Ferdinand had carried on a
+counter reformation in his hereditary 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. Accordingly 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, immediately 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 the Electoral
+Congress held at Muehlhausen, the Roman Catholics had demanded of the
+Emperor that all the archbishoprics, bishoprics, mediate and immediate,
+abbacies 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 restoration. 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 confusion 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 additional votes. Such grievous sacrifices
+likely to fall on the Protestants, made the Emperor apprehensive of a
+formidable opposition; and until the military ardour 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 surrender 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, Halberstadt was vacant, as was also the
+Archbishopric of Magdeburg by the deposition of Christian William, a
+prince of the House of Brandenburgh. Ferdinand took advantage of the
+circumstance to restore the see of Halberstadt 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 arrogated authority interfered
+in this matter, conferred the Archbishopric of Magdeburg also on the
+Austrian prince. Thus, 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 Restitution, (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 ambiguities 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 acknowledged this right of the
+Emperor; and it now became evident how deeply this court had injured the
+Protestant cause by its dependence on the House of Austria. But though
+the meaning of the religious treaty was really ambiguous, as a century
+of religious disputes sufficiently proved, yet for the Emperor, who must
+be either a Protestant or a Roman Catholic, and therefore an interested
+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 decided, “That every
+secularization of a religious foundation, 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 exception--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 Protestant Germany; dreadful even in its
+immediate consequences; 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 overthrow of German liberty would soon follow.
+Their remonstrances 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 Protestant states, were yet insufficient to rouse them to an active
+resistance. Their fear of the Emperor was too strong, and many were
+disposed to quiet submission. The hope of attaining their end by gentle
+measures, induced the Roman Catholics likewise to delay for a year the
+execution of the edict, and this saved the Protestants; before the end
+of that period, the success of the Swedish arms 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
+imperious 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 favouring. 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 dollars, and
+the rest in proportion. The cry for redress was loud, urgent, and
+universal; all prejudices were hushed; Roman Catholics and Protestants
+were united on this point. The terrified Emperor was assailed on all
+sides by petitions against Wallenstein, and his ear filled with 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 Germany, 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 which he had treated them all alike. His dismissal was
+demanded by the whole college of electors, and even by Spain, with a
+degree of unanimity and urgency which astonished the Emperor. The
+anxiety with which Wallenstein’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 demanded 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 under the necessity
+of conciliating the Electors. His son Ferdinand had already been chosen
+King of Hungary, and he was endeavouring 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 ambassadors from France,
+empowered to adjust the differences which seemed to menace a war in
+Italy between the Emperor 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 Emperor 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 neighbourhood of a vassal of France was peculiarly alarming, 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 favoured countries which the Po waters; Mantua
+was taken by storm, and the surrounding districts given up to the
+ravages of a lawless soldiery. The curse of Italy was thus added to the
+maledictions upon the Emperor which resounded through Germany; 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 supported 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 entangling 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 transactions of the Diet. For
+this purpose Richelieu had chosen an admirable instrument in Father
+Joseph, a Capuchin friar, who accompanied the ambassadors without
+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 victory, the army of Austria would lose its
+principal strength; many armies could not compensate for the loss of
+this individual. It would therefore be a masterstroke of policy, at the
+very moment when a victorious monarch, the absolute master of his
+operations, was arming against the Emperor, 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 irresolution 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, Wallenstein 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 in 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 obeisance.” Wallenstein’s dismissal
+was determined upon.
+
+In return for this pious concession, the Capuchin dexterously
+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 concluded, 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 negociating
+with the King of Sweden to declare war, and pressing upon him the
+alliance of his master. The latter, indeed, disavowed the lie as soon
+as it had served its purpose, and Father Joseph, 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 18,000 men, and of a general who alone was
+worth whole armies, he left Ratisbon without gaining the end for which
+he had made such sacrifices. Before the Swedes had vanquished him in
+the field, Maximilian 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 interceded for the Dukes of Mecklenburgh; and equally
+fruitless 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 indomitable, 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 delinquent
+seemed to require more address than it cost to obtain it from the judge.
+Accordingly, two of Wallenstein’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 continuance of the Emperor’s
+favour.
+
+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 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 prospects 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 a humble letter besought the continuance of
+the Emperor’s favour, 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 contemplated 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. Similar palaces were built
+on his other numerous estates. Gentlemen of the noblest houses
+contended for the honour 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 antichamber was protected by fifty life guards.
+His table never consisted of less than 100 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 splendour 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 sparkling 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 presentiment 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 splendour 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.
+
+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 competitors, the appointment
+was given to Tilly, who now exchanged the Bavarian for the Austrian
+service. The imperial army in Germany, after the retirement of
+Wallenstein, amounted to about 40,000 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 Mecklenburg, 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 of
+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 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. Ferdinand 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 remonstrances of Gustavus, he rather
+aggravated the offence by new grievances, than acceded the required
+satisfaction.
+
+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 encroachments under the name of religion. The external
+deference which Richelieu was obliged to pay to the narrow views of his
+contemporaries limited his exertions to secret negociations, by which he
+endeavoured to gain the hand of others to accomplish the enlightened
+projects of his own mind. After a fruitless attempt to prevent the
+peace between Denmark and the Emperor, he had recourse to Gustavus
+Adolphus, the hero of his age. No exertion was spared to bring this
+monarch to a favourable decision, and at the same time to facilitate the
+execution of it. Charnasse, an unsuspected agent of the Cardinal,
+proceeded to Polish Prussia, where Gustavus Adolphus was conducting the
+war against Sigismund, 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 deceitful policy of the
+Emperor. A truce for six years was agreed on, Gustavus being allowed to
+retain all his conquests. 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 conquest, 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 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, augment his troops, and open
+resources for the maintenance of the campaign. If the greater part of
+the German states were impoverished 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
+Manilla galleons, and engaged in a serious war in the Netherlands, could
+afford him little support. Great Britain, 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 favourable offers.
+
+But the strongest pledge for the success of his undertaking Gustavus
+found--in himself. Prudence demanded that he should embrace all the
+foreign assistance he could, in order to guard his enterprise from the
+imputation 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 battalions. 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 importance of infantry. All Germany was astonished at the
+strict discipline which, at the first, so creditably distinguished the
+Swedish army within their territories; all disorders were punished with
+the utmost severity, particularly 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 without 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 a 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 omnipresent, 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 question. Even to the bold
+Chancellor Oxenstiern, an offensive war appeared too daring a measure;
+the resources of his poor and conscientious master, appeared to him too
+slender to compete with those of a despotic sovereign, who held all
+Germany at his command. But the minister’s timid scruples were
+overruled by the hero’s penetrating prudence. “If we await the enemy in
+Sweden,” said Gustavus, “in the event of a defeat every thing would be
+lost, by a fortunate commencement in Germany 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 defeated, it would,
+in either case, be impossible to prevent the enemy’s landing. Every
+thing depends on the retention of Stralsund. So long as this harbour 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
+magnanimous. Before engaging in so distant a war, it was necessary to
+secure Sweden against its neighbours. At a personal interview with the
+King of Denmark at Markaroed, Gustavus assured himself of the friendship
+of that monarch; 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. Falkenberg, 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 despatched to the Prince
+of Transylvania, to excite that implacable enemy of Austria to arms.
+
+In the mean time, Swedish levies were made in Germany and the
+Netherlands, the regiments increased to their full complement, new ones
+raised, transports provided, a fleet fitted out, provisions, military
+stores, and money collected. Thirty ships of war were in a short time
+prepared, 15,000 men equipped, and 200 transports were ready to convey
+them across the Baltic. A greater force Gustavus Adolphus was unwilling
+to carry into Germany, and even the maintenance 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 10,000 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 neighbour.
+
+These were the measures taken for the external defence of the kingdom.
+Its internal administration was provided for with equal care. The
+government was intrusted 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 sufficient composure to deliver his farewell
+address to the States.
+
+“Not lightly or wantonly,” said he, “am I about to involve myself and
+you in this new and dangerous war; God is my witness that _I_ 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 brethren, 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 from 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 Counsellors of State, I address myself first. May God
+enlighten you, and fill you with wisdom, to promote the welfare of my
+people. You, too, 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 recommend moderation and unity; be
+yourselves examples of the virtues which you preach, and abuse not your
+influence 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 prosperous 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 present, 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 Elfsknaben, where the fleet
+lay at anchor. An immense concourse flocked thither to witness this
+magnificent spectacle. The hearts of the spectators were agitated by
+varied emotions, as they alternately considered the vastness 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, Ottenberg, Baudissen, Banner,
+Teufel, Tott, Mutsenfahl, Falkenberg, Kniphausen, and other
+distinguished names. Detained by contrary 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 Islands of Wollin and Usedom; upon his approach, the imperial
+garrisons abandoned their entrenchments and fled. He advanced rapidly
+on Stettin, to secure this important place before the appearance of the
+Imperialists. Bogislaus XIV., Duke of Pomerania, a feeble and
+superannuated 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, summoned 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 Pomerania, 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 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 formidable army; on the other, he saw the
+inevitable vengeance 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
+Austrians, 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 treachery, Bogislaus was careful to excuse this step to the
+Emperor on the plea of necessity; but aware of Ferdinand’s implacable
+disposition, he entered into a close alliance with his new protector.
+By this league with Pomerania, Gustavus secured a powerful friend in
+Germany, who covered his rear, and maintained his communication with
+Sweden.
+
+As Ferdinand was already the aggressor in Prussia, Gustavus Adolphus
+thought himself absolved from the usual formalities, 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. Meanwhile 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 imagined,
+entirely to the incapacity of a weak opponent. The depreciatory
+representation which Wallenstein had artfully given of the Swedish
+power, increased the Emperor’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 feed. 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
+representations; 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 Mecklenburg 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 negociation, 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
+ensure 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 intemperate
+correspondence.
+
+An imperial general, Torquato Conti, who commanded in Pomerania, had, in
+the mean time, made a vain attempt to wrest Stettin from the Swedes.
+The Imperialists were driven out from one place after another; Damm,
+Stargard, Camin, and Wolgast, soon fell into the hands of Gustavus. To
+revenge himself upon the Duke of Pomerania, the imperial general
+permitted his troops, upon his retreat, to exercise every barbarity on
+the unfortunate inhabitants 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 favourable 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 Pomeranian peasantry was ruthlessly murdered. Many
+Pomeranians entered into the service of Sweden, and the estates of this
+exhausted country willingly voted the king a contribution of 100,000
+florins.
+
+Torquato Conti, who, with all his severity of character, was a
+consummate general, endeavoured to render Stettin useless to the king of
+Sweden, as he could not deprive him of it. He entrenched himself upon
+the Oder, at Gartz, 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 entrenchments 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, Gustavus 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
+Wallenstein’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 numbers daily
+decreased by desertion, and by a general mortality, which the piercing
+cold of a strange climate had produced among them.
+
+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
+precaution 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 reputation 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; Greifenhagan, an important place upon the Oder,
+taken by storm, and the towns of Gartz and Piritz were at last abandoned
+by the enemy. In the whole of Pomerania, Greifswald, 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 baggage, and many
+prisoners fell into the hands of the pursuers.
+
+By seizing the passes of Riebnitz and Damgarden, Gustavus had opened a
+passage into Mecklenburg, whose inhabitants were invited to return to
+their allegiance under their legitimate sovereigns, and to expel the
+adherents of Wallenstein. The Imperialists, however, gained the
+important town of Rostock by stratagem, and thus prevented the farther
+advance of the king, who was unwilling to divide his forces. The exiled
+dukes of Mecklenburg had ineffectually employed the princes assembled at
+Ratisbon to intercede with the Emperor: in vain they had endeavoured to
+soften Ferdinand, by renouncing the alliance of the king, and every idea
+of resistance. But, driven to despair by the Emperor’s inflexibility,
+they openly espoused the side of Sweden, and raising troops, gave the
+command 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 General 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 reserved for the victorious arm of Gustavus
+Adolphus to render them that brilliant service.
+
+The Imperialists had thrown themselves into Brandenburg, which now
+became the theatre of the most barbarous atrocities. These outrages
+were inflicted upon the subjects 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, excited 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 remonstrances, 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 Imperial soldier who should henceforth be detected in plundering.
+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 sanctioning private vengeance by a formal law.
+
+The Swedes had pursued the Imperialists into Brandenburg; 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 Pomerania, by
+the capture of Demmin and Colberg. In the mean time, Field-Marshal
+Tilly was advancing to the defence of Brandenburg.
+
+This general, who could boast as yet of never having suffered a defeat,
+the conqueror of Mansfeld, of Duke 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 Bavaria, 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, Maximilian 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 Wallenstein’s dismissal, generalissimo
+of the imperial armies. Equally stern towards his soldiers and
+implacable towards his enemies, and as gloomy and impenetrable as
+Wallenstein, he was greatly his superior in probity and
+disinterestedness. 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
+actions 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 resources 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 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 expedition,
+he collected the imperial troops which were dispersed 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 20,000 men, before Frankfort on the Oder,
+where he was joined by Schaumburg. Leaving to this general the defence
+of Frankfort, with a sufficient garrison, he hastened to Pomerania, with
+a view of saving Demmin, 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
+offensive plan of operations, and retreated towards the Elbe to besiege
+Magdeburg.
