course, he could find no place which he liked; but at last turning himself north, and looking down the stream, he found the river fetching a long reach, doubles short upon itself, making a round and very narrow point: "There's a point will do our business," says the king; "and if the ground be good I will pass there, let Tilly do his worst." He immediately ordered a small party of horse to view the ground, and to bring him word particularly how high the bank was on each side and at the point. "And he," says the king, "shall have fifty dollars that will bring me word how deep the water is." I asked his majesty leave to let me go, which he would by no means allow; but, as the party was drawing out, a sergeant of dragoons told the king, if he pleased to let him go disguised as a boor, he would bring him an account of everything he desired. The king liked the motion very well, and the fellow being well acquainted with the country, puts on a ploughman's habit, and went away immediately, with a long pole upon his shoulder; the horse lay all this while in the woods, and the king stood undiscerned by the enemy on the little hill aforesaid. The dragoon with his long pole comes boldly to the banks of the river, and calling to the sentinels which Tilly had placed on the other bank, talked with them, asked if they could not help him over the river and pretended he wanted to come to them; at last, being come to the point, where, as I said, the river makes a short turn, he stands parleying with them a great while, and sometimes pretended to wade over; he puts his long pole into the water, till, being gotten up to his middle, he could reach beyond him, where it was too deep, and, shaking his head, came back again. The soldiers on the other side, laughing at him, asked him if he could swim? He said, "No, I cannot." 66 Why, you fool," said one of the sentinels, "the channel of the river is twenty feet deep." "How do you know that?" said the dragoon. "Why, our engineer," answered he, "measured it yesterday." This was what he wanted; but not yet fully satisfied" Ay, but," says he, "may be it may not be very broad; if one of you would wade in to meet me, till I can reach you with my pole, I would give him half a ducat to pull me over." The innocent way of his discourse so deluded the soldiers, that one of them immediately strips and goes in up to the shoulders, and our dragoon got in on this side to meet him; but the stream took the other soldier away, and he, being a good swimmer, came over to this side The dragoon was then in a great deal of pain for fear of being discovered, and was once going to kill the fellow and make off, but at last resolved to carry on the humour, and having entertained the man with the tale of a tub about the Swedes stealing his oats, the fellow, being cold, wanted to be gone, and the dragoon, as willing to be rid of him, pretended to be very sorry he could not get over the river, and so makes off. By this, however, he learned both the depth and breadth of the channel, the bottom and nature of both shores, and everything the king wanted to know. We could see him from the hill by our glasses very plain, and could see the soldier naked with him. "He is a fool," says the king, "he does not kill the fellow and run off; " but when the dragoon told his tale, the king was extremely well satisfied with him, gave him a hundred dollars, and made him a quarter-master of cuirassiers. The king having further examined the dragoon, he gave him a very distinct account of the ground on this side, which he found to be higher than the enemy's by ten or twelve feet, and a hard gravel. Hereupon the king resolves to pass there; and, in order to it, gives, himself, particular directions for such a bridge as I believe never any army passed a river on before or since. His bridge was only loose planks laid upon large tressels, in the same homely manner as I have seen bricklayers raise a low scaffold to build a brick wall. The tressels were made higher than one another to answer to the river as it be came deeper or shallower, and were all framed and fitted before any appearance was made of attempting to pass. When all was ready, the king brings his army down to the bank of the river, and plants his cannon as the enemy had done, some here and some there, to amuse them. At night, April 4th, the king commanded about two thousand men to march to the point, and to throw up a trench on either side, and quite round it, with a battery of six pieces of cannon at each end, besides three small mounts one at the point, and one on each side, which had each two pieces upon them. This work was begun so briskly, and so well carried on. the king firing all night from the other parts of the river, that by daylight all the batteries at the new work were mounted, the trench lined with two thousand musketeers, and all the utensils of the bridge lay ready to be put together. Now the Imperialists discovered the design, but it was too