No More Learning

But
Gustavus Adolphus had no difficulty in
disproving these accusations. The facts al-
ready mentioned sufficiently justified him.
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? GusTAvus Adolphus. 97
If the city was destroyed, the hinderances
and unjust distrusts of the Electors of
Brandenburg and Saxony were the princi-
pal causes.
The innocence of Gustavus Adolphus
shines out clearly in a letter sent to the
Elector of Saxony at the moment when the
city was threatened. " I see myself forced,"
wrote he, " to draw in my sails and to risk
myself no further. It would be against
aU military art, to put myself between two
undecided powers, or abandon the streams
by which my supplies arrive. However,
I wish to show my solicitude for Magde-
burg, and even at the sacrifice of my life,
I wish to do all in my power for her deliv-
erance. May God aid me by his grace,
in making my perseverance triumph over
you. I declare myself, before God and
before men, innocent of that which may
happen. I cast the responsibility upon
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? 98 GusTAvus Adolphus.
those who, when Christianity is in dan-
ger, have experienced no compunctions in
abandoning me. "
The terror which the ruin of Magde-
burg at first caused was not long in chang-
ing into a legitimate indignation. Exas-
perated by the ever-increasing rigors of the
emperor, whose band became daily more
cruel and oppressive, the Protestant princes
saw no other means of escaping their mis-
erable fate than by casting themselves into
the arms of Gustavus iVdolphus. Most of
them entered into an alliance with him.
But the Elector of Brandenburg persisted
in a neutrality too favorable to Austria to
be long tolerated. The King of Sweden,
after having exhausted all means of con-
ciliation, camped his army before Berlin,
declaring that the elector was no longer
any thing but an enemy to him. At the
sight of Swedish cannon, George William
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? GusTAYUs Adolphus. 99
consented to make a treaty with his broth-
er-in-law. He consented to all the condi-
tions that were proposed to him without
modification. Gustavus was allowed to
dispose of the fortresses as he wished, acd
received also a contribution in money.
During this time the hordes that had
destroyed Magdeburg invaded Hesse Cas-
sel and began similar works. The Thu-
ringian country was also devastated by
imperial troops, who seemed ever more and
more devoured by the thirst for plunder
and pleasure. Nothing could satiate so
many brutal passions. The people near
whom such soldiers were to pass were in
consternation.
Gustavus Adolphus, assured of the as-
sistance of Brandenburg, no longer hesi-
tated to advance. He rescued the Hessian
territory, and found, in the prince who
governed it, one of his best and most faith-
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? 100 GusTAvus Adolphus.
ful allies. Without risking a decisive bat-
tle with an enemy so superior in numbers,
he, nevertheless, remained master of the
ground.
Tilly, after having wasted his time and
forces before the Swedish camp, beat a
retreat, and directed himself toward the
territory of the Elector of Saxony, whose
attitude and levying of troops were dis-
approved of by Austria. Saxony was a
rich bait for the imperials. Up to this
time, she had been spared on account of
the attachment of her prince to the house
of Austria, and of the need Ferdinand had
of retaining her on his side. And so it
was with the avidity of a bird of prey,
that Tilly and his bands lighted down on
the Saxons.
The frightened elector then sought a
refuge under the powerful wing of the
King of Sweden. He besought him to
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? GusTAVus Adolphus. 101
come to his aid. " I deplore," said Gus-
tavus Adolphus, "the fate of the elector,
liut he can accuse no one but himself for
it. If he had sooner placed confidence in
me, this thing would not have happened
and Magdeburg would not have fallen. I
am not now disposed to sacrifice the other
German States to succor him. I cannot
trust myself to a prince whose counselors
are all in league with the emperor, and
who will abandon me as soon as Austria
flatters hira, or as soon as the imj^erial
army shall have left his States. "
The marshal of the Elector of Arnheim,
an able and cunning man, had been charged
to make this delicate negotiation. He had
orders to succeed at whatever price, and
so, in spite of the severe and discouraging
response which had just been given him,
he redoubled his solicitations and obtained
his wish, but under the hardest conditions.
1.
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? 102 GusTAvus Adolphus.
The elector must deliver up the fortress of
Wittenberg, which would put Gustavus
in possession of the Elbe; he must ad-
vance three months' pay for the Swedish
soldiers; give over into his hands his coun-
selors, and send his eldest son to him as
a hostage. The elector granted all. Gus-
tavus Adolphus, who only wished to prove
his sincerity and the firmness of his resolu-
tions, then suddenly changed his language.
