The History of the Thirty Years' WarSchiller, Friedrich
History
The History of the Thirty Years' War
Schiller, Friedrich
Europe -- History -- 1517-1648; Thirty Years' War, 1618-1648
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 Leipzig, 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 Leipzig, if Tilly may be believed, was
lost through his rash ardour. 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 Leipzig.
Though Te Deum, in all Spanish and Austrian lands, was sung in honour
of a victory, Wallenstein himself, by the haste with which he quitted
Leipzig, 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 honour 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
Leipzig, maintained indisputably his claim to the title of victor.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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