late to hinder it; the musketeers in the great trench and the five new batteries made such continual fire, that the other bank, which, as before, laid twelve feet below them, was too hot for the Imperialists; whereupon Tilly, to be provided for the king at his coming over, falls to work in a wood right against the point, and raises a great battery for twenty pieces of cannon, with a breast-work, or line, as near the river as he could to cover his men, thinking that when the king had built his bridge he might easily beat it down with his cannon. But the king had doubly prevented him, first, by laying his bridge so low that none of Tilly's shot could hurt it, for the bridge lay not half a foot above the water's surface; by which means the king, who in that showed himself an excel lent engineer, had secured it from any batteries being made within the land, and the angle of the bank secured it from the remoter batteries on the other side, and the continual fire of the cannon and small shot beat the Imperialists from their station just against it, they having no works to cover them. And in the second place, to secure his passage he sent over about two hundred men, and af er that two hundred more, who had orders to cast up a large ravelin on the other bank just where he designed to land his bridge. This was done with such expedition, too, that it was finished before night, and in a condition to receive all the shot of Tilly's great battery, and effectually covered the bridge. While this was doing, the king, on his side, lays over his bridge. Both sides wrought hard all day and all night, as if the spade, not the sword, had been to decide the controversy, and that he would get the victory whose trenches and batteries were first ready. In the meanwhile the cannon and musket-bullets flew like hail, and made the service so hot, that both sides had enough to do to make their men stand to their work. The king, in the hottest of it, animated his men by his presence, and Tilly, to give him his due, did the same; for the execution was so great, and so many officers killed, General Attringer wounded, and two serjeant-majors killed, that at last Tilly himself was obliged to be exposed, and to come up to the very face of our line to encourage his men, and give his necessary orders. (Note 7.) six hundred musketeers to man the new line out of the Scotch brigade. Early in the morning, a small party of Scots, commanded by a Captain Forbes, of my Lord Rea's regiment, were sent out to learn something of the enemy, the king observing they had not fired all night; and while this party were abroad, the army stood in battalia; and my old friend Sir John Hepburn, whom, of all men, the king most depended upon for any desperate service, was ordered to pass the bridge with his brigade, and to draw up without the line, with command to advance as he found the horse who were to second him come over Sir John, being passed without the trench, meets Captain Forbes with some prisoners, and the good news of the enemy's retreat: he sends him directly to the king, who was by this time at the head of his army, in full battalia, ready to follow his vanguard, expecting a hot day's work of it. Sir John sends messenger after messenger to the king, entreating him to give him orders to advance, but the king would not suffer him, for he was ever upon his guard, and would not venture a surprise; so the army continued on this side the Lech all day and the next night. And here, about one o'clock, much about the time that the king's bridge and works were finished, and just as, they said, he had ordered to fall upon our ravelin with three thousand foot, dered me to draw out three hundred horse, and In the morning the king sent for me, and orwas the brave old Tilly wounded with a musketbullet in the thigh: he was carried off to Ingol-with eight hundred dragoons, and ordered us to a colonel with six hundred horse, and another stadt, and lived some days after, but died of his wound the same day as the king had his horse shot under him at the siege of that town. We made no question of passing the river here, having brought everything so forward, and with such extraordinary success; but we should have found it a very hot piece of work if Tilly had lived one day longer: and if I may give my opinion of it, having seen Tilly's battery and breast work, in the face of which we must have passed the river, I must say, that whenever we had marched, if Tilly had fallen in with his horse and foot, placed in that trench, the whole army would have passed as much in danger as in the face of a strong town in the storming a counterscarp. The king, when he saw with what judgment Tilly had prepared his works, and what danger he himself must have run, would often say, that day's success was every way equal to the victory of Leipsic. Tilly being hurt and carried off, as if the soul of the army had been lost, they began to draw off. The Duke of Bavaria took horse and