+
+The capture of Demmin opened to the king a free passage into
+Mecklenburg; but a more important enterprise drew his arms into another
+quarter. Scarcely had Tilly commenced his retrograde movement, when
+suddenly 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 8,000 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
+Swedish detachment, and, irritated by their obstinate resistance, had
+cut them in pieces to a man. This cruelty was not forgotten by the
+Swedes. “New Brandenburg 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 Protestants to active resistance, the
+Emperor proceeded to enforce the Edict of Restitution, and, by his
+exorbitant pretensions, to exhaust the patience of the states.
+Compelled 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 favourite and minister, spared no pains
+to increase the resentment of his master. Arnheim had formerly been an
+imperial general under Wallenstein, and being still zealously 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 influence others, and the Emperor’s fate seemed
+now in a manner to depend upon the Elector’s decision. The artful
+favourite 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 favourite, 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 before him a plan, which only wanted a more able
+hand to carry it into execution, and recommended him, by heading the
+Protestant party, to erect a third power in Germany, 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 upon 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 principal 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 support 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 Saxon Court, Dr. Hoe von Hohenegg, opened with a vehement discourse
+from the pulpit. The Emperor had, in vain, endeavoured to prevent this
+self-appointed convention, whose object was evidently to provide for its
+own defence, 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 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
+abolition of abuses; and, in the mean time, to raise an army of 40,000
+men, to enable them to redress their own grievances, if the Emperor
+should still refuse satisfaction.
+
+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 treatment 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 contracting 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 empire, and to replace every thing, both on the frontier
+and in the interior of Germany, on the same footing on which it stood
+before the commencement of the war. For this end, Sweden engaged to
+maintain an army of 30,000 men in Germany, and France agreed to furnish
+the Swedes with an annual subsidy of 400,000 dollars. If the arms of
+Gustavus were successful, he was to respect the Roman 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 Germany 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
+consent of the other; and the treaty itself was to continue in force for
+five years.
+
+Great as was the struggle to the King of Sweden to receive subsidies
+from France, and sacrifice his independence 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 ensured his
+respect for their religion. And thus, while Gustavus Adolphus protected
+the Protestant religion and the liberties of Germany against the
+aggression of Ferdinand, France secured those liberties, and the Roman
+Catholic religion, against Gustavus himself, if the intoxication of
+success should hurry him beyond the bounds of moderation.
+
+The King of Sweden lost no time in apprizing the members of the
+confederacy of Leipzig of the treaty concluded 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 declare openly in his favour. Several
+princes gave him hopes of his proposals being accepted on the first
+favourable opportunity; but the Saxon 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 vehement, 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 disagreeable 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 progress of the king in Brandenburg, by threatening the
+hereditary possessions of Austria, required them to turn their arms to
+that quarter. 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 vigour
+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 Augustus, 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 Magdeburg in disguise.
+Appearing suddenly in the town council, he reminded the magistrates of
+the ravages which both town and country had suffered from the imperial
+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 citizens with a brave heroism. Of this they had
+already given proofs, in the bold defence of their rights against
+Wallenstein, 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 rememberance 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 neighbourhood, 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 magistrates governor of the town
+during the war. The Prince’s army was daily augmented by recruits from
+the neighbouring towns; and he was able for some months to maintain a
+petty warfare with success.
+
+At length Count Pappenheim, having brought his expedition against the
+Duke of Saxe-Lauenburg to a close, approached the town. Driving the
+troops of the Administrator from their entrenchments, he cut off his
+communication 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 Magdeburg. 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 progress 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 vigour.
+
+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
+2000 infantry and a few hundred horse; a small number for so extensive
+and irregular a fortress. To supply this deficiency, the citizens 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 rumours 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
+despondence, 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, an ardent love of liberty, an invincible hatred to
+the Austrian yoke, and the expectation of speedy relief, banished as yet
+the idea of a surrender; and divided as they were in every thing else,
+they were united in the resolve to defend themselves to the last
+extremity.
+
+Their hopes of succour 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 speedily master of the place. With this view, he had
+despatched a trumpeter with letters to the Administrator, the
+commandant, and the magistrates, offering terms of capitulation; 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 reach 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 occasion, declared for an assault, citing the
+example of Maestricht, 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 necessary preparations. Every thing
+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 favoured 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 despatching 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 preparing to scale the walls.
+After an ineffectual resistance 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-operation,
+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 ramparts, 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 resolute 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 infantry. Immediately occupying the
+principal streets, he drove the citizens with pointed cannon into their
+dwellings, 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 masters 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.
+
+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 defenceless 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; Pappenheim’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 danger and toils.” These horrors lasted with unabated fury, till at
+last the smoke and flames proved a check to the plunderers. To augment
+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 atmosphere 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 400 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 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 6,000 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 reckoned at not less than
+30,000.
+
+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 cathedral, and ‘Te Deum’ sung amidst the discharge of artillery.
+The imperial general rode through the streets, that he might be able, as
+an eyewitness, 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
+prosperity of the city razed, or the fury of its ravagers.
+
+In Germany, the tidings of the dreadful fate of Magdeburg caused
+triumphant joy to the Roman Catholics, while it spread terror and
+consternation among the Protestants. Loudly and generally they
+complained against the king of Sweden, who, with so strong a force, and
+in the very neighbourhood, 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.
+
+He had attacked, and on the 16th April, carried Landsberg, when he 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
+regiments 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
+suspicious 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 Gustavus 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 more 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
+vengeance. The Elector’s struggle with himself was long and violent,
+but pusillanimity and self-interest for awhile prevailed. 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 Von Schwartzenburgh, who was secretly
+in the pay of Austria. In the mean time, 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; “not for my 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 delivered into the hands of the
+Swedes.
+
+The king had now two routes to Magdeburg; one westward led through an
+exhausted country, and filled with the enemy’s troops, who might dispute
+with him the passage 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 Gustavus 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
+conqueror, 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 annulled by a proclamation, the
+Convention itself suppressed by an imperial decree, and all the
+refractory states threatened 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 member of the Confederacy,
+and had himself enlisted soldiers. The terrified bishop immediately
+gave up his forces to Tilly, and signed the revocation of the acts of
+the Confederation. 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 100,000 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 favour of Gustavus Adolphus. Injurious as the
+immediate consequences 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 universal 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 plundered 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 his territories and
+fortresses, with the necessary contributions, 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 ensure him a refuge. After a vain
+endeavour, by entreaties and representations, to bring over the Elector
+to his views, whose coldness and lukewarmness 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 than the imperial
+generals,” was his reply to the 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
+30,000 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 Brandenburg 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 favourable 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 neighbour
+during the war in which he himself was engaged. Soon after, his queen,
+Maria Eleonora, landed in Pomerania, with a reinforcement of 8000
+Swedes; and the arrival of 6000 English, under the Marquis of Hamilton,
+requires more particular notice because this is all that history
+mentions of the English during the Thirty Years’ 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, routing 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 advanced within
+cannon shot of the king’s camp, and offered him battle. Gustavus,
+weaker by one-half than his adversary, 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 Wolmerstadt, 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 exception of a few towns, was conquered by his
+General Tott and the Duke Adolphus Frederick; and he enjoyed the
+satisfaction 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 Landgrave of Hesse Cassel appeared in his camp, to
+conclude an offensive and defensive alliance; the first sovereign prince
+in Germany, who voluntarily and openly declared against the Emperor,
+though not wholly uninfluenced by strong motives. The Landgrave bound
+himself to act against the king’s enemies as his own, to open to him his
+towns and territory, and to furnish his army with provisions 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 obtaining for the Landgrave a full redress of grievances. Both
+parties honourably 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 endeavoured to excite his subjects to
+rebellion by inflammatory letters. But these made as little impression
+as his troops, which subsequently failed him so decidedly at the battle
+of Breitenfield. 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 preparations, and adhered to the confederation of 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 25,000 veteran troops under
+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 Wolmerstadt, he
+commanded the Elector, by a special messenger, 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
+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 unfavourable moment for so imperious a
+requisition. The ill-treatment of his religious and political
+confederates, the destruction of Magdeburg, the excesses of the
+Imperialists in Lusatia, all combined 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 quartering 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 territories,
+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 with it 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 ministers
+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 to
+convert an equivocal friend into an open enemy, and thus to relieve
+himself from the necessity of that indulgence 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 surprised 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 camp 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 Elector 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 prevent 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 guarantee their acceptance. “I
+require,” said Gustavus, “that the Elector shall cede to me the fortress
+of Wittenberg, 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 retracted these harsh demands.
+“The distrust,” said he, “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 this 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 head quarters 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 expectation, Leipzig experienced moderate
+treatment.
+
+Meanwhile, a council of war was held at Torgau, between the King of
+Sweden and the Elector of Saxony, 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 Protestant 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, defended 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 Adolphus displayed
+the modest diffidence 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 disposed 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, 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 single 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 advanced at the head
+of 2000 cuirassiers, though after great reluctance on the part of Tilly,
+and with express orders not to commence a battle. But, in disobedience
+to this command, Pappenheim attacked the vanguard 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 arranged 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 prowess
+from that of the Saxons, and fortune did not confound them.
+
+The enemy was 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 battalions, the cavalry in equally unwieldy
+squadrons. The artillery being on the heights behind, the range of its
+fire 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 commanded 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 amount to 34,000 or 35,000 men; the Swedes
+and Saxons were about the same number. But had a million been
+confronted with a million it could only have rendered the action more
+bloody, certainly not more important 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 for ever. 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 posterity was either to bless or deplore it for
+ever.
+
+Tilly’s usual intrepidity and resolution seemed to forsake him on this
+eventful day. He had formed no regular 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 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 honour 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 commanded 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
+conqueror.
+
+In the mean time, 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 commanded 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 vigour 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 invincible 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 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 neighbouring 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 5,000 either wounded or
+taken prisoners. Their whole artillery and camp fell into the hands of
+the Swedes, and more than a hundred standards and colours were taken.
+Of the Saxons about 2,000 had fallen, while the loss of the Swedes did
+not exceed 700. The rout of the Imperialists was so complete, that
+Tilly, on his retreat to Halle and Halberstadt, could not rally above
+600 men, or Pappenheim more than 1,400--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. Exhausted 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 had followed them. From this
+period, he never recovered his cheerfulness or his good fortune. Even
+his last consolation, 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’s 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 surrendered; 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 dominions 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 begun 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 superiority in the Empire, animating the courage of the
+Roman Catholics, and disarming, by a new series of victories, the allies
+and confederates of the king? What would he gain by expelling the
+Emperor from his hereditary dominions, if Tilly succeeded in conquering
+for that Emperor the rest of Germany? Could he hope to reduce the
+Emperor more than had been done, twelve years before, by the
+insurrection of Bohemia, which had failed to shake the firmness or
+exhaust the resources of that prince, and from which he had risen more
+formidable than ever?
+
+Less brilliant, but more solid, were the advantages which he had to
+expect from an incursion into the territories 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
+deliberate 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
+paralyse the nerves of the imperial power, which, without the aid of the
+League, must soon fall--here, in the neighbourhood 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 imperial army, the most
+experienced troops in 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
+decision are observable; greater determination, even amidst the most
+unfavourable 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 ardour 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, he advanced on the wings of victory into the heart of
+Germany, which for centuries had seen no foreign 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 restrained the
+ambition of its neighbours; and frequently as its extensive frontier had
+been attacked, its interior had been free from hostile invasion. The
+Empire had hitherto enjoyed 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
+dissolved; 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 favourable 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 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, rendered 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 Emperor’s
+irresistible power, there was no less cause now to fear every thing 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 prudence made their way through all impediments. But
+while his success excited the jealousy of his more powerful 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 magnanimity of their powerful ally,
+who enriched them with the spoils of their enemies, and protected them
+against the oppression of their stronger neighbours. His strength
+covered their weakness, and, inconsiderable in themselves, 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; these covered his rear, supplied his troops with
+necessaries, received them into their fortresses, while they exposed
+their own lives in his battles. 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 favourable
+light.
+
+If Gustavus Adolphus owed his success chiefly to his own genius, at the
+same time, it must be owned, he was greatly favoured 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 fugitive 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, moreover, 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 operations of
+their scattered armies without concert; while the general was separated
+from the lawgiver and the statesman; these several functions were united
+in Gustavus 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 favoured 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 the 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. No fortress was
+inaccessible; no river checked his victorious career. He conquered 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 Bamberg, 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 terrible fate of his allies, nor the
+peaceful overtures of Gustavus, 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 gates to the invincible monarch,
+and the fugitive Palatine, Frederick V., in the forsaken residence of
+his rival, consoled 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, William,
+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 Flemings afforded
+them ample employment beyond the Rhine; 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
+embarrassments 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 disarmed; 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 splendour, 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 proposals to his
+injured subject and servant, and meanly to press upon the imperious Duke
+of Friedland the acceptance 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, was 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 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
+Leipzig. 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 Nuremberg; the victory, half lost, was
+purchased by the death of the king. Fortune, which had never forsaken
+him in his lifetime, favoured 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
+intoxication 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. Destiny 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 expedients, 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 soon as the alliance
+had been concluded with the neighbouring 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 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 overrun 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
+connexion 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. Emissaries
+were despatched to gain over to the Swedish side the principal free
+cities, particularly Nuremberg 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
+possession by a sufficient garrison. To his ally, Duke William of
+Weimar, he intrusted 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, in its march, the
+county of Henneberg from the Imperialists, formed a junction on the
+third day near Koenigshofen, 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
+possession of his fortress of Koenigshofen, and with it the key of the
+whole province. At the news of this rapid conquest, 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 frightful 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 what 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 himself set the example. In the
+midst of the alarm, which his bigoted zeal had caused, he abandoned his
+dominions, and fled to Paris, to excite, if possible, the French
+ministry against the common enemy of religion.