"Tell your master," said he to Arnheim,
" that his distrust of me when I wished to
succor Magdeburg liad awakened in me
distrust of him; that the confidence he
places in me to-day makes me forget the
past. I ask of him only one month's pay
for my troops, and I will soon make
amends to him for this little sacrifice. "
The two princes finally signed a treaty
of alliance and united their two armies.
On the morning of September 16, 1631,
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? Gustavus Addressing his Troops
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? GusTAvus Adolphus. 105
they found themselves face to face with
the imperial army, near Leipsic. It was
there that the two most illustrious generals
of Europe, Gustavus Adolphus and Tilly,
were to measure themselves in a battle
which should decide not only on which
side was the superiority, but the future of
Protestantism and Catholicism. To the
success of this day was attached much
more than a high military reputation ; the
very existence of the Reformation in Ger-
many depended ujDon it. Gustavus Adol-
phus well knew this, and he displayed, in
the disposition of his troops, all the re-
sources of his admirable genius.
He said to his army, "The right is on
your side. We battle not for the honors
of this world, but for the Word and glory
of God, for the true faith which alone
can save us, the faith which the Catholics
Lave cruelly oppressed, and which they
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? 106 GusTAvus Adolphus.
would gladly blot out of existence; Let
us not doubt that the Omnipotent One,
who has conducted us thus far, in a man-
ner so remarkable, through dangers of
every sort, will now give unto us his effi-
cient aid. . . . "
After this general address to the men,
he passed through the ranks, giving to
every soldier words of encouragement and
affection. Schiller has given of this battle,
as of the taking of Magdeburg, a descrip-
tion which has become celebrated :
"Two million men," says he, "might
have made this a more bloody day, but
not more decisive. . . . The resolution
which Tillv had never lacked until then
utterly failed him on that day. Without
being decided to make battle with the
king, he had not the firmness to avoid the
conflict, and Paj)penheim drew him into it
in spite of himself. . . . Never did so
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? GusTAvus Adolphus. 1()7
many dark presentiments show themselves
on his ordinarily tranquil brow ; the ghost
of Mao:debur2: seemed to have followed
him to the plains of Leipsic. A cannon-
ade of two hours opened the battle. A
west wind blew with violence, and drove
against the Swedes the powder-smoke and
clouds of dust from the newly worked
fields. Suddenly, Gustavus Adolphus made
a general movement of his troops north-
ward, and this maneuver was executed
with such rapidity that the enemy had no
time to prevent it.
"Finally, Tilly abandoned his positions
and attacked the Swedes; but being re-
ceived by the most violent fire, he wheeled
suddenly to the right, and fell upon the
Saxons, whom he put to flight. . . . Pap-
penheim attacked with his cavalry the
right wing of the Swedes, but without
any effect ; Gustavus Adolphus commanded
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? 108 GusTAvus Adolphus.
tbem in person. Seven times Pappenheini
returned to the charge; seven times was
he repulsed. He finally took to flight,
leaving the battle-field to the conqueror.
In the meantime, Tilly, after having routed
the remainder of the Saxons, threw him-
self with all his force against the left wing
of the Swedes. But Gnstavus Adolphus
had had the presence of mind to send three
regiments, in all haste, to re-inforce it, and
thus cover his own flank, exposed by the
flight of the Saxons. . . .
"Already the enemy had begun to fold
back upon itself, when the king himself
appeared to decide the victory. Scarcely
had he put to flight the left wing, than he
directed his army corps and that of Gen-
eral Teufel toward the heights on which
Tilly liad placed his artillery. He seized
them after a short struggle, and the enemy
had to endure the fire of their own cannon.
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? GusTAvus Adolphus. 109
Its flank, battered by the artillery, and
exposed, in front, to the impetuous charges
of the Swedes, the imperial army, called
the invincible, finally broke. Tilly was
obliged to order a retreat ; but this retreat
could only be made through the ranks of
the vanquished. Suddenly a general dis-
order seized the imperial army; it disband-
ed and fled.
Four regiments alone, com-
posed of old soldiers, who had never turned
their back to an enemy, kept in order and
opposed a brazen wall to the redoubled
attacks of the Swedes. . . . Convinced of
the inutility of a longer resistance, and
reduced to six hundred men, they with-
drew from the battle field, which, from this
moment, was no longer disputed against
the Swedes ; their victory was complete. "
Gustavus Adolphus threw himself on
his knees, in the midst of the dead and
wounded, and, surrounded by his men,
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? 110 GusTAYus Adolphus.
poured forth aloud his gratitude to God,
in an ardent prayer, for his wonderful tri-
umph. Then, mounting his horse, and
passing from rank to rank, he thanked his
brave soldiers.