rode away, as if he had fled out of battle for his life. enter the wood by three ways, but so as to be able to relieve one another; and then ordered Sir John Hepburn with his brigade to advance to the edge of the wood to secure our retreat; and at the same time commanded another brigade of foot to pass the bridge, if necessary, to second Sir John Hepburn; so warily did this prudent general proceed. We advanced with our horse into the Bavarian camp, which we found forsaken. The plunder of it was inconsiderable; for the exceeding caution the king had used gave them time to carry off all their baggage. We followed them three or four miles, and returned to our camp. I confess I was most diverted that day with viewing the works which Tilly had cast up, and must own again, that had he not been taken off, we had met with as desperate a piece of work as ever was attempted. The next day the rest of the cavalry came up to us, cominanded by Gustavus Horne, and the king and the whole army followed: we advanced through the heart of Bavaria, took Rain at the first summons, and several other small towns, and sat down before Augsburg. The other generals, with a little more caution Augsburg, though a protestant city, had a as well as courage, drew off by degrees, sending popish Bavarian garrison in it of above five their cannons and baggage away first, and leav-thousand men, commanded by a Fugger, a great ing some to continue firing on the bank of the family in Bavaria. The governor had posted river to conceal their retreat. The river pre- several little parties as outscouts, at the distance venting any intelligence, we knew nothing of the of two miles and a half or three miles from the disaster which had befallen them; and the king, town. The king, at his coming up to this town, who looked for blows, having finished his bridge sends me with my little troop and three compaand ravelin, ordered to run a line with palisadoes|nies of dragoons to beat in these out-scouts: the to take in more ground on the bank of the river to cover the first troops he should send over. This being finished the same night, the king sends over a party of his guards to relieve the men who were in the ravelin, and commanded first party I discovered was not above sixteen men, who had made a small barricado across the road, and stood resolutely upon their guard. I commanded the dragoons to alight, and open the barricado, which, while they resolutely performed, the sixteen men gave them two volleys of their, the horse with the rest." We passed their first traverse, and coming up to the turnpike, I found it defended by two hundred musketeers: I prepared to attack them, sending word to the king of the strength of the enemy, and desired some foot to be sent me. My dragoons fell on, and though the enemy made a very hot fire, had beat them from this post before two hundred foot, which the king had sent me, had come up. Being joined with the foot, I followed the enemy, who retreated, fighting, till they came under the cannon of a strong redoubt, where they drew up; and I could see another body of foot, of about three hundred, join them out of the works. Upon this I halted, and considering I was in view of the town, and a great way from the army, I faced about, and began to march off. As we marched I found the enemy followed, but kept at a distance, as if they only designed to observe us. We had not marched far before I heard a volley of small shot, answered by two or three more, which I presently apprehended to be at the turnpike, where I had left a small guard of twenty-six men with a lieutenant. I immediately detached one hundred dragoons to relieve my men, and secure my retreat, following myself as fast as the foot could march. The lieutenant sent ine back word the post was taken by the enemy, and my men cut off. Upon this I doubled my pace, and when I came up I found it as the lieutenant had said; for the post was taken, and defended by three hundred musketeers and three troops of horse. By this time also I found the party in my rear made up towards me; so that I was like to be charged, in a narrow place, both in front and rear. I saw there was no remedy but with all my force to fall upon that party before me, and so to break through before those from the town could come up with me: therefore, commanding my dragoons to alight, I ordered them to fall on upon the foot. Their horse were drawn up in an enclosed field on one side of the road, a great ditch securing the other side; so that they thought if I charged the foot in front, they would fall upon my flank, while those behind would charge my rear; and, indeed, had the other come in time, they had cut me off. dragoons made three fair charges on their foot; but were received with so much resolution, and so brisk a fire, that they were beaten off, and sixteen men killed. My Seeing them so rudely handled, and the horse ready to fall in, I relieved them with one hundred musketeers, and they