+
+The further progress of Gustavus Adolphus in the ecclesiastical
+territories agreed with this brilliant commencement. Schweinfurt, and
+soon afterwards 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, 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 regency, one half of whose
+members were Protestants. In every Roman Catholic town which Gustavus
+took, he opened the churches to the Protestant people, but without
+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
+committed by a few of the more lawless soldiers, in the blind rage of
+the 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 of 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
+assistance of the bishopric. That defeated commander had, in the mean
+time, collected on the Weser the shattered remnant of his army,
+reinforced himself from the garrisons 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 his party on a single battle. With tears in his eyes, Tilly
+read the commands of his superior, which compelled him to inactivity.
+Thus his march to Franconia was delayed, and Gustavus Adolphus gained
+time to overrun the whole bishopric. It was in vain that Tilly,
+reinforced at Aschaffenburg by a body of 12,000 men from Lorraine,
+marched with an overwhelming force to the relief of Wurtzburg. The town
+and citadel were 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 contented 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 to the Swedes
+to gain, he crossed the Maine, near Seligenstadt, and took the direction
+of the Bergstrasse, to protect the Palatinate from the conqueror.
+
+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
+projects, 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 suggestions of a rational policy, he listened only
+to the dictates of heated ambition; by supporting the Emperor, he
+exasperated France, his formidable neighbour; and in the pursuit of a
+visionary phantom in another country, left undefended 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
+honour of being ruined in her cause. Intoxicated with vain hopes, this
+prince collected a force of 17,000 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 splendour of their
+accoutrements; 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 cantonments in Wurtzburg; the defeat of a few
+regiments occasioned a general rout, and the scattered remnant sought a
+covert from the Swedish valour 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 indignation
+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 village 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 great King of Sweden!”
+
+The example of his neighbours’ misfortunes had taught the Bishop of
+Bamberg prudence. To avert the plundering of his territories, he made
+offers of peace, though these were intended only to delay the king’s
+course till the arrival of assistance. Gustavus Adolphus, too
+honourable 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 hostile 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 prelate broke
+off the negotiation the instant the storm of war passed away from his
+own territories. No sooner had Gustavus marched onwards than he threw
+himself under the protection 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 hitherto 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
+circle to declare in his favour. Nuremberg joyfully committed itself to
+his protection; and the Franconian nobles were won to his cause by
+flattering proclamations, in which he condescended to apologize for his
+hostile appearance in the 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
+admiration with which they regarded his brilliant exploits, the promises
+of rich booty which the service of this monarch 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 8,000 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, Seligenstadt, 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 surprise the town and citadel of Hanau, for whose preservation Tilly
+had shown such anxiety. Eager to be free of the oppressive burden of
+the Imperialists, 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 important towns. Frankfort was among the free
+cities which, even from Saxony, he had endeavoured to prepare for his
+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 reason 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 adherents 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 privileges, 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 Frankfort 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
+preparations amidst which Gustavus Adolphus now compelled 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 garrison of 600 men was left in
+Saxenhausen; while the king himself advanced the same evening, with the
+rest of his army, against the town of Hoechst 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 generals and allies in the north of
+Germany. Rostock, Wismar, 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, endeavour to recover from the
+Swedes the territories of Halberstadt, of which they had taken
+possession immediately upon the victory of Leipzig; he was even
+compelled to leave Magdeburg itself in their hands. The Swedish
+general, Banner, who with 8,000 men remained 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 advanced 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 voluntarily 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,
+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
+neighbourhood, 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 victorious 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 alliance 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,
+Muenden and Hoexter surrendered to him, while his rapid advance alarmed
+the bishoprics of Fulda, Paderborn, and the ecclesiastical territories
+which bordered 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 Landgrave 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
+favour or to appease his indignation. Among them was the fugitive King
+of Bohemia, the Palatine Frederick V., who had hastened from Holland to
+throw himself into the arms of his avenger and protector. Gustavus gave
+him the unprofitable honour of greeting him as a crowned head, and
+endeavoured, 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 irritability 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, Gustavus 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 favourable
+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 Wetteran
+also visited the King in Frankfort, to offer him their assistance
+against the Spaniards, and to 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.
+
+The Swedish army was now reinforced by ten thousand Hessians, which the
+Landgrave of Casse commanded. Gustavus Adolphus had already invested
+Koenigstein; Kostheim and Floersheim 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
+necessary 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 adversaries, the Elector flattered himself that
+he was able to repel force by force, and weary out the valour 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 2,000 Spaniards, under Don Philip de Sylva. To prevent the
+approach of the Swedish transports, he endeavoured 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 most precious effects, took refuge in Cologne, and
+abandoned his capital and territories 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 contributions. The main army had encamped at
+Cassel, opposite Mentz; and Bernhard, Duke of Weimar, made himself
+master of the Maeusethurm 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 Nuremberg, which, during the absence of Gustavus Adolphus
+on the Rhine, Tilly had made a show of besieging, and, in the event of
+resistance, threatened 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
+approaching the town from an opposite quarter. Here he quickly made
+himself master of all the places of importance, and at Stockstadt,
+between Gernsheim and Oppenheim, appeared a second time upon the banks
+of the Rhine. The whole of the Bergstrasse was abandoned by the
+Spaniards, who endeavoured obstinately to defend the other bank of the
+river. For this purpose, they had burned or sunk all the vessels in the
+neighbourhood, 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 neighbouring fishermen, succeeded in
+procuring a few transports, he despatched two of them across the river,
+bearing Count Brahe and 300 Swedes. Scarcely had this officer time to
+entrench himself on the opposite bank, when he was attacked by 14
+squadrons of Spanish dragoons and cuirassiers. Superior as the enemy
+was in number, Count Brahe, with his small force, bravely defended
+himself, and gained time for the king to support him with fresh troops.
+The Spaniards at last retired with the loss of 600 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 helmet 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 themselves 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 defenceless citizens, the troops of
+Lorraine evacuated Worms, which, before their departure, they treated
+with wanton cruelty. The Spaniards hastened to shut themselves 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 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 Mentz, 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 conduct 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 80,000 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
+Koningstein surrendered to the Hessians. The Rhinegrave, Otto Louis,
+one of the king’s generals, defeated nine Spanish squadrons who were on
+their march for Frankenthal, 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 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 neighbourhood. 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 neighbouring 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 citadel,
+which was named Gustavusburg from its founder, but which is better known
+under the title of Pfaffenraub or Pfaffenzwang.--[Priests’ plunder;
+alluding to the means by which the expense of its erection had been
+defrayed.]
+
+While Gustavus Adolphus made himself master of the Rhine, and threatened
+the three neighbouring 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 exciting a distrust of his intentions. After the conquest of
+Wurtzburg, and of the greater part of Franconia, 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 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 unfortunate 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 Gustavus 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 continued to form new
+schemes of conquest on the Rhine, and to withhold the reconquered
+country from the Palatine, its rightful owner. In vain did the English
+ambassador remind him of what justice demanded, and what his own solemn
+engagement made a duty of honour; Gustavus 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 encourage 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
+unfaithfully towards his ally, the King of France. But the vindictive
+Bishop of Wurtzburg, who was anxious to 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 common 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 Viceregent of
+Christ in Italy. Such reports no doubt soon refute themselves; yet it
+cannot be denied that Gustavus, by his manoeuvres 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 clamour of discontent which the Jesuits raised in all the
+Catholic courts, against the alliance between France and the enemy of
+the church, at last compelled 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 Emperor and withdrew their troops. Whatever the
+resolution 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
+Gustavus Adolphus, freed from his other enemies in Germany, would be
+able to direct his undivided force against the hereditary dominions 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 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 authors 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 adherence 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 entertain 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 hesitate 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 endeavour 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 purpose, the Marquis of Breze was sent, as his plenipotentiary,
+to the King of Sweden at Mentz, to learn his sentiments on this point,
+and to procure from him favourable 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 invincible, 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 sustained great loss if he diminished their number without
+increasing that of his friends. It was not surprising, therefore, if
+Gustavus evinced little inclination to purchase 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
+conquered 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, Gustavus had agreed to a cessation of hostilities for
+a fortnight. But at the very time when this monarch was receiving from
+the French agents repeated assurances of the favourable progress of the
+negociation, an intercepted letter from the Elector to Pappenheim, the
+imperial general in Westphalia, revealed the perfidy of that prince, as
+having no other object in view by the whole negociation, 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 preparations, and employed the leisure which his enemy afforded him,
+in making the most active dispositions for resistance. The negociation
+accordingly failed, and served only to increase the animosity of the
+Bavarians and the Swedes.
+
+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 condition 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 protection of a heretic, and to
+make the Swedish conqueror master of his destinies. Too weak to
+maintain his independence between two such powerful competitors, he took
+refuge in the protection of France. With his usual prudence, 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
+numerous 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 appeased till he had
+obtained a free passage for his troops through Treves.
+
+Pending these negociations 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 himself, began its march against the
+enemy in Franconia.
+
+The possession of this circle had, in the mean time, been disputed with
+variable success, between Count Tilly and the Swedish General Horn, whom
+Gustavus had left there with 8,000 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 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 demanded 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 20,000 men
+advanced upon Bamberg. 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 artillery, were saved. The
+reconquest of Bamberg was the fruit of this victory; but Tilly, with all
+his activity, was unable 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 compelled him to provide for his own safety by a rapid
+retreat.
+
+The king made a general review of his troops at Aschaffenburg. After
+his junction with Gustavus Horn, Banner, and Duke William of Weimar,
+they amounted to nearly 40,000 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, uncertain
+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 formidable an enemy,
+to leave Bavaria undefended, in order 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 statesman, and Tilly
+received orders, at all hazards, to cover the frontiers of Bavaria with
+his army.
+
+Nuremberg received with triumphant joy the protector 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 himself
+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 impression produced by his glorious exploits, and the
+condescension with which he received the congratulations of this free
+city won all hearts. He now confirmed the alliance he 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
+Maximilian, Duke of Saxe Lauenburg, showed at first a resolute
+determination to defend it till the arrival of Tilly. But the vigour
+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 now 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 opposite 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 stream protected by strong
+garrisons as far as Augsburg; and that town itself, which had long
+betrayed its impatience to follow the example of Nuremberg and
+Frankfort, 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 for ever.
+
+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 quarter, soon appeared on the bank opposite the
+Bavarian entrenchments. 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
+entrenchments, 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 considerations, in order to deter him from this
+dangerous undertaking. The most intrepid were appalled, and a troop of
+honourable warriors, who had grown gray in the field, did not hesitate
+to express their alarm. But the king’s resolution 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 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
+considerable 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 72 field-pieces maintained a cross fire upon the
+enemy. While this tremendous 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 continued 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 60 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 opposite bank,
+while their height served as a breast-work 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
+completed under their very eyes. On this dreadful day, Tilly did every
+thing 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 position 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,
+before a single soldier of the enemy had crossed the Lech, 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 conqueror; 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 Ingolstadt, the
+wounded Tilly, after experiencing the caprice of unstable fortune,
+terminated his career within the walls of that town. Conquered by the
+superior 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 justice, and the avenging manes of
+Magdeburg. In his death, the Imperial army and that of the League
+sustained an irreparable loss; the Roman Catholic religion was deprived
+of its most zealous defender, and Maximilian 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
+message to the Elector was an urgent advice to take possession of
+Ratisbon, in order to maintain the command of the Danube, and to keep
+open the communication with Bohemia.
+
+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 24-pounder killed his horse
+under him, and he fell to the ground, while almost immediately
+afterwards another ball struck his favourite, 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 favoured the
+Protestant 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 favourite project of
+making himself master of the Danube, and cutting off his adversaries’
+supplies from Bohemia. He suddenly raised the siege of Ingolstadt,
+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.
+Mosburg, Landshut, and the whole territory 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 implacable
+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 themselves released from
+all the ties of nature and humanity towards this brood of Satan, and
+justified in committing 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 exercised upon these unhappy victims;
+and the sight of their mangled bodies exasperated the army to a fearful
+retaliation. 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 honour his religion by a more
+constant clemency.
+
+The approach of the king spread terror and consternation 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 disarm 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 this 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 triumphal entry by the brighter splendour 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 architect to
+send to Stockholm.” “That,” he was answered, “the architect will take
+care to prevent.” When the arsenal was examined, they found nothing but
+carriages, stripped of their cannon. The latter had been so artfully
+concealed under the floor, that no traces of them remained; 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 140 pieces of cannon discovered, some of
+extraordinary calibre, which had been principally taken in the
+Palatinate and Bohemia. A treasure of 30,000 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 entrenchments. In this
+expectation 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 bringing
+from Bohemia; and endeavoured, in the mean time, to amuse his enemy and
+keep him inactive, by reviving the negociation 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
+Wallenstein 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 part of Bavaria and Swabia, the
+Bishoprics of Franconia, 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 justified 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 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 affections he had gained, by the double ties of
+policy and religion; and, as long as he should maintain his superiority
+in the field, he might reckon on every thing 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 Lorraine,
+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 superiority within the
+empire, fortune, in another quarter, had been no less favourable 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 Austrian 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
+embracing the cause of the enemy. He had already commenced 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 Emperor to spare the possessions of the King of Saxony.
