His vast property was confiscated and divided among his betrayers, all of whom received offices, honors and wealth. Twenty-four lower officers who were his friends fled, but were captured and beheaded at Pilsen. He had a strong personal following. His soldiers laughed at being known as Protestant, Catholic, German or foreigners; they declared they were Wallensteiners. He cared for neither friend nor foe, but led his robber band from State to State till it was laid waste, then moved on to the next, leaving devastation in his wake. The fifth and last period of the war was now entered upon, known as the French-Swedish War. Richelieu made the Rhine the frontier of France, and concluded an open alliance with Sweden. Ferdinand II. now died, after having made his son Roman king. This greatly angered Duke Maximilian, Richelieu and Pope Urban VIII., who had other plans for that throne. Ferdinand died unmourned, after causing as great sorrow as any human being who ever lived. During the remaining eleven years before the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, Ferdinand III. would gladly have made peace, but Germany was so defenceless that she was simply in the hands of France and Sweden, one contending for, the other against the Edict of Restitution, but the awful story of rapine, murder, pestilence and death of those eleven years need not be told here. (See Schiller's "Thirty Years' War.") What was Christian Germany doing all this time? It kept the faith; it sought consolation in God's word; it wrote the deep spiritual hymns of the Church, hymns which have comforted the sorrowing from that day to this. The negotiations for peace extended over four years. While diplomats in comfortable rooms were bickering over terms, armies were fighting, soldiers dying, people starving, and utter misery prevailing. The parties who had to subscribe to the peace were France, Sweden, the Emperor, the various German States and princes, Frederick William, who afterward became known as the great Elector of Brandenburg, Denmark, Venice, Spain, Switzerland, England and the Netherlands. Sweden did not receive Pomerania, which she demanded, but secured Western Pomerania, with Rugen, Stettin and a few other places, and an indemnity of five million thalers. But what was that to her loss? The Treaty of Westphalia, in 1648, declared that the treaties of Passau and Augsburg were confirmed. The Edict of Restitution was canceled. The great Supreme Court of the Empire was to be half Protestant and half Catholic. It legalized the break which had been made by Luther and the other reformers. It gave liberty of conscience to the Protestant part of Europe.