renewed the attack; at the same time with my troop of horse, flanked on both wings with fifty musketeers, I faced their horse, but did not offer to charge them. The case grew now desperate, and the enemy behind were just at my heels with near six hundred men. The captain who commanded the musketeers, and flanked my horse, came up to me, and said, "If we do not force this pass, all will be lost if you will draw out your troop and twenty of my foot, and fall in, I will engage to keep off "With all my heart," Immediately I wheeled off my troop, and a small party of the musketeers followed me, and fell in with the dragoons and foot, who, seeing the danger too as well as I, fought like madmen. The foot at the turnpike were not able to hinder our breaking through; so we made our way out, killing about one hundred and fifty of them, and | put the rest into confusion. But now I was in as great difficulty as before how to fetch off my brave captain of foot, for they charged home upon him: he defended himself with extraordinary gallantry, having the benefit of a piece of a hedge to cover him; but he lost half his men, and was just upon the point of being defeated, when the king, informed by a soldier that escaped from the turnpike, one of twenty-six, had sent a party of six hundred dragoons to bring me off: these came upon the spur, and joined with me just as I had broke through the turnpike. The enemy's foot rallied behind their horse, and by this time their other party was come in; but, seeing our relief, they drew off together I lost above one hundred men in these skirmishes, and killed of the enemy about one hundred and eighty. We secured the turnpike, and placed a company of foot there with one hundred dragoons, and came back well beaten to the army. The king, to prevent such uncertain skirmishes, advanced the next day in view of the town, and, according to his custom, sits down with his whole army within cannon-shot of their walls. The king won this great city by force of words, for by two or three messages and letters to and from the citizens the town was gained, the garri. son not daring to defend them against their wills, His majesty made his public entrance into the city on the 14th of April, and, receiving the compliments of the citizens, advanced immediately to Ingolstadt, which is accounted, and really is, the strongest town in all those parts. There was a very strong garrison in it, and the Duke of Bavaria lay intrenched with his army under the walls of it, on the other side of the river. The king, who never loved long sieges, having reviewed the town, and brought his army within musket-shot of it, called a council of war, where it was the king's opinion, in short, that the town would cost him more than it was worth, and therefore he resolved to raise the siege. Here the king, going to view the town, had his horse shot with a cannon-bullet from the works, which tumbled the king and his horse over each other, that every body thought he had been killed, but he received no hurt at all: that very minute, as near as could be learned, General Tilly died in the town of the shot he received on the bank of the Lech. I was not in the camp when the king was hurt; for the king had sent almost all the horse and dragoons, under Gustavus Horne, to face the Duke of Bavaria's camp, and after that to plunder the country, which truly was a work the soldiers were glad of, for it was very seldom they had that liberty given them, and they made very good use of it when it was, for the country of Bavaria was rich and plentiful, having seen no enemy before during the whole war. not so numerous as was reported, but were really sixty thousand men. The king, not strong enough to fight yet (as he used to say), was strong enough not to be forced to fight, formed his camp so under the cannon of Nuremburg, that there was no besieging the town, but they must besiege him too; and he fortified his camp in so formidable a manper, that Wallenstein never durst attack him. On the 30th of June Wallenstein's troops ap The army having left the siege of Ingolstadt, proceeds to take in the rest of Bavaria. Sir John Hepburn, with three brigades of foot, and Gustavus Horne, with three thousand horse and dragoons, went to the Landshut, and took it the same day. The garrison was all horse, and gave us several camisadoes at our approach, in one of which I lost two of my troops; but when we had beat them into close quarters they presently ca-peared, and on the 5th of July encamped close pitulated. cers; by the king, and posted themselves not on the Bavarian side, but between the king and his own friends of Schwaben and Frankendal, in order to intercept his provisions, and, as they thought, to starve him out of his camp. (Note 9.) The general got a large sum of money of the town, besides a great many presents to the offiand from thence the King went on to Munich, the Duke of Bavaria's court. Some of the general officers would fain have