+
+Ferdinand had perceived too late the errors of that policy, which
+reduced the Elector of Saxony to 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 endeavouring to repair
+the first. To deprive his enemy of so powerful an ally, he had opened,
+through the intervention of Spain, a negociation 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 embarrassment of his adversary and his own importance, and
+emboldened him the more to prosecute the advantages he had already
+obtained. How could he, moreover, without becoming chargeable with the
+most shameful ingratitude, abandon an ally to whom he had given the most
+solemn assurances of fidelity, and to whom he was indebted 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 favourable
+circumstances seemed to ensure 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 favour 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 purchased, 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 the Protestants
+of that kingdom. No external danger, no opposition on the part of the
+nation, however steadfast, 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 peaceful 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 favourable 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 outrages 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
+Tiefenbach to the defence of this capital. Before the imperial orders
+could reach the head-quarters of that general, in Silesia, the Saxons
+were already close to Prague, the 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 Wallenstein, who now lived in
+that city as a private individual. But far from lending his military
+experience, and the weight of his name, towards its defence, he seized
+the favourable 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 succours 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 Friedland, whose
+approbation might supply the want of authority 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 himself, 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 colours. 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 despaired 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,
+despairing 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 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, resembled a friendly salutation,
+more than a hostile reception. From the concurrent reports of these
+people, the Saxons 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 succours 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 astonishment 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
+11th 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 exaggerated, 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 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 indulgence, 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 Wallenstein.
+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, without
+scruple, he appropriated and transported to Dresden the cannon of the
+former. He did not take up his residence in the imperial palace, but
+the house of Lichtenstein; 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 remove these ghastly objects was
+his first care. The exiles again took possession of their properties,
+without thinking 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 every thing which had
+once been their own; and many had reason to rejoice at the economy of
+the late possessors. 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 magazines stored with provisions. But distrusting the
+constancy of that good fortune, which had so unexpectedly smiled upon
+them, they hastened to get quit of these insecure possessions, and to
+convert their immoveable 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
+retained in their adherence to Popery, now openly professed the new
+doctrine; and many of the late converts to Roman Catholicism gladly
+renounced a compulsory persuasion, to follow the earlier conviction of
+their conscience. 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 recovered 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 succours 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
+reinforcement, Arnheim advanced with part of his army from Prague, and
+made a vigorous attack on their entrenchments 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 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 undertakings. 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 Bohemia, 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 themselves. 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
+Netherlands; while Gustavus had driven them from the Rhine. Poland was
+still fettered by the truce which subsisted between that country and
+Sweden. The Hungarian frontier was threatened by the Transylvanian
+Prince, Ragotsky, a successor of Bethlen Gabor, and the inheritor of his
+restless mind; while the Porte was making great preparation to profit by
+the favourable conjuncture for aggression. 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, magazines, 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 continuance of good fortune, such brilliant
+victories and extensive 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 commencement of his reign. If Bavaria
+should embrace the neutrality; 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 revealed 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 concentrated in himself the whole strength of
+his party; and, unfettered in his enterprises by any higher authority,
+was complete master of every favourable opportunity, could control all
+his means to the accomplishment of his ends, and was responsible to none
+but himself. But since Wallenstein’s dismissal, and Tilly’s defeat, the
+very reverse 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 manner 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 Emperor 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 Austrian
+monarchy.
+
+This choice now occupied the attention of the Emperor’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 ardour 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, prevented 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
+expectations. 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 indispensable to him in the conduct of the war. None
+but the beloved heir to the crown could venture to impose 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 rigour. If so young a leader was devoid of the
+maturity of judgment, prudence, and military 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 difficulties not less serious,
+arising from the distrust, perhaps even the jealousy, of the Emperor,
+and also from the desperate 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 experience; 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 country, 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 commence 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
+dependence on equivocal allies, which he was endeavouring 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 activity, should be fit to
+cope with the experienced troops 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 ordinary 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 favours, to
+absolve him from 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 possible 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 between 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 surmount 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 labouring. 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. Wallenstein required
+15,000 men from the king; and with these, and the troops he himself
+engaged to raise, he 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 excite 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,
+encouraged by the favourable 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 endeavoured to renew the negociation; but the favourable
+moment was past, and Wallenstein’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 enterprise, 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 control, 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 munificence; but he never could so far lose sight of his own
+dignity, and the majesty of royalty, as to bestow the recompense which
+the extravagant ambition of Wallenstein demanded; and requite an act of
+treason, however useful, with a crown. In him, therefore, even if all
+Europe should tacitly acquiesce, Wallenstein 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 obligations 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 unalterable; 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 maintained 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
+succeeded 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.
+
+But whatever course he might follow in the prosecution of his designs,
+he could not carry them into effect without an army entirely devoted to
+him. Such a force could not be secretly raised without its coming to
+the knowledge 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
+favour of the Emperor a limited power, when an unlimited authority 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 laboured 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 delivery of the capital to the enemy. At
+a conference with the Saxon general, which was held at Kaunitz under the
+pretext of negociating for a peace, the seal was put to the conspiracy,
+and the conquest of Bohemia was the first fruits of this mutual
+understanding. While Wallenstein was thus personally endeavouring 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 convince 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 40,000
+men, the little expense at which he had maintained this formidable
+force, the actions he had performed at its head, and lastly, the zeal
+and fidelity he had displayed for his master’s honour, 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. However sensibly the
+imperial pride might feel the humiliation, 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
+pressure of necessity finally overcame every other consideration, and
+the friends of the duke were empowered to consult him on the subject,
+and to hold out the prospect 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
+vengeance 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
+independence, to sacrifice to the vain phantom of glory, the uncertain
+favour 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 negociations, came to Znaim in Moravia.
+
+At first, it was proposed to limit the authority to be intrusted 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 propose 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 negociation. “No! never,” exclaimed Wallenstein,
+“will I submit to a colleague in my office. No--not even if it were God
+himself, with whom I should have to share my command.” But even when
+this obnoxious point was given up, Prince Eggenberg, the Emperor’s
+minister and favourite, 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
+Wallenstein, thrown away the most costly jewel in his 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 favour for him undiminished. Of these sentiments he now
+gave the most decisive proof, by reposing unlimited confidence 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 services, 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 favour the ambassadors
+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
+Emperor, 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
+master. And yet Ferdinand congratulated himself, even in having gained
+so much as he had.
+
+Wallenstein did not long delay to fulfil those promises 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 experienced 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. No 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
+200,000 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 Cossacks, and Italy
+with warlike necessaries. Before the three months were expired, the
+army which was assembled in Moravia, amounted to no less than 40,000
+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 to his own relations, creatures, and
+favourites. He, and he alone, could discharge to the troops the
+extravagant promises by which they had been lured into his service. His
+pledged word was the only security on which their bold expectations
+rested; a blind reliance on his omnipotence, 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 Emperor into consenting to his
+extravagant conditions. The 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 surrounded 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 was 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 renown 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, reluctantly enough, to relinquish for a time
+his blissful repose.”
+
+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 magnanimity 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 suppliant might be converted into the sovereign,
+and that the monarch might not avenge his injured dignity on his
+rebellious subject. However greatly Ferdinand may have erred, the
+Emperor at least had a claim to obedience; 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 recompensed 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 command.
+
+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 uncontrolled 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 pension or letter of
+grace, was to be granted by the Emperor without Wallenstein’s approval.
+All the conquests and 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 extraordinary 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 purchased. 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 rebellion 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
+Wallenstein 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 of
+their destinies; insensibly to supplant his sovereign, and to transfer
+permanently to his own person the rights of 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 to
+allow any prince of the house of Austria to be present with the army.
+The liberty of free disposal of all the 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 undermine 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 favourable to his daring project, this treaty with the Emperor
+facilitated 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 bind 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 commander-in-chief worthy
+of the name. Every other authority in the army, even that of the
+Emperor himself, ceased from the moment Wallenstein assumed the
+commander’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 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,
+contented with harassing the enemy with indecisive skirmishes 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 negociation. 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 remembered 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, moreover, 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 negociation. Suddenly 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
+negociations 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 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 conqueror: and the whole kingdom was restored to its
+legitimate 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
+Saxony, 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 he was to make his will bend to circumstances,
+he now perceived the necessity of postponing his favourite scheme for a
+time, to a more pressing emergency. While he was driving the Saxons
+from Bohemia, Gustavus Adolphus had been gaining the victories, already
+detailed, on the Rhine and the 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 to Wallenstein, and entreated him, till he could himself come
+with the main force, to despatch in the mean time 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 sacrificed his authority,
+in surrendering to another the supreme command of his troops.
+Indifferent to Maximilian’s entreaties, and deaf to the Emperor’s
+repeated commands, Wallenstein remained inactive in Bohemia, and
+abandoned 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 revenging this affront had now arrived, and
+Maximilian was doomed to pay dearly for his folly, in provoking the most
+revengeful of men. Wallenstein 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
+intercepting 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
+leaving 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 of
+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
+was ready to bear 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
+unlimited 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 imperious a spirit, flattered in the same degree the haughtiness of
+Wallenstein. An obstinate dispute ensued, which, however, terminated in
+a mutual compromise to Wallenstein’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 conjunction 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, while 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 to nearly 60,000 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 endeavour 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 favouring the
+entrance 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
+Palatinate, 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 existence. 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 concentrate 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. Indifferent to danger or
+difficulty, while he obeyed the call of humanity or honour, he chose the
+first without hesitation, 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 and suburbs with
+redoubts, and to form an entrenched camp. Several thousand workmen
+immediately commenced this extensive work, and an heroic determination
+to hazard life and property in the common cause, animated the
+inhabitants of Nuremberg. A trench, eight feet deep and twelve broad,
+surrounded the whole fortification; the lines were defended by redoubts
+and batteries, 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 cannon defended the town-walls and the intrenchments. The
+peasantry from the neighbouring 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, which 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 ordered his generals on the Rhine, in Thuringia 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 16,000 men, scarcely a third of the
+enemy.
+
+The Imperialists had, in the mean time, by slow marches, advanced to
+Neumark, where Wallenstein made a general review. At the sight of this
+formidable force, he could not refrain from indulging in a childish
+boast: “In four days,” said he, “it will be shown whether I or the King
+of Sweden is to be master of the world.” Yet, notwithstanding 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.” Wallenstein’s well-founded reputation required not
+any of those rash enterprises on which younger soldiers rush, in the
+hope of gaining a name. Satisfied that the enemy’s despair would dearly
+sell a victory, while a defeat would irretrievably ruin the Emperor’s
+affairs, he resolved to wear out the ardour 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 supplies 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 the strength of his
+adversary, Wallenstein had not taken sufficient precautions to avert
+from himself the fate he was designing for others. From the whole of
+the neighbouring 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 skirmishes between the Croats and the Swedish cavalry,
+of which the surrounding country exhibited the most melancholy traces.
+The necessaries of life must be obtained sword in hand; and the foraging
+parties could not venture out without a numerous escort. And when this
+supply failed, the town opened its magazines to the 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 favoured 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 1,200 cattle carried off; and a
+thousand waggons, 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 400 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 Nuremberg 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 compelled to give way.
+
+Fifteen days had the two armies now remained in view of each other,
+equally defended by inaccessible entrenchments, without attempting
+anything more than slight attacks and unimportant skirmishes. On both
+sides, infectious 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 succours
+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 Franconia, was joined by four Saxon regiments,
+and at Kitzingen by the corps of the Rhine, which the Landgrave 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 Windsheim 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 50,000
+men, and was attended by a train of 60 pieces of cannon, and 4,000
+baggage waggons. Gustavus now saw himself at the head of an army of
+nearly 70,000 strong, without reckoning the militia of Nuremberg, which,
+in case of necessity, could bring into the field about 30,000 fighting
+men; a formidable force, opposed to another not less formidable. 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
+contending parties was fearfully drawn, as it were, to a focus.
+
+If, before the arrival of the Swedish succours, a want of provisions had
+been felt, the evil was now fearfully increased to a dreadful height in
+both camps, for Wallenstein had also received reinforcements from
+Bavaria. Besides the 120,000 men confronted to each other, and more
+than 50,000 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 15,000 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
+preventing such excesses, Gustavus’s care for the morals of his soldiers
+promoted marriages. For the rising generation, who had this camp for
+their home and country, regular military schools were established, which
+educated 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 15,000 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 25th day, forming before
+the enemy in order of battle, while he cannonaded the duke’s camp from
+three batteries erected on the side of the Rednitz. But the duke
+remained immoveable in his entrenchments, 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 overcome his resolute determination; and neither the
+remonstrances 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.