The same day he sent the news to his
chancellor and his kingdom, in these sim-
ple words : " Although we have to deplore
the loss of many brave men, we should be-
fore all and above all, thank God for his
divine protection ; for we were never in so
great danger. "
This never failing disposition to look
upon the bright side, keeps ever in our
view the Christian in the hero. This is
the secret of that continual joy which one
of his historians so much admires, and
which St. Paul recommends as one of the
most precious of faith's privileges, and as
the purest reflection of Christian charity.
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? CHAPTER V.
His sojourn at Frankfort -- His entrance into Nuremberg -- Bat-
tle of the Lech.
THE results of tlie victory at Leipsic
were immense. That day, Gustavus
Adolphus gathered the fruit of more than
a year's labors and fatigues, of many un-
important struggles, and of privations of
every kind. The reunited forces of the
Catholic League and of the emperor were
annihilated. Of a formidable army, there
remained no more than two thousand
combatants, and Tilly was disgraced and
discouraged by an irreparable misfortune.
" Gustavus," says Michelet, " could do
what he wished, could go whithersoever it
seemed to him good. " The Swedish tor-
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? 112 GusTAvus Adolphus.
rent had swept all the dikes which Austria
opposed to it, and nothing could longer
arrest it.
But the Swedish king showed his noble
character by acts still grander than his
victory. His first thought, after having
rendered thanks to God, was a thought
of reparation and justice. From Halle,
whither he had followed and dispersed the
remainder of the hostile army, he wrote
a letter, dated September 17, in which he
desired his chancellor to rejoin him, in
order to oversee the reparations which he
wished to have made to his despoiled breth-
ren in the faith. He maintained unrelaxed
discipline among his soldiers, as to order
and religious observances. Every morn-
ing, after prayer, they sang a hymn that
the king especially loved, and which ex-
presses in a simple, faithful manner the
condition of a Christian soul before God.
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? GusTAvus Adolpiius. 113
The following are a few of the stanzas,
with a loss of beauty in translating :
" O Eternal One, this morning, as dur-
ing my whole life, I wish to praise thee,
and to send up, even to thy throne, the
homage of a grateful heart.
" It is thou, O my God, who, during the
night just past, hast helped me by thy
grace, and preserved me from harm and
danger. I humbly pray thee to forgive
the sins which fill my days and merit thy
wrath.
" It is to God that I would leave the di-
rection of all my affairs ; for he alone can
accomplish all.
"It is he who blesses my actions, my
hopes, and gives me my success. It is into
his hands who gave, that I replace my
body, my soul, my life, and all that he has
given. Let him do according to his good
pleasure.
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? 114 GusTAvus Adolphus.
" And now I say amen, in the assiii^ance
that God will do all for the best. My
arm is still extended, and I am ready to
continue the work he has confided to me,
at the post, and in the career where he has
placed me. "
How touching the spectacle of a camp
where both commander and commanded
have such a reveille !
At Halle, Gnstavus divided his army.
He charged his ally, the Elector of Saxony,
to penetrate into Bohemia, impatient to
shake off the imperial yoke. He set to
himself the task of conquering all of west-
ern Germany, in order to deprive Austria
of the rich countries from whence she drew
her greatest resources, and to smother the
Catholic League in its several centers.
Even the Catholics, victims, like the
Protestants, of the cupidity and bad treat-
ment of the imperials, received Gustavus
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? GusTAVus Adolphus. 115
as a liberator. His marcli from Halle
even to the Khine was, indeed, triumphal.
In Thuringia he found a new ally, the
Duke of Saxe- Weimar, who soon became
one of his ablest generals. He took the
severest measures to prevent all abuse of
power among his officers, and of excess
among his soldiers. He v^ished to show
himself the more moderate and just, where
it might naturally not be expected -- in a
country whose faith he rejected, and which
had ever been hostile to his cause.
The irreproachable conduct of his army
inspired admiration and confidence. A
historian relates that a Swede, forgetting
the example of his comrades and the com-
mands of his general, was on his way to
camp with a cow that he had taken from
a peasant, when a strong hand was laid
upon his shoulder. He turned and saw
that it was none other than his good gen-
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? 116
GusTAvus Adolphus.
GUSTAVUR ARRESTIXG A PLUXBERER.
eral, who said to him, in a firm tone, but
with a look of fraternal pity, " My son, my
son, you must go to be judged. " The
penalty for such offenses was death.
