The German Classics of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Volume 03: Masterpieces of German Literature Translated into English. in Twenty Volumes
General
The German Classics of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Volume 03: Masterpieces of German Literature Translated into English. in Twenty Volumes
German literature -- 19th century -- Translations into English; German literature -- 20th century -- Translations into English
Pappenheim died the next day of his wounds at Leipzig; an irreparable
loss to the imperial army, which this brave warrior had so often led
on to victory. The battle of Prague, where together with Wallenstein,
he was present as colonel, was the beginning of his heroic career.
Dangerously wounded, with a few troops, he made an impetuous attack on
a regiment of the enemy, and lay for several hours mixed with the dead
upon the field, beneath the weight of his horse, till he was
discovered by some of his own men in plundering. With a small force he
defeated, in three different engagements, the rebels in Upper Austria,
though 40,000 strong. At the battle of Leipzic, he for a long time
delayed the defeat of Tilly by his bravery, and led the arms of the
Emperor on the Elbe and the Weser to victory. The wild impetuous fire
of his temperament, which no danger, however apparent, could cool, or
impossibilities check, made him the most powerful arm of the imperial
force, but unfitted him for acting at its head. The battle of Leipzic,
if Tilly may be believed, was lost through his rash ardor. At the
destruction of Magdeburg, his hands were deeply steeped in blood; war
rendered savage and ferocious his disposition, which had been
cultivated by youthful studies and various travels. On his forehead,
two red streaks, like swords, were perceptible, with which nature had
marked him at his very birth. Even in his later years these became
visible, as often as his blood was stirred by passion; and
superstition easily persuaded itself that the future destiny of the
man was thus impressed upon the forehead of the child. As a faithful
servant of the House of Austria, he had the strongest claims on the
gratitude of both its lines, but he did not survive to enjoy the most
brilliant proof of their regard. A messenger was already on his way
from Madrid, bearing to him the order of the Golden Fleece, when death
overtook him at Leipzic.
Though _Te Deum_, in all Spanish and Austrian lands, was sung in honor
of a victory, Wallenstein himself, by the haste with which he quitted
Leipzic and, soon after, all Saxony, and by renouncing his original
design of fixing there his winter-quarters, openly confessed his
defeat. It is true he made one more feeble attempt to dispute, even in
his flight, the honor of victory, by sending out his Croats next
morning to the field; but the sight of the Swedish army drawn up in
order of battle, immediately dispersed these flying bands, and Duke
Bernard, by keeping possession of the field, and soon after by the
capture of Leipzic, maintained indisputably his claim to the title of
victor.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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