+
+Intrusting 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 trenches
+surrounded inaccessible redoubts, while thick barricadoes, with pointed
+palisades, defended the approaches 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
+destruction. Against this dangerous post Gustavus now directed 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. Exposed to the whole
+fire of the enemy’s artillery, and infuriate by the prospect of
+inevitable death, these determined 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 honour. 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 hours’ 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 mean time, a sharp contest had taken place between 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 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
+undiminished 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 requesting 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 commanded 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 abandoned. Diffident of
+fortune, which forsook him on this decisive day, the king did not
+venture the following morning to renew the attack with his exhausted
+troops; and vanquished 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 remained 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, distinguished themselves for the ravages they practised
+indiscriminately 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, bespoke the
+liveliness of his emotion. “It is you yourselves, 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
+within 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 40 tons of gold;
+--[A ton of gold in Sweden amounts to 100,000 rix dollars.]--while from
+your German empire I have not received the least aid. I gave you a
+share of all that God had given to me; and had ye regarded my orders, I
+would have gladly shared with you all my future acquisitions. Your want
+of discipline convinces 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 10,000 of its inhabitants,
+and Gustavus Adolphus nearly 20,000 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 odours 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 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 September, 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 Windsheim
+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
+neighbourhood, announced 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 mean time, 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 60,000
+men, diminished by the sword, desertion, and disease, to about 24,000,
+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 advancing 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.
+Indifferent towards the fate of that country, and weary of the restraint
+which his union with the Elector imposed upon him, the Duke of Friedland
+eagerly seized the opportunity of separating from this burdensome
+associate, and prosecuting, with renewed earnestness, his favourite
+plans. Still adhering to his purpose of detaching Saxony from its
+Swedish alliance, he selected that country for his winter quarters,
+hoping by his destructive presence to force the Elector the more readily
+into his views.
+
+No conjuncture could be more favourable for his designs. The Saxons had
+invaded Silesia, where, reinforced by troops from Brandenburgh 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 interests,
+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, while the
+increasing coldness 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 abandoned by his artful protector, the
+Elector separated from Wallenstein at Bamberg, to protect his
+defenceless territory with the small remains of his troops, while the
+imperial army, under Wallenstein, directed its march through Bayreuth
+and Coburg towards the Thuringian Forest.
+
+An imperial general, Holk, had previously been sent into Vogtland with
+6,000 men, to waste this defenceless province with fire and sword, he
+was soon followed by Gallas, another of the Duke’s generals, and an
+equally faithful instrument of his inhuman orders. Finally, Pappenheim,
+too, was recalled from Lower Saxony, 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, families
+plundered, and murdered peasants, marked the progress of these
+barbarians, under whose scourge the whole of Thuringia, Vogtland, and
+Meissen, lay defenceless. 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 approached 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 farther reinforced by the troops of George, Duke
+of Luneburg, from Lower Saxony, he hastily retired upon Meresberg, to
+form a junction there with Count Pappenheim, and to repel the further
+advance of the Swedes.
+
+Gustavus Adolphus had witnessed, with great uneasiness, 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, every
+demand, however reasonable, which he addressed to the princes of the
+Empire, was followed by bitter complaints 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 common, manifested the
+same jealousy as divided their leaders. John George’s natural aversion
+to war, and a lingering attachment to Austria, favoured the efforts of
+Arnheim; who, maintaining a constant correspondence with Wallenstein,
+laboured 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 consequences 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
+remonstrances had hitherto had some effect upon the Elector. But the
+formidable power with which the Emperor seconded 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 resolved 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 neutrality. 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, but merely for the
+injuries he had it in his power to inflict. 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
+Wallenstein through Thuringia. Duke Bernard of Weimar, who had been
+despatched to act against Pappenheim, joined the king at Armstadt, who
+now saw himself at the head of 20,000 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 despatched 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 honour of touching the sheath of his
+sword, or the hem 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 mortality!” How amiable does Gustavus
+appear before us at this moment, when about to leave us for ever! Even
+in the plenitude of success, he honours an avenging Nemesis, declines
+that homage which is due only to the Immortal, and strengthens his title
+to our tears, the nearer the moment approaches that is to call them
+forth!
+
+In the mean time, the Duke of Friedland had determined 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, 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 Naumburg 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 entrenching
+himself near Naumburg, with the intention of awaiting there the
+reinforcements 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 so much in need of repose.
+All voices were in favour 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 Pappenheim 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 neighbouring towns, to watch, on all sides, the
+motions of the enemy. Count Colloredo guarded the castle of
+Weissenfels, and Wallenstein himself encamped with the remainder not far
+from Merseburg, between Flotzgaben and the Saal, from whence he purposed
+to march to Leipzig, and to cut off the communication 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 advanced,
+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 12,000
+men to oppose to the 20,000 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 communication with
+Leipzig and the Saxon auxiliaries.
+
+Three cannon shots, fired by Count Colloredo from the castle of
+Weissenfels, announced the king’s approach; and at this concerted
+signal, the light troops of the Duke of Friedland, under the command of
+the Croatian General 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 themselves along the opposite
+side. To the northward, behind Lutzen, was Wallenstein’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 300 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-waggons 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 arrangements 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 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
+before at Leipzig. 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 command of
+Count Brahe; the cavalry on the wings; the artillery in front. To the
+German hero, Bernard, Duke of Weimar, was intrusted 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 emulation 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 the
+combatants, was to render so terrible and remarkable. The strained
+expectation of Europe, so disappointed before Nuremberg, 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 morning 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 victory was as yet
+doubtful, but certain were the labour and the bloodshed by which it must
+be earned. Every private in both armies, felt a jealous share in their
+leader’s reputation, 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 fateful morning dawned; but an impenetrable 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 moment 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 prevented his wearing armour,) rode along the ranks,
+to animate the courage of his troops with a joyful confidence, which,
+however, the forboding presentiment of his own bosom contradicted. “God
+with us!” was the war-cry of the Swedes; “Jesus Maria!” that of the
+Imperialists. 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
+progress. 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 left no room for fire-arms,
+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 captured 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 mean time, 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 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 windmills 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 Steinbock, 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 Lauenburg, 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 imperial Gefreyter,--[A person exempt
+from watching duty, nearly corresponding to the corporal.]--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
+squadron came hurrying up, and a confused 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
+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, Smaeland, 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 Knyphausen, advanced a second time
+against the trenches, which they successfully passed, and retook the
+battery of seven cannons. The attack was now renewed with redoubled
+fury upon the heavy battalions of the enemy’s centre; their resistance
+became gradually less, and chance conspired with Swedish valour to
+complete the defeat. The imperial powder-waggons took fire, and, with a
+tremendous 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 plundering 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 presence 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. Pappenheim’s unexpected appearance revived the drooping
+courage of the Imperialists, and the Duke of Friedland quickly availed
+himself of the favourable moment to re-form his line. The closely
+serried battalions 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 distinguished themselves in this dreadful day, lay
+dead on the field, covering the ground almost in the same excellent
+order 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. Around 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. While 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 same 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. 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, compelled to keep their ground. The
+Swedish infantry, with prompt determination, profited by the enemy’s
+confusion. To fill up the gaps which death 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. Wallenstein, 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
+considerable a reinforcement would perhaps have decided the day in
+favour of the Imperialists; and, even now, by remaining 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 followed on the
+morrow by the scattered remains of his army, without artillery, without
+colours, and almost without 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 9,000 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, he
+was present 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
+40,000 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 ardour. 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, 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 impressed
+upon the forehead of the child. As a faithful servant 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, bearing 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 honour 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 honour of victory, by sending 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 Bernard, 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 contest 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
+recognised, trampled beneath the horses’ hoofs, stripped by the rude
+hands of plunderers of its ornaments and clothes, his body was drawn
+from beneath a heap of dead, 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
+appearances 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 Gustavus Adolphus. 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 instigation. 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, Duke of Saxe Lauenburg. The rank of the latter permitted 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 foundation of an irreconcileable hate in the vindictive
+heart of the duke. Francis Albert subsequently entered the imperial
+service, where he rose to the command of a regiment, and formed a close
+intimacy with Wallenstein, and condescended to be the instrument of a
+secret negociation with the Saxon court, which did little honour 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 gained
+the heart of the king, who, warned in vain by Oxenstiern, continued to
+lavish his favour and friendship on this suspicious new comer. 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 colour 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 received before Schweidnitz. It requires some effort to
+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 honour 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 human 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 principle 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 terminated; 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 equivocal assistance of an
+over-powerful protector, gave place to 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 emancipation, 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 unquestionably 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 inviolate 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 Brandenburg, as the dower of his
+daughter Christina, and afterwards 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 Protestant
+princes, had claims on his gratitude, which could be satisfied only at
+the expense of their Roman Catholic neighbours, and particularly of the
+immediate Ecclesiastical 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 German empire,) as a common
+spoil, among the German and Swedish confederates. In his treatment of
+the Elector 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 honour demanded its
+full and immediate restoration to the legitimate sovereign. But, by a
+subtlety unworthy of a great mind, and disgraceful to the honourable
+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 circumstance gave him a right to deal with it as he pleased.
+He surrendered it to the Elector as a favour, not as a debt; and that,
+too, as a Swedish fief, fettered by conditions which diminished half its
+value, and degraded this unfortunate prince into a 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 liberties of Germany, and saved his reputation, while it probably
+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 past 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 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 inevitable 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 disadvantageous to the allied
+powers. With the death of Gustavus 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 favourable for the Emperor, not to
+justify him in entertaining the most brilliant expectations, and not to
+encourage 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 enemies? 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 naturally determined, therefore,
+to continue the war, and for this purpose, the maintenance of the
+existing union was acknowledged 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 establish 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 obligation 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 common 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 that 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 conducted chiefly on the resources of
+Germany, yet even the small contribution of men and money, which Sweden
+furnished, 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 Germany 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 reconciled 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.
+
+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 sacrificed. 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 and honour; and with agreeable surprise, men beheld this
+venerable senate acting with all the energy and enthusiasm of youth.
+Surrounded 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 laboured 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 Sigismund, 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 IV. 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 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 Sweden. 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 ascendancy 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 encroaching 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 continue 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 was as
+honourable, as the latter was disgraceful. The more boldness the
+regency displayed, the more confidence would they inspire among their
+confederates, the more respect among their enemies, and the more
+favourable conditions 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
+determination, 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 honourable superintendence of all the
+operations, both military and political.
+
+But this superintendence was irreconcileable 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 intrusted 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 maintain its dignity, to enforce united and
+combined operations, 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, who, 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 instrument 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 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 qualified to repair it. His penetrating glance foresaw all the
+obstacles which would oppose the execution of his plans, the
+discouragement of the estates, the intrigues of hostile courts, the
+breaking up of the confederacy, the jealousy 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 essential 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 pursued, which of these alternatives they would adopt.
+Every thing might be lost by the slightest sign of despondency; nothing,
+but the confidence which Sweden showed in herself, could kindle among
+the Germans a noble feeling 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 necessary points settled
+between the regency and their minister, 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, 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 a universal amnesty, and
+to meet the Protestant states with favourable 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 infatuated by Spanish counsels,
+he anticipated a more brilliant issue from war, and, instead of
+listening to these propositions of an accommodation, he hastened to
+augment his forces. Spain, enriched by the grant of the tenth of the
+ecclesiastical possessions, which the pope confirmed, sent him
+considerable supplies, negociated 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 favourable 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 Upper Germany, which he had secured by conquests and
+alliances, and set out in person to prevent a total defection of the
+Lower German 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, and inwardly
+exasperated at the thought of being dictated to by a Swedish nobleman,
+the Elector of Saxony again meditated a dangerous 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
+Protestants and form a third party in Germany. Similar ideas were
+cherished by Duke Ulric of Brunswick, who, indeed, showed them openly
+enough by forbidding the Swedes from recruiting within his dominions,
+and inviting 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 honourably 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. Sweden was at the time in possession
+of the See of Magdeburg, 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 endeavours, 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 assistance 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 splendour 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 possibility of
+reconciliation, by so decided a step, and to place 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
+chancellor. 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, what 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 complaints;
+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 deliberations, 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 every thing
+depended 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
+custom, to which even the most powerful of the emperors had been obliged
+to conform, he rejected all written deliberations which suited so well
+with the national slowness of resolve. He could not conceive how ten
+days could be spent in debating a measure, which with himself 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 head
+and a director to the new confederation, that honour was unanimously
+assigned to Sweden, and he himself was humbly requested to give to the
+common cause the benefit of his enlightened experience, and to take upon
+himself 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 authority, which could not fail to trammel him in
+the execution of every enterprise requiring promptitude or secrecy, and
+at last succeeded, with difficulty, in obtaining 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
+indemnification which Sweden was to expect at the conclusion of the war,
+from the gratitude of the allies, and flattered himself 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
+cooperation 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
+manifest from the liberality they evinced towards the chancellor, 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 with difficulty did the French ambassador succeed in preventing
+a step, which was as impolitic as it was disgraceful. Though on the
+whole, the result of the congress 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 confederacy; he had also
+succeeded in strengthening the bond of union between the four upper
+circles, and obtained from the states a yearly contribution of two
+millions 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 prospect of a brighter future was opening, when
+death deprived him of his protector. But what he regarded as the
+greatest calamity, was highly favourable 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 immediately fulfilling the
+obligations of justice. At this assembly, 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 conquered, 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 dispensed at little cost to
+herself.
+
+Impartiality, the most sacred obligation of the historian, here compels
+us to an admission, not much to the honour of the champions of German
+liberty. However the Protestant Princes might boast of the justice of
+their 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, as 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 Ecclesiastical domains, and the Austrian counties
+lying within his territories, all under the title of fiefs of Sweden.
+This spectacle, so strange and so dishonourable 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 everlasting 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 vigour. 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
+Lusatia and 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.