At the approach of the Swedish troops
the Bishop of Wurtzburg, one of the most
ardent and active enemies of Protestantism
and a member of the Catholic League, fled,
and left his followers without defense and
without a chief, to the mercy of a powerful
and offended army. The capital of this
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? GusTAvus Adolphus. 117
archbishopric, Wurtzburg, made no at-
tempt at resistance and submitted imme-
diately. The other cities of this State
followed its example. Gustavns Adol-
phus regarded as his own a country which
its ruler had abandoned. Inviting the
local authorities to swear allegiance to him,
he immediately organized a government,
composed of an equal number of Catholics
and Protestants. He rendered back to the
latter their possessions and opened their
places of worship, but left the Catholics
also in possession of the same freedom,
and, as an historian expresses it, " avenged
by not a single retaliation^ the long and
cruel oppression to which the Protestants
had been subjected. "
He practiced the same tolerance every-
where, and thus had the imperishable
honor of being the first prince who com-
prehended the grand principle of liberty
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? 118 GusTAvus Adolphus.
of worship, and, in the midst even of a
war, kindled by religious fanaticism, he
proclaimed in Europe the sacred rights of
conscience. And so, even from the testi-
mony of a Catholic, so much uprightness
and gentleness disarmed the most invet-
erate hatred, and Gustavus was, for the
greater part of the Catholics, if not a savior,
as he was for the Protestants, at least a
just and good master, who respected their
rights and preserved their liberties.
At the taking of a certain Catholic city
his officers urged him to use some severity
toward the inhabitants, who had been very
hostile to him and at times very cruel
to the Protestants. The king replied, "I
have come to break the chains of bondage
and not to forge new ones. Let them
live as they have lived. "
Surrounded by affectionate Protestant
populations, and accepted by even the
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? GusTAvus Adolphus. 119
Catholic countries, Gustavus Adolphus was
in a sure way of success, and Germany
stood no longer in his way. The hinder-
ance to a perfect success came from else-
where. Richelieu, who had wished to
diminish the power and influence of Aus-
tria, trembled at seeing the increasing
grandeur of the King of Sweden. A pre-
ponderance of the Protestant party suc-
ceeded to that of the Austrians. Over the
ruins of the old empire there would rise,
perhaps, a new empire, whose head would
be the greatest general of the epoch. This
peril which threatened all Europe with a
revolution must be averted. Richelieu,
ally as he was, became almost an enemy of
Gustavus Adolphus. He declared himself
protector of the German Catholic princes,
and, as regarded them, declared himself
neutral; thus offering them the means of
arming themselves for Austria, while pre-
8
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? 120 GusTAvus Adolphus.
tending to take sides with no one. He
thus awakened, by his intrigues and infidel-
ity, the jealousy of the Protestant princes,
? iid caused them to have fears of finding a
master in one who proclaimed himself their
friend. The northern hero was again to
find himself alone, as at his arrival in Ger-
many. However, he pursued his march,
and in a very short time conquered Fran-
conia. Arrived before Frankfort-on-the-
Main, he found an unexpected resistance.
This opulent and populous city had ever
been attached to the imperials on account
of commercial privileges which accrued to
it through them. Its fairs had great celeb-
rity, and it feared to lose much if it should
open its gates to the Swedes. Summoned
to surrender, it sent a deputation to the
king to explain the embarrassment of its
position, and its wholly material reasons
for not being favorable to him.
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? GusTAvus Adolphus. 121
Gustavus Adolphus was indignant. " I
am astonished," said he, "to learn that
Frankfort prizes more highly its wealth,
than it does the duties which religion and
patriotism impose upon it; it is, indeed,
little to its honor to talk of its sale-shops
and its fairs when the liberty of Germany
and the future of the Reformation are at
stake. Moreover, from the Isle of Rligen
to the banks of the Rhine, I have found
the keys of all the fortresses ; I can also find
those of Frankfort. It is for the well-being
of Germany, and for the independence of
the Protestant faith, that I do battle; no
obstacle can stop me, for I am conscious of
the justice and nobleness of my cause. I see
plainly that the inhabitants of Frankfort
think it sufficient to extend to me a finger,
but I must have the entire hand; on this
condition alone will I protect them. "
These frank and energetic words opened
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? 122 GusTAvus Adolphus.
the gates ; and Gnstavus Adolphus entered
Frankfort with the pomp of an emperor
who, according to ancient usage, was about
to be crowned. " During his short sojourn
in that city," says Schiller, " he ceased not
to receive visits of princes and embassa-
dors who came to pay homage to his glory,
to appease his wrath, or to implore his as-
sistance. " These brilliant displays were
displeasing to the Queen, Maria Eleanor,
and to the chancellor, Oxenstiern, both of
whom had come to rejoin, the one, her be-
loved husband, the other, his prince and
friend. Under all these outside protesta-
tions of friendship, the former, guided by
her womanly tenderness and instinct, the
latter by his long experience and pru-
dence in business affairs, had discovered the
distrust and envy that Gustavus inspired
in all these sovereigns, and the discord
that reigned among themselves.
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