登陆注册
5244000000096

第96章 Book III(29)

Nuremberg had exerted itself, almost beyond its power, to subsist for eleven weeks the vast crowd which was compressed within its boundaries;but its means were at length exhausted, and the king's more numerous party was obliged to determine on a retreat. By the casualties of war and sickness, Nuremberg had lost more than 10,000 of its inhabitants, and Gustavus Adolphus nearly 20,000 of his soldiers. The fields around the city were trampled down, the villages lay in ashes, the plundered peasantry lay faint and dying on the highways; foul odours infected the air, and bad food, the exhalations from so dense a population, and so many putrifying carcasses, together with the heat of the dog-days, produced a desolating pestilence which raged among men and beasts, and long after the retreat of both armies, continued to load the country with misery and distress. Affected by the general distress, and despairing of conquering the steady determination of the Duke of Friedland, the king broke up his camp on the 8th September, leaving in Nuremberg a sufficient garrison. He advanced in full order of battle before the enemy, who remained motionless, and did not attempt in the least to harass his retreat. His route lay by the Aisch and Windsheim towards Neustadt, where he halted five days to refresh his troops, and also to be near to Nuremberg, in case the enemy should make an attempt upon the town. But Wallenstein, as exhausted as himself, had only awaited the retreat of the Swedes to commence his own.

Five days afterwards, he broke up his camp at Zirndorf, and set it on fire.

A hundred columns of smoke, rising from all the burning villages in the neighbourhood, announced his retreat, and showed the city the fate it had escaped. His march, which was directed on Forchheim, was marked by the most frightful ravages; but he was too far advanced to be overtaken by the king. The latter now divided his army, which the exhausted country was unable to support, and leaving one division to protect Franconia, with the other he prosecuted in person his conquests in Bavaria.

In the mean time, the imperial Bavarian army had marched into the Bishopric of Bamberg, where the Duke of Friedland a second time mustered his troops. He found this force, which so lately had amounted to 60,000 men, diminished by the sword, desertion, and disease, to about 24,000, and of these a fourth were Bavarians.

Thus had the encampments before Nuremberg weakened both parties more than two great battles would have done, apparently without advancing the termination of the war, or satisfying, by any decisive result, the expectations of Europe. The king's conquests in Bavaria, were, it is true, checked for a time by this diversion before Nuremberg, and Austria itself secured against the danger of immediate invasion;but by the retreat of the king from that city, he was again left at full liberty to make Bavaria the seat of war. Indifferent towards the fate of that country, and weary of the restraint which his union with the Elector imposed upon him, the Duke of Friedland eagerly seized the opportunity of separating from this burdensome associate, and prosecuting, with renewed earnestness, his favourite plans. Still adhering to his purpose of detaching Saxony from its Swedish alliance, he selected that country for his winter quarters, hoping by his destructive presence to force the Elector the more readily into his views.

No conjuncture could be more favourable for his designs. The Saxons had invaded Silesia, where, reinforced by troops from Brandenburgh and Sweden, they had gained several advantages over the Emperor's troops.

Silesia would be saved by a diversion against the Elector in his own territories, and the attempt was the more easy, as Saxony, left undefended during the war in Silesia, lay open on every side to attack.

The pretext of rescuing from the enemy an hereditary dominion of Austria, would silence the remonstrances of the Elector of Bavaria, and, under the mask of a patriotic zeal for the Emperor's interests, Maximilian might be sacrificed without much difficulty. By giving up the rich country of Bavaria to the Swedes, he hoped to be left unmolested by them in his enterprise against Saxony, while the increasing coldness between Gustavus and the Saxon Court, gave him little reason to apprehend any extraordinary zeal for the deliverance of John George.

Thus a second time abandoned by his artful protector, the Elector separated from Wallenstein at Bamberg, to protect his defenceless territory with the small remains of his troops, while the imperial army, under Wallenstein, directed its march through Bayreuth and Coburg towards the Thuringian Forest.

An imperial general, Holk, had previously been sent into Vogtland with 6,000 men, to waste this defenceless province with fire and sword, he was soon followed by Gallas, another of the Duke's generals, and an equally faithful instrument of his inhuman orders. Finally, Pappenheim, too, was recalled from Lower Saxony, to reinforce the diminished army of the duke, and to complete the miseries of the devoted country. Ruined churches, villages in ashes, harvests wilfully destroyed, families plundered, and murdered peasants, marked the progress of these barbarians, under whose scourge the whole of Thuringia, Vogtland, and Meissen, lay defenceless.

Yet this was but the prelude to greater sufferings, with which Wallenstein himself, at the head of the main army, threatened Saxony.

After having left behind him fearful monuments of his fury, in his march through Franconia and Thuringia, he arrived with his whole army in the Circle of Leipzig, and compelled the city, after a short resistance, to surrender. His design was to push on to Dresden, and by the conquest of the whole country, to prescribe laws to the Elector.

