The Lion of the North: A Tale of the Times of Gustavus AdolphusHenty, G. A. (George Alfred)
History
The Lion of the North: A Tale of the Times of Gustavus Adolphus
Henty, G. A. (George Alfred)
Gustav II Adolf, King of Sweden, 1594-1632 -- Fiction; Thirty Years' War, 1618-1648 -- Fiction
“In Germany the Protestants of lower Saxony and Brunswick, and the
partisan leader Mansfeldt, were still in arms. The army under the king
of Denmark advanced into Brunswick, and was there confronted by that of
the league under Tilly, while an Austrian army, raised by Wallenstein,
also marched against it. Mansfeldt endeavoured to prevent Wallenstein
from joining Tilly, but was met and defeated by the former general.
Mansfeldt was, however, an enterprising leader, and falling back into
Brandenburg, recruited his army, joined the force under the Duke of
Saxe-Weimar, and started by forced marches to Silesia and Moravia, to
join Bethlem Gabor in Hungary. Wallenstein was therefore obliged to
abandon his campaign against the Danes and to follow him. Mansfeldt
joined the Hungarian army, but so rapid were his marches that his force
had dwindled away to a mere skeleton, and the assistance which it
would be to the Hungarians was so small that Bethlem Gabor refused to
cooperate with it against Austria.
“Mansfeldt disbanded his remaining soldiers, and two months afterwards
died. Wallenstein then marched north. In the meantime Tilly had attacked
King Christian at Lutter, and completely defeated him. I will tell you
about that battle some other time. When Wallenstein came north it
was decided that Tilly should carry the war into Holland, and that
Wallenstein should deal with the King of Denmark and the Protestant
princes. In the course of two years he drove the Danes from Silesia,
subdued Brandenburg and Mecklenburg, and, advancing into Pomerania,
besieged Stralsund.
“What a siege that was to be sure! Wallenstein had sworn to capture the
place, but he didn't reckon upon the Scots. After the siege had begun
Lieutenant General Sir Alexander Leslie, with 5000 Scots and Swedes,
fought his way into the town; and though Wallenstein raised fire upon
it, though we were half starved and ravaged by plague, we held out for
three months, repulsing every assault, till at last the Imperialists
were obliged to draw off; having lost 12,200 men.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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