+
+The conquests on the Lech and the Danube, during Gustavus’s 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 experience 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, Colmar, 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 16,000, they could not prevent
+the enemy from obtaining a strong position on the Swabian frontier,
+taking Kempten, 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 Rhinegrave Otto
+Louis from Alsace, where he had, after the departure of Horn, found it
+difficult 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 territory of Bamberg, 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 Eichstadt
+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 progress of the
+enemy. The most favourable circumstances 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,
+stormings, and pitched battles; for it was Gustavus’s 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
+conquered 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 Adolphus, the combined influence of fear and hope
+had suppressed 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,
+Pfuhl and Mitschefal, 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 services. “Immense
+sums,” they said, “were daily raised by contributions, and all
+dissipated by a few. They were called out to serve amidst frost and
+snow, and no reward requited their incessant labours. The soldiers’
+excesses at Heilbronn had been blamed, but no one ever talked of their
+services. The world rung with the tidings of conquests 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 this mutiny, while the vehemence 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 embarrassed 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 favourite 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 himself, and to make the embarrassment 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 Bishoprics 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 influence, so irritated
+Oxenstiern, that, in the first moment 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 Koenigshofen,
+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 Neumark, directed his march towards the Swabian frontier,
+where the Imperialists, strongly reinforced, threatened Wuertemberg. At
+his approach, the enemy retired to the Lake of Constance, but only to
+show the Swedes the road into a district hitherto unvisited 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 confederated cantons.
+Accordingly, Gustavus Horn immediately 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 vigour, 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 neighbourhood, and hastened to meet a
+more threatening danger upon the Danube.
+
+At the Emperor’s instigation, the Cardinal Infante, the brother of
+Philip IV. of Spain, and the Viceroy of Milan, had raised an army of
+14,000 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 30,000 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 mean time, Duke Bernard of Weimar had taken up his position on
+the Danube, with eighteen regiments of infantry and 140 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 would
+ensure 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 companies, mostly
+newly-raised soldiers; although that number 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 danger which the
+Bavarian garrison had to contend against. The Protestant inhabitants of
+Ratisbon, equally jealous of their civil and religious freedom, had
+unwillingly submitted 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 5,000 men. Seven messengers in succession
+were despatched by Ferdinand to Wallenstein, who promised immediate
+succours, and even announced to the Elector the near advance of 12,000
+men under Gallas; but at the same time forbade that general, under pain
+of death, to march. Meanwhile the Bavarian commandant of Ratisbon, 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 consulted his own safety, and that of
+the garrison, by an honourable 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 peasantry 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 tenable position,
+and no entrenchment 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
+Palatinate against Wallenstein, and fully resolved not to decline a
+battle, if necessary, with that general. But Wallenstein, 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 conducted by Gustavus
+Horn, and on the Upper and Lower Rhine by the Palatine of Birkenfeld,
+General Baudissen, 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 Cassel. The fortress of Hamel 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
+cannon, the whole baggage of the Imperialists, together with 74 colours,
+fell into the hands of the Swedes; 3,000 of the enemy perished on the
+field, and nearly the same number were taken prisoners. The town of
+Osnaburg surrendered to the Swedish Colonel Knyphausen, and Paderborn to
+the Landgrave of Hesse; while, on the other hand, Bueckeburg, 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 attentively awaiting those exploits, which should efface the
+remembrance of his defeat, and still prove to the world his military
+superiority. Nevertheless, he continued inactive 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 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
+honoured by splendid monuments. During the winter, he oppressed the
+imperial provinces by enormous contributions, and exhausted the Austrian
+territories 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, and 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 hindrance, 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 between 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.
+
+His army amounted to 40,000 men, while to oppose him the allies had only
+24,000. They nevertheless resolved to give him battle, and marched to
+Munsterberg, where he had formed an intrenched 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, emboldened 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
+conference. The purport was, that Wallenstein, notwithstanding his
+superiority, was willing to agree to a cessation of arms for six weeks.
+“He was come,” he said, “to conclude 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 Austrian 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 second conference, he expressed himself still more plainly to
+Count Thurn. “All the privileges of the Bohemians,” he engaged, “should
+be confirmed anew, the exiles recalled 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 the Turks.” The last article
+explained the whole mystery. “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 Margraviate of Moravia as a compensation for
+Mecklenburg. The allied armies would then, under his command, advance
+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 Emperor, in the face of the
+remonstrances of Bavaria and Spain, and at the expense of his own
+reputation, to confer upon this imperious leader such an unlimited
+command. But this belief in Wallenstein’s being invincible, had been
+much weakened by his inaction, and almost entirely overthrown by the
+defeat at Lutzen. His enemies at the imperial court now renewed their
+intrigues; and the Emperor’s disappointment at the failure of his hopes,
+procured for their remonstrances a favourable reception. Wallenstein’s
+whole conduct was now reviewed with 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
+complaints of the Austrian subjects against his boundless oppression;
+his fidelity was questioned, and alarming hints thrown out as to his
+secret views. These insinuations, which the conduct of the duke seemed
+but too well to justify, failed not to make a deep impression on
+Ferdinand; but the step had been taken, and the great power with which
+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 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. Wallenstein 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
+labours, he must accelerate the accomplishment of his long meditated
+designs. He secured the attachment of his troops by removing the
+doubtful officers, 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 therefore he reckoned upon
+their gratitude. At the very moment when he meditated an unparalleled
+act of ingratitude 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, 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 advisable to secure the sanction of
+France to his bold undertaking. For this purpose, a secret negociation
+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 French 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 expectations to be likely to be accepted. Feuquieres,
+therefore, could not believe that the duke could be serious in
+calculating 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 distrusted the views of Wallenstein, and
+disliked his plans. Although it was no secret to Oxenstiern, that the
+duke had formerly entered into a similar negociation with Gustavus
+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 conduct, 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 prudence than his honesty.
+
+Oxenstiern’s doubts at last affected Arnheim himself, who, in full
+confidence in Wallenstein’s sincerity, had repaired 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, 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 endeavouring 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
+difficulty. All confidence in his sincerity was lost; his whole conduct
+was regarded as a tissue of deceit and low cunning, 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
+reduced 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 decisive blow to be struck, he suddenly renewed the
+negociations; and when the truce lulled the allies into security, he as
+suddenly recommenced hostilities. All these contradictions arose out of
+the double and irreconcileable designs to ruin at once the Emperor and
+the Swedes, and to conclude a separate peace with the Saxons.
+
+Impatient at the ill success of his negociations, 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 Holk, from Bohemia, had attacked the circle of
+Meissen, laid waste every thing 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 movement, as if he designed to
+penetrate through Lusatia into Saxony, and circulated the report that
+Piccolomini had 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 Meissen, and then suddenly turning
+towards the Oder, surprised the Swedish army in the most complete
+security. Their cavalry were first beaten by General Schafgotsch, 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 2,500 men,
+against more than 20,000, or surrender at discretion. But there was no
+room for deliberation. The army surrendered, and the most complete
+victory was obtained without bloodshed. Colours, 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 a still
+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 who 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 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 Brieg, 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
+forwards 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 advantages already obtained; and
+therefore, even with the sword in his hand, he continued his
+negociations for peace with Brandenburg and Saxony, but with no better
+success than before, as the inconsistencies of his conduct had destroyed
+all confidence in his sincerity. He was therefore 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, therefore, he immediately set out for
+the Upper Palatinate, and his retreat freed Upper Saxony for ever of
+this formidable 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 reiterated remonstrances, despatched from Bohemia a
+reinforcement 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 acting merely on the defensive. He referred the
+Emperor and the Elector, whenever they applied to him for aid, to
+Altringer, who, as he publicly gave out, had received 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 before Ratisbon, and the Emperor as well as
+the Elector repeated still more urgently their demand for succour, he
+pretended he was about to despatch General Gallas with a considerable
+army to the Danube; but this movement also was delayed, and Ratisbon,
+Straubing, and Cham, as well as the bishopric of Eichstaedt, 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
+himself 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 hereditary dominions of the Emperor; and
+on this plea, he remained firmly fixed in Bohemia, which 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 conclude 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
+behaviour towards the enemy, tended at last to convince the Emperor of
+the truth of those unfavourable reports with regard to the Duke, which
+were current through Germany. The latter had, for a long time,
+succeeded in glozing over his criminal correspondence with the enemy,
+and persuading the Emperor, still prepossessed in his favour, that the
+sole object of his secret conferences was to obtain peace for 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 rumours,
+Ferdinand had already, at different times, sent spies into Wallenstein’s
+camp; but as the Duke took the precaution never to commit anything to
+writing, they returned with nothing but conjectures. But when, at last,
+those ministers who formerly had 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
+threatened, 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 subsidies 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 compact with himself was regarded as at an
+end, and that 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 execution the plans
+which he had originally formed only with the view to aggrandizement. He
+had delayed too long, either because the favourable 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 favour of the stars. The first step was to
+assure himself of the sentiments of his principal officers, and then to
+try the attachment of the army, which he 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, advising 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 rewarded. 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 devotion of his officers, was founded merely on
+the favours 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 Emperor. Count Piccolomini, who had distinguished
+himself 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 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 warnings 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 mean time, in expectation of their speedy arrival,
+proceeded to execute his designs.
+
+It was no light task that he had to perform: a nobleman, proud, brave,
+and jealous of his honour, was to declare himself capable of the basest
+treachery, in the very presence of those who had been accustomed to
+regard 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
+consecrated 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 favour of his sovereign. But, blinded by the splendour of a
+crown, Wallenstein observed not the precipice 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 government, in which a lawless soldiery indulged, and
+which the wild licence of the camp excused, he thought he read the
+sentiments of the army; and the boldness with which they were ready to
+censure the monarch’s measures, passed with him for a readiness to
+renounce their allegiance 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 distinguishing
+how much he owed to himself, and how much to the dignity with which he
+was invested. All trembled before him, while he exercised a legitimate
+authority, while obedience 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 legitimate greatness alone
+can inspire reverence and submission; 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 maintained,
+“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 other, they endeavoured 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 harassing 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 everywhere 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 inability to keep his engagements to the army. For all the services
+which, for two 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 disgraceful 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 what, 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 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 deputation. 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 EMPEROR’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 entertainment, 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
+affected with the wine, that he 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 contrived 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 commanders 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
+antichamber, they returned to apologize for their late conduct, and
+offered to sign the paper anew.
+
+Nothing now remained, but to obtain a similar assurance from the absent
+generals, or, on their refusal, to seize their persons. Wallenstein
+renewed his invitation to them, and earnestly urged them to hasten their
+arrival. But a rumour of the doings at Pilsen reached them on their
+journey, and suddenly stopped their further progress. Altringer, on
+pretence of sickness, remained in the strong fortress of Frauenberg.
+Gallas made his appearance, but merely with the design of better
+qualifying himself as an eyewitness, to keep the Emperor informed of all
+Wallenstein’s proceedings. The intelligence which he and Piccolomini
+gave, at once converted the suspicions of the court into an alarming
+certainty. Similar disclosures, which were at the same time made from
+other quarters, left no room for farther doubt; and the sudden change of
+the commanders in Austria and Silesia, appeared 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 live. 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 Lieutenant-General
+Gallas, till a new generalissimo 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 committed at Pilsen.
+
+General Gallas was not pleased with the honour 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 commission,
+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 was 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 calculated 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 suspicions, 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 not fail, as he went along, to
+make use of the imperial patent, and the sentiments of the troops proved
+more favourable 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 himself 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, Piccolomini 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
+surprise the duke in Pilsen. Another army under General Suys hastened
+to Prague, to secure that capital in its allegiance, 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 universally 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. Immediately 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 advance upon Prague,
+where he intended to throw off the mask, and openly to declare against
+the Emperor. All the troops were to assemble before that city, and from
+thence to pour down with rapidity upon Austria. Duke Bernard, 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 march 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
+expectation, he awaited the intelligence from Prague, he suddenly
+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.
+Suddenly 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 circumstances 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 absolutely 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 sincerity of his intentions, and were
+aware of his necessities, they no longer hesitated to embrace the
+favourable opportunity, and to offer him their protection. On the part
+of Saxony, the Duke Francis Albert of Saxe Lauenberg was to join him
+with 4,000 men; and Duke Bernard, and the Palatine Christian of
+Birkenfeld, with 6,000 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 facilitate 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 General Schafgotsch was preparing for him in Silesia, and
+flattered himself with the hope that many even of those who had forsaken
+him, would return with the first dawning 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 dethroning
+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
+certainty for uncertainty. The enemy will avail themselves of your
+personal influence, while the opportunity lasts; but you will ever be
+regarded with suspicion, and they will always be fearful lest you should
+treat them as you have done the Emperor. Return, then, to your
+allegiance, while there is yet time.”--“And how is that to be done?”
+ said Wallenstein, interrupting him: “You have 40,000 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 distinguishing
+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
+labouring to represent you as a false villain. At the Imperial Court, a
+man is sure to be welcome with 40,000 ducats, and Friedland will be
+again as he was at the 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 energetically pushing his
+negociations with the enemy, consulting 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 one Leslie, an Irishman, and had made his fortune.
+
+   [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.--Ed.]
+
+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 Buttler, and to Lieutenant-Colonel Gordon, two
+Protestant Scotchmen, the treasonable designs of the duke, which the
+latter had imprudently enough communicated to him during the journey.
