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Title: The Garotters
Author: William D. Howells
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Translated from the German
PREFACE TO THE SIXTH EDITION.
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