同类推荐
  • 龙虎中丹诀

    龙虎中丹诀

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 六十种曲三元记

    六十种曲三元记

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • The Seventh Man

    The Seventh Man

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 画图缘

    画图缘

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 南有嘉鱼之什

    南有嘉鱼之什

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
热门推荐
  • 天庭通讯录

    天庭通讯录

    无意间被手机砸中,从此,陈枫的人脉丰富了起来。二郎神:“吾乃二郎显圣真君,如假包换,不信,我帮你……”华佗:“相见即是有缘,我有一套养身拳法,名字唤作……”牛魔王:“什么?竟然敢欺负我牛家的人!岂有此理!我传于你……”……
  • 相逢是首歌

    相逢是首歌

    本书收录了阎耀明的作品,包括《相逢是首歌》、《女孩的金秋》、《不买车票的小女孩》、《重逢的意义》等,主要以情感类、校园类小说为主。阎耀明的小小说大都把笔触延伸到社会的最底层,在关注那些小人物的际遇和命运的同时,营造着一个具有他自己特色的文学空间。 作品立意深刻,构思巧妙,情节曲折,于质朴中见幽默,于调侃中见温情,于娓娓叙述中蕴含人生哲理,展现了作者对生活的深厚体验和独特思考,对广大读者和写作者有着极其特殊的启悟意义。
  • 痴情校草冷酷溺爱

    痴情校草冷酷溺爱

    夏馨婕的离开给尹晨宇带来的不小的打击,他夜夜在酒吧里度过。他的前女友却很不要脸的找上门来,甚至还叫了一大群的流氓,居然还拿别人威胁他,要他回到她的身边。正当一切都陷入僵局的时候,一抹声音打断所有人视线。‘夏馨婕’尹晨宇很自然的叫了声。但他却不知道这是只与夏馨婕长得很相似的女子罢了。她是夏馨婕的双胞姐姐,却在这样一个场面上对这样一个男生面前动了情,而这男人喜欢的却是自己的妹妹……最后她的情归何处?是与她一起长大的顾严寒?还是坚持着自己的心呢?
  • 小男孩找妈妈

    小男孩找妈妈

    遭遇后母漠待的小男孩,一朝见义勇为开启传承才知老妈可能没死,于是义无反顾走上寻母征程
  • 你管这也叫金手指

    你管这也叫金手指

    本书又名《时空的魔匣》服从根源者谓之神,窃取根源者谓之王。穿越为大公之子的纨绔少年继承了最古最强之王的记忆与传承,为了拯救妹妹、为了完成对姐姐的承诺,他不得不走上了根源、在时空螺旋中不断成长的救赎之路。当你慢慢长大,你终将知道在这群星闪耀的凛冬中,为了心中的理想,每个人都必须做出正确却不正义的抉择。欢迎读者加群:集中营:152470234
  • 幻界迷天

    幻界迷天

    浩瀚星海中一方世界,无数人追寻世界的极致。有的人羽化成仙,有的人永坠魔道。唯有他,感悟世界真谛,成就一方强者,去追寻他想要追寻的!
  • 蒂姆:学校生活

    蒂姆:学校生活

    《蒂姆:学校生活故事》一书叙述了发生在男生寄宿学校里的一段同性情,是一个细腻又感人的悲剧故事。本书是作者的第一部作品,发表于1891年。小说最初以匿名形式发表,作者称此书献给“超越女人之爱”。
  • 目之所及皆欢喜

    目之所及皆欢喜

    新书发布《怦然心动遇见你》求关注。 【包月文】“我就是一辈子不结婚,也绝对不会娶你!你就算送上门,我也不稀罕!”“顾少,媳妇儿借我一晚,可好?”“尽管拿去,越快越好!”后来,不知被这个女人下了什么迷药……“老婆,求你开开门,看在我让你容颜变美的份上,让我进去吧。”“我容颜变美,那是天生丽质,跟你有什么关系,别往自己脸上贴金~”“顾少,媳妇儿借我……”“赶紧滚蛋,越远越好!”读者QQ群:590182385
  • 蜀中言怀

    蜀中言怀

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 倾世战帝妃顾茉传

    倾世战帝妃顾茉传

    风清茉在所有人眼中就是天生的废柴因为些许事情改名随了母姓叫顾茉。 一朝被渣姐迫害至死恢复灵力,强势以其人之道还治其人之身让渣姐变为废人。唐黎带病将顾茉围在悬崖边说:“茉儿你回来!这不是你可以任性的地方。”还是这个样子,顾茉想再多看她一眼。眼角的泪不知何时像断了线的珍珠落下。“唐黎你以不需要我了!让我嫁你不就是因为孩子吗,孩子我留下请八王爷放过奴婢。衷心祝福你幸福!”“没有你我怎会幸福啊!你要我如何幸福还有你不是奴婢,你是我唐黎的妻我唯一的妻子!”唐黎撕心裂肺的说。