+In these two individuals, he had found men capable of a determined
+resolution. They were now called on to choose between treason and duty,
+between their legitimate sovereign and a fugitive abandoned rebel; and
+though the latter was their common 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
+favourable; 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 Wallenstein, 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 honour 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
+disclosed to this officer his intention to deliver up Egra and
+Ellenbogen, the passes of the kingdom, to the Palatine of Birkenfeld,
+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
+disclosures, which Leslie immediately communicated 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
+anticipate 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 apartment close to the banqueting-room, who, on
+a concerted signal, were to rush in and kill the traitors. Without
+suspecting the danger that hung over them, the guests gaily abandoned
+themselves 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 Neumann,
+“and then he hopes to bathe his hands in Austrian blood.” During this
+conversation, the dessert was brought in, and Leslie gave the concerted
+signal to raise the drawbridges, 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!” 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 recognised 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
+honourably. 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 requisite to allay the tumult. He hastily detailed to them all
+the circumstances of Wallenstein’s conspiracy, the measures 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 partisans 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 illustrious a life. They saw before their
+mind’s eye him 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 antichamber, 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
+words 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
+learnt 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
+Deveroux 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 halberds, 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
+succeeded, 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. Fortunately, 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, chamberlains’ 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 possessed 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 strikingly 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 followers, 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 the
+soldiers work by the latter, it is on the former that the general
+depends. He continually kept up the obedience 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, promoted him on the spot to the rank of Colonel. His
+comprehensive 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, and in his
+usual voice of thunder, exclaimed, “Hang the fellow,” against which no
+opposition ever availed. The soldier pleaded and proved his innocence,
+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 quarrelled 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 honourable name and good repute with posterity.
+
+For in justice it must be admitted, 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 excusable 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 implacable 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 appointment 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 him, Count Gallas commanded, who performed the functions of
+commander-in-chief, while the prince brought to this post nothing but
+his name and dignity. A considerable 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 10,000 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, with a view to draw the enemy from the
+town; Ferdinand continued to press the siege with vigour, 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, indifference 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 command 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
+mean time, 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 unfavourable issue, a dark foreboding seemed 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 midnight, they found the heights in possession
+of the enemy, strongly entrenched. They waited, therefore, for
+daybreak, to carry them by storm. Their impetuous courage surmounted
+every obstacle; the entrenchments, 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 interim, some Spanish regiments
+had marched in, and every attempt to gain it was repulsed by their
+heroic intrepidity. 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 sensibly 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 pursuit 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 infantry were killed or taken
+prisoners. More than 12,000 men remained dead upon the field of battle;
+80 field pieces, about 4,000 waggons, and 300 standards and colours fell
+into the hands of the Imperialists. Horn himself, with three other
+generals, 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 first was occasioned by
+the death of Gustavus Adolphus.]--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
+exulting 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 Wirtemberg, 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 German 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 addressed himself
+to the Elector of Saxony; but he shamefully abandoned the Swedish cause,
+to negociate 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 Lunenburg, in place of flying to the
+assistance of Upper Germany, laid siege to Minden, with the intention of
+keeping possession of it for himself. Abandoned by his German allies,
+the chancellor exerted himself to obtain the 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 France.
+
+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 centuries 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 neighbour. France now entertained the hope of
+adding Alsace to its large and numerous 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, under the mask of a disinterested friendship, aimed only at its
+own aggrandizement; and while it boldly claimed the honourable title of
+a Protectress, was solely occupied with promoting its own schemes, and
+advancing its own interests amid the general confusion.
+
+In return for these important cessions, France engaged to effect a
+diversion in favour of the Swedes, by commencing 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 war
+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 Viceroy of the Spanish Netherlands, refused satisfaction for
+these injuries, and delayed to restore 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 effected 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 foreign 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 laboured earnestly to effect a peace between Saxony
+and the Emperor. Wearied with the calamities of a long and destructive
+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 labours of a year,
+and blasted the last hope of an afflicted peasantry. 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, committed the most
+remorseless devastation and cruelty. If the march of an army converted
+whole provinces into deserts, 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 neighbourhood; even the change of fortune could
+not improve their unfortunate fate, since the victor trod in the steps
+of the vanquished, and friends were not more merciful than enemies. The
+neglected farms, the destruction of the crops, and the numerous armies
+which overran the exhausted 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 excess
+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, honour, 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 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
+favourable terms, if only the Swedes and the German Protestants should
+continue united in the cabinet and in the field, and pursued their
+common interests 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 negociations with the Emperor, even before
+the battle of Nordlingen; and the unfortunate issue of that battle only
+accelerated their conclusion. 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 Nordlingen, 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 contrary,
+made concessions; and therefore it required no long consideration to
+decide between them.
+
+In the mean time, 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 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 ecclesiastical 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 arrangement, 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 possession 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
+possessors of their territories, in which the magnanimity of Gustavus
+Adolphus had long ago reinstated them. Donauwerth 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
+animosity subsisting between the Lutherans and the Calvinists. 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 contracting 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
+guaranteed 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
+unconditionally; 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 Upper 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 every thing
+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, 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 flame 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 favoured 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
+co-religionists in the Austrian dominions. But no one was so bitterly
+reproached 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 Emperor.
+
+In the mean time, he consoled himself with the triumph of seeing most of
+the Protestant states compelled by necessity 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 whole riches consisted in
+his bravery, his possessions in 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 clamours 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 themselves 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 every thing to them. No
+satisfaction, no indemnification for the expenses which they had
+incurred, 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
+millions five hundred thousand florins; but the Swedes had already
+expended considerably more, and this disgraceful equivalent in money was
+both contrary to their true interests, and injurious to their pride.
+“The Electors of Bavaria and Saxony,” replied Oxenstiern, “have been
+paid for their services, which, as vassals, 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 2,500,000 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 neighbouring powers declared against allowing the Swedes to
+obtain a footing within the empire.
+
+Never, in the whole course of the war, had the prospects 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 reduced 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 favour 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 expedients, set
+itself manfully to meet these calamities, which all combined to
+overwhelm Sweden; and his shrewd understanding 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 provinces 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 determination to maintain the struggle to the last. The
+continuance of war, however unfortunate it might prove, could 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. The interests 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
+war against the Emperor, by the arms of Gustavus Adolphus, 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 endeavoured to
+protect the Roman Catholic princes of the empire against the Swedish
+conqueror, 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, dispelled 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 aggrandizement, France availed herself of the favourable
+opportunity 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
+justified by circumstances. She now turned her whole attention to the
+war in Germany; and, as soon as she had secured her own private ends by
+a treaty with the Germans, 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 contest, France had been
+reserving her strength, and maintained the contest by money alone; but
+now, when the state of things called for more active measures, she
+seized 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 consternation, and
+hoped, sword in hand, to obtain a more honourable peace than that of
+Prague. Abandoned by their confederates, who had been reconciled to the
+Emperor, 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
+unequivocal 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 different times at
+Compiegne, and afterwards at Wismar and 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 vigour upon the Elbe and the Danube, and a diversion upon the
+Rhine compelled the Emperor to divide his force.
+
+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 he was elected by a
+decided majority of votes, notwithstanding the opposition of Treves, and
+of the heirs of the Elector Palatine. But, on the other hand, he had
+exasperated 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 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 military skill, were performed; but they were but
+insulated efforts; and being neither dictated by any consistent plan,
+nor improved by any commanding spirit, had comparatively 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 negociation 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 Doemitz, and
+to drive the Swedes from Pomerania and the Baltic, Banner suddenly
+marched thither, relieved Doemitz, and totally defeated the Saxon
+General Baudissin, with 7000 men, of whom 1000 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 to the utmost by
+the late defection of the Elector, they wreaked upon the unfortunate
+inhabitants all their rancour. 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 deserters and traitors; for the
+hatred of former friends is of all the most fierce and irreconcileable.
+The powerful diversion made by the Duke of Weimar, and the Landgrave of
+Hesse, upon the Rhine and in Westphalia, prevented the Emperor from
+affording the necessary assistance to Saxony, and left the whole
+Electorate exposed to the destructive ravages of Banner’s army.
+
+At length, the Elector, having formed a junction with the Imperial
+General Hatzfeld, advanced against Magdeburg, 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 September, 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
+prepared to renew it the next morning. But the Elector did not wait for
+a second attack. His army was exhausted by the efforts of the preceding
+day; and, as the drivers had fled with the horses, his artillery was
+unserviceable. He accordingly retreated in the night, with Count
+Hatzfeld, and relinquished the ground to the Swedes. About 5000 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 colours, twenty-three pieces of cannon,
+the whole baggage and silver plate of the Elector, were captured, and
+more than 2000 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 discouraged, 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 diversion 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 Nordlingen, 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 little support from the Swedes, he
+found himself unable to maintain an army, or to perform any enterprise
+of importance. The defeat at Nordlingen 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 assistance. 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 execution 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 he was to command under the
+orders of the French king. To inflame 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 Bernard confided in his good fortune, and in his
+arms, and met artifice with dissimulation. If he could once succeed in
+wresting Alsace from the enemy, he did not despair of 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 command of Gallas, had driven them as far as Metz,
+cleared the Rhine, and took from the Swedes the towns of Metz 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 impeded 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 cheated 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 with unlimited command of
+his troops, Duke Bernard, in the beginning of February, left his winter
+quarters in the 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 Laufenburg, Waldshut, and Seckingen,
+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 February, 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, Enkeford, and Sperreuter,
+with 2000 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 colours 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 taking of Rhinefeldt, Roeteln, and Fribourg, was the immediate
+consequence of the duke’s victory. His army now increased by
+considerable recruits, and his projects expanded in proportion as
+fortune favoured 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
+principal 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, resolved 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 12,000 men, accompanied by 3000 waggons loaded
+with provisions, which he intended to throw into the place. But he was
+attacked with such vigour by Duke Bernard at Witteweyer, that he lost
+his whole force, except 3000 men, together with the entire transport. A
+similar fate at Ochsenfeld, near Thann, overtook the Duke of Lorraine,
+who, with 5000 or 6000 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 to France, he
+destined 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 value 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 capable 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 deceased 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 extensive schemes.
+
+“Courage, Father Joseph, Breysach is ours!” whispered 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. Already in imagination he held Alsace, Breisgau, and all
+the frontiers of Austria in that quarter, without regard to his promise
+to Duke Bernard. But the firm determination which the latter had
+unequivocally shown, to keep Breysach for himself, greatly embarrassed
+the cardinal, and no efforts were spared to retain the victorious
+Bernard in the interests of France. He was invited to court, to witness
+the honours by which his triumph was to be commemorated; but he
+perceived and shunned the seductive 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
+Breysach 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 36th year of his age, at Neuburgh upon the Rhine
+(in July, 1639).
+
+He died of a pestilential disorder, which, in the course of two days,
+had carried off nearly 400 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 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 dangerous enemy. Trained to the
+duties of a soldier and a general in the school of Gustavus Adolphus, he
+successfully 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 penetration of the general and the persevering
+fortitude of the man, with the daring resolution of youth; with the wild
+ardour of the warrior, the sober dignity of the prince, the moderation
+of the sage, and the conscientiousness of the man of honour.
+Discouraged by no misfortune, he quickly rose again in full vigour from
+the severest defeats; no obstacles could check his enterprise, no
+disappointments conquer his indomitable perseverance. His genius,
+perhaps, 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 splendid 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 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 negociated 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 endeavoured
+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; 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 intending 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 hostilities were to
+be conducted; for that prince had died in February, 1637, in the 59th
+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 ensure 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 instrument 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 Ferdinand II., yet he alone has had the unfortunate
+celebrity of kindling a thirty years’ war; but to produce its 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 he 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 impossibility of resistance, and necessity had laid
+upon him its stern laws.
+
+Fortune favoured 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
+compelled 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
+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 dangerous 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
+Imperial General Bucheim, offered no retreat; in front, Landsberg,
+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 incensed 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 ceremony.” 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 direction, 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 artillery, 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, entered that duchy at
+Ribses, and overran it by their superior strength. Usedom and Wolgast
+were taken by storm, Demmin 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 Pomerania. 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 energies, 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 favourable
+aspect, and to recover from the humiliation into which they had been
+thrown by the inaction of France, and the desertion of their allies.
+For, after their hasty retreat into Pomerania, they had lost one place
+after another in Upper Saxony; the princes of Mecklenburg, closely
+pressed by the troops of the Emperor, 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
+contest 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 advantages for Sweden. In Hesse, the politic Landgravine
+Amelia had, with the approbation of the Estates, assumed the government
+after the death of her husband, and resolutely maintained her rights
+against the Emperor and the House of Darmstadt. Already zealously
+attached to the Swedish Protestant party, on religious grounds, she only
+awaited a favourable opportunity openly to declare herself. By artful
+delays, and by prolonging the negociations 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
+favourable turn to the affairs of the Protestants. She now at once
+threw off the mask, and renewed her former alliance 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 favour, and
+the circumstance, that the States of Lower Saxony embraced a neutrality,
+was of itself no inconsiderable advantage.
+
+Under these advantages, and reinforced by 14,000 fresh troops from
+Sweden and Livonia. Banner opened, with the most favourable 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 Halberstadt. The
+impatience of the Lower Saxon States to get rid of such troublesome
+guests, procured him so plentiful a supply of provisions, that he was
+provided with bread in Magdeburg itself, where famine had even overcome
+the natural antipathy of men to human flesh. His approach spread
+consternation among the Saxons; but his views were directed not against
+this exhausted country, but against the hereditary dominions of the
+Emperor. 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 irresistible
+impetuosity into Bohemia, crossed the Elbe, threatened Prague, took
+Brandeis and Leutmeritz, defeated General Hofkirchen with ten regiments,
+and spread terror 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 plunder, 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. 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 Saalfeld; 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 General 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 intrenched 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 was 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 bishops, 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 any thing but
+a fair representative of the opinions of the German Empire. The
+Protestants, with reason, considered it as a mere combination of Austria
+and its creatures against their party; and it seemed to them a laudable
+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 Guebriant, who commanded the armies
+of France and Weimar, 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. Unfortunately 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 500 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 communication
+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
+impracticable. He hastily retired towards the Forest, intending to
+penetrate through Bohemia into Saxony; but he was obliged to sacrifice
+three regiments at Neuburg. 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 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 expedients, 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 virtues of
+the hero were united with all the railings 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 haughtiness,
+than their country by his contributions. He consoled 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 the Second,
+he hurried from the arms of luxury into the hardest fatigues, and placed
+himself in all his vigour at the head of his army, at the very moment
+his soldiers were murmuring at his luxurious excesses. Nearly 80,000
+men fell in the numerous battles which he fought, and about 600 hostile
+standards and colours, 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 demeanour 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, increasing want,
+and the imperial citations were daily diminishing the number of the
+army; the troops of France and Weimar showed little zeal; those of
+Lunenburg forsook the Swedish colours; 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 Torstensohn, 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 territories, 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
+produce of Austria, and carried the torch of war to the very footsteps
+of the imperial throne.
+
+In Silesia, the enemy had gained considerable advantages over the
+Swedish general Stalhantsch, and driven him as far as Neumark.
+Torstensohn, 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 neutrality. 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 Austria had hitherto appeared, took Olmutz, and threw
+Vienna itself into consternation.
+
+But, in the mean time, 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
+towards the Elbe, which they passed at Torgau. Torstensohn 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 unvisited with the scourge of war.
+
+The Imperialists, under Leopold and Piccolomini, immediately hastened by
+Dresden to its relief, and Torstensohn, 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 rendered 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
+ammunition was exhausted, maintained the combat with the butt-ends of
+their muskets, till at last the Imperialists, completely 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 first in
+the attack and last in flight. But this bloody victory cost the Swedes
+more than 3000 men, and two of their best generals, Schlangen and
+Lilienhoeck. More than 5000 of the Imperialists were left upon the
+field, and nearly as many taken prisoners. Their whole artillery,
+consisting of 46 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 retired into Bohemia,
+where its shattered regiments reassembled. The Archduke 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, deprived
+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
+300,000 rix-dollars, to which all the foreign merchants, who had
+warehouses in the city, were to furnish their quota. In the middle of
+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, compelled him, with his weakened army, to
+retire. He considered 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 3000 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 frontier, penetrated
+through that kingdom, and relieved Olmutz in Moravia, which was hard
+pressed by the Imperialists. 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 attempt 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
+negociation, 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 Electorate of
+Cologne, in order to take up their winter quarters there. To get rid of
+these troublesome guests, the Elector called to his assistance the
+imperial general Hatzfeldt, and assembled his own troops under General
+Lamboy. The latter was attacked by the allies in January, 1642, and in
+a decisive action near Kempen, defeated, with the loss of about 2000 men
+killed, and about twice as many prisoners. This important victory
+opened to them the whole Electorate and neighbouring 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 Hatzfeldt, 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 Margraviate of Baden, by the Bavarians under Mercy and John de
+Werth, he was obliged to wander about for several weeks, exposed,
+without shelter, to the inclemency of the winter, and generally
+encamping upon the snow, till he found a miserable refuge in Breisgau.
+He at last took the field; and, in the next summer, by keeping the
+Bavarian army employed in Suabia, prevented it from relieving
+Thionville, which was besieged by Conde. But the superiority of the
+enemy soon drove him back to Alsace, where he awaited a reinforcement.
+
+The death of Cardinal Richelieu took place in November, 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 Richelieu 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, afterwards 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
+winter quarters in Suabia, 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 Rothweil,
+withdrawn into the neighbourhood of Duttlingen, where it lay in complete
+security, without expectation of a hostile attack. In the mean time,
+the 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 Hatzfeldt, 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 everywhere except in his own duchy, joined
+their united forces. It was resolved to force the quarters of the
+French in Duttlingen, and the neighbouring villages, by surprise; a
+favourite 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 severity of the winter against any surprise.
+John de Werth, a master in this species of warfare, 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 neighbouring Castle of Honberg, were
+taken without resistance, Duttlingen itself was gradually surrounded by
+the enemy, and all connexion 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 2,000 men were killed, and 7,000, with 25
+staff-officers and 90 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 memory
+of this unfortunate day, which was renewed 100 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 themselves 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 number of their enemies was increased by a
+formidable accession. 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 informing 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 progress of their arms, the restraints which he laid
+upon their navigation of the Sound, and the burdens which he imposed
+upon their commerce, had long roused the indignation 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
+considerations; and even the embarrassment in which hostilities with
+Germany had plunged it, only served as an additional motive to try its
+fortune against Denmark.
+
+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 recruiting 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
+diminish the injurious influence which Denmark might exercise upon these
+deliberations, to delay the treaty itself, which threatened to be
+prejudicial to the Swedish interests, by sowing confusion among the
+parties interested, and 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
+attempt were executed with rapidity and silence. The secret was in fact
+so well kept in Stockholm, that the Danish minister had not the
+slightest 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, except
+Rensburg and Gluckstadt. Another army penetrated into Schonen, which
+made as little opposition; and nothing 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 Femern;
+and Christian himself, who was on board, lost his right eye by a
+splinter. Cut off from all communication with the distant force of the
+Emperor, his ally, this king was on the point of seeing his whole
+kingdom overrun by the Swedes; and all things threatened the speedy
+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. Notwithstanding 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 Hatzfeldt, 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 augmented
+army, penetrated through the unoccupied pass betwixt Schleswig and
+Stapelholm, met Gallas, and drove him along the whole course of the
+Elbe, as far as Bernburg, where the Imperialists took up an entrenched
+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 endeavoured to escape into Silesia, was
+overtaken and routed by Torstensohn, near Juterbock; 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 formidable 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 unfavourable conditions.
+
+Torstensohn rapidly followed up his victory; and while Axel Lilienstern,
+one of the generals who commanded under him, overawed Saxony, and
+Koenigsmark subdued the whole of Bremen, he himself penetrated into
+Bohemia with 16,000 men and 80 pieces of artillery, and endeavoured 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
+neighbourhood of the war to be able to give more energy and activity.
+In obedience to his orders, Hatzfeldt assembled the whole Austrian and
+Bavarian force, and contrary to his own inclination and advice, formed
+the Emperor’s last army, and the last bulwark of his states, in order of
+battle, to meet the enemy, who were approaching, at Jankowitz, on the
+24th of February, 1645. Ferdinand depended upon his cavalry, which
+outnumbered that of the enemy by 3000, 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 vigorous resistance by the Swedish infantry,
+the latter remained in possession of the field. 2,000 Austrians were
+killed upon the spot, and Hatzfeldt himself, with 3,000 men, taken
+prisoners. Thus, on the same day, did the Emperor lose his best general
+and his last army.
+
+This decisive victory at Jancowitz, at once exposed all the Austrian
+territory to the enemy. Ferdinand hastily fled to Vienna, to provide
+for its defence, and to save his family and his treasures. In a very
+short time, the victorious Swedes poured, like an inundation, upon
+Moravia and Austria. After they had subdued nearly the whole of
+Moravia, invested Brunn, and taken all the strongholds as far as the
+Danube, and carried the intrenchments at the Wolf’s 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 Deutlingen by a brilliant
+campaign, and had kept the whole force of Bavaria employed upon the
+Rhine and in Suabia. Reinforced 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
+3rd of August, 1644, before Friburg, 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 valour of the French
+was exerted in vain, and after a fruitless sacrifice of 6,000 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,
+disregarded. “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 Austria 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 submission, 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 25,000 men, had
+advanced into the neighbourhood 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
+increased 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 mean time, 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
+military 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 encampment, with
+the sudden retreat of the Prince of Transylvania, at last compelled the
+Swedish leader to raise 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 commencement, they were, nevertheless,
+productive of the most important consequences to the Swedish party.
+Denmark 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 endeavoured 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 Suabia and Bavaria. Turenne, who
+had separated from Conde, and taken the direction of Suabia, had, in the
+year 1645, been totally defeated by Mercy, near Mergentheim; and the
+victorious Bavarians, under their brave leader, poured into Hesse. But
+the Duke of Enghien hastened with considerable succours from Alsace,
+Koenigsmark 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 Suabia. Here they posted themselves at the
+village of Allersheim, 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
+entrenchments, 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 favour of the allies. But even this second
+barbarous sacrifice of life had little effect either on the course of
+the war, or on the negociations for peace. The French army, exhausted
+by this bloody engagement, was still farther 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 Torstensohn, had, in 1646, been appointed Commander-in-chief
+of the Swedish army, which, besides Koenigsmark’s flying corps and the
+numerous garrisons disposed throughout the empire, amounted to about
+8,000 horse, and 15,000 foot. The Archduke, after reinforcing his army,
+which already amounted to 24,000 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
+favour. 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 instructions 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 consequence 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 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 intercept 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 follow 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 footsteps, 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 Franconia 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 Suabia, with a view to remove the war from Bavaria, than,
+seizing the opportunity, he repassed the Lech, and guarded the passage
+of it against the Imperialists 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
+indiscriminately 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
+despair, 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
+without a friend in Germany and left to the mercy of the allied powers.
+
+Ferdinand III. saw his danger, and left no means untried to avert it.
+But the Elector of Bavaria was unfortunately led to believe that the
+Spaniards alone were disinclined to peace, and that nothing, but Spanish
+influence, had induced the Emperor so long to resist a cessation of
+hostilities. Maximilian detested the Spaniards, and could never forgive
+their having opposed his application for the Palatine Electorate. Could
+it then be supposed 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 distresses, 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, convinced 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 evident, 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 presumed 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 include 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 Suabia and Franconia, and to his own being restricted
+to Bavaria and the Palatinate. The conquests which he had made in
+Suabia 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
+Wuertemberg, the latter in Upper Suabia, in the neighbourhood of the
+Lake of Constance. On the extreme north of this lake, and on the most
+southern frontier of Suabia, 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 general to venture an attack upon this supposed impregnable post
+and town, in which he succeeded. Meantime, Turenne, according to
+agreement, marched into Wuertemberg, where he forced the Landgrave of
+Darmstadt and the Elector of Mentz to imitate the example of Bavaria,
+and to embrace the neutrality.
+
+And now, at last, France 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
+conditions of peace. Of all his once formidable power, an army, not
+exceeding 12,000, was all that remained to him; and this force he was
+driven to the necessity 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 formidable strength. The
+jealousy which France entertained of Sweden, prevented it from
+permitting the total ruin of the Emperor, or allowing the Swedes to
+obtain such a preponderance in Germany, as might have been destructive
+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 frontiers of the
+Netherlands. Wrangel, indeed, after moving from Suabia into Franconia,
+taking Schweinfurt, 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 in motion, and placed himself at its 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 momentarily expected, as
+both were suffering from want, and the two camps were only separated
+from each other by the space of the entrenchments. 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 negociations 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 disposition. 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 allegiance 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 Maximilian, he detected the conspiracy in 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 statesman 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 accelerate a
+general peace, it had a pernicious influence upon the negociations at
+Munster 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 Suabian circle, he found himself compelled either
+to exhaust his own territories by the subsistence of his troops, or at
+once to disband them, and to 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 determined to try a
+third step, the unfavourable issue of which was at least not so certain,
+viz., to renounce the truce and resume the war.
+
+This resolution, and the assistance which he immediately despatched to
+the Emperor in Bohemia, threatened materially to injure the Swedes, and
+Wrangel 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 consideration 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 approached. 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 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 negociations, 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 successes and defeats, the Elector of
+Bavaria silently undertook the same task with the Emperor his ally, and
+determined, 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 dangerous superiority, Maximilian at
+once ceased to pursue 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 certainly 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 was 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 remonstrances 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 farther increased the jealousy of that
+power. Turenne received 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 Imperialists, and defeated the Imperial
+and Bavarian armies on the Danube, which ventured to oppose them at
+Susmarshausen, 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 favoured 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
+Salzburgh, 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
+Imperialists 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
+Imperialists. By their own ravages in Bohemia, the allies had rendered
+their subsistence in that country impracticable, 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 surprising the lesser side of the city of Prague.
+Koenigsmark 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 mean time, the intelligence arrived that a peace had been signed
+at Munster, on the 24th October.
+
+The colossal labour 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 favourable
+termination this tedious, but precious and permanent work of policy; the
+difficulties which beset the very opening of the negociations, 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 interesting 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.
+
+
+
+
+[Note From the first PG etext of this work:
+Separate sources indicate that at the beginning of this war there were
+about 15 million people in Germany, and at the end of the war there were
+about 4 million. If this is not surprising enough, war broke out again
+only 10 years after the conclusion of this war.]
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Thirty Years War, Complete
+by Frederich Schiller
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE THIRTY YEARS WAR, COMPLETE ***
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