had the Here they lay to see who could subsist longest. plundering of the duke's palace; but the king The king was strong in horse, for we had full was too generous-the city paid him four hun-eight thousand horse and dragoons in the army, dred thousand dollars, and the duke's magazine and this gave us great advantage in the several They had was there seized, in which were one hundred and skirmishes we had with the enemy. forty pieces of cannon, and small arms for above possession of the whole country, and had taken twenty thousand men. effectual care to furnish their army with provisions: they placed their guards in such excellent order to secure their convoys, that their waggons went from stage to stage as quiet as in time of peace, and were relieved every five miles by parties constantly posted on the road. The great chamber of the duke's rarities was preserved, by the king's special order, with a great deal of care. I expected to have staid here some time, and to have taken very exact account of this curious laboratory; but being commanded away, I had no time, and the fate of the war never gave me an opportunity to see it again. The Imperialists, under the command of Com-to missary Osta, had besieged Bibrach, an Imperial eity not very well fortified; and the inhabitants, being under the Swede's protection, defended themselves as well as they could, but were in great danger, and sent several expresses to the king for help. The king immediately detaches a strong body of horse and foot to relieve Bibrach, and would be the commander himself-I marched among the horse-but the Imperialists saved us the labour; for the news of the king coming frightened away Osta, that he left Bibrach and hardly looked behind him till he got up to the Bodensee, on the confines of Switzerland. At our return from this expedition the king had the first news of Wallenstein's approach, who, on the death of Count Tilly, being declared generalissimo of the Emperor's forces, had played the tyrant in Bohemia, and was now advancing with sixty thousand men, as they reported, to relieve the Duke of Bavaria. (Note 8.) And thus the Imperial general sat down by us, not doubting but he should force the king either fight his way through on very disadvantageous terms, or to rise for want of provisions, and leave the city of Nuremburg a prey to his army; for he had vowed the destruction of the city, and to make it a second Magdeburg. But the king, who was not to be easily deceived. had countermined all Wallenstein's designs: he had passed his honour to the Nuremburgers that he would not leave them, and they had undertaken to victual his army, and secure him from want, which they did so effectually that he had no occasion to expose his troops to any hazard or fatigues for convoys or forage on any account whatever. The city of Nuremburg is a very rich and populous city; and the king, being very sensible of their danger, had given his word for their defence: and when they, being terrified at the threats of the Imperiaists, sent their deputies to beseech the king to take care of them, he sent them word he would, and be besieged with them. They, on the other hand, laid in such stores of all sorts of The King, therefore, in order to be in a situa-provision, both for man and horse, that had Waltion to receive this great general, resolves to fenstein lain before it six months longer, there Every private quit Bavaria, and to expect him on the frontiers would have been no scarcity. of Franconia; and because he knew the Nurem-house was a magazine: the camp was plentifully burgers, for their kindness to him, would be their supplied with all manner of provisions, and the first sacrifice, he resolved to defend that city market always full, and as cheap as in times of against him, whatever it cost Nevertheless he did not leave Bavaria without a defence; but, on the one hand, he left Sir John Bannier with ten thousand men about Augsburg, and the Duke of Saxe-Weimar with another like army about Ulme and Meiningen, with orders so to direct their march as that they might join him upon any occasion in a few days. We encamped about Nuremburg the middle of June. The army, after so many detachments, was not above nineteen thousand men. The Imperial army, joined with the Bavarian, were peace. The magistrates were so careful, and preserved so excellent an order in the disposal of all sorts of provision, that no engrossing of corn could be practised, for the prices were every day directed at the town-house; and if any man offered to demand more money for corn than the stated price, he could not sell, because at the town storehouse you might buy cheaper Here are two instances of good and bad conduct: The city of Magdeburg had been entreated by the king to settle funds, and raise money for their provision and security, and to have a sufficient garrison to defend them; but they made difficulties either to raise men for themselves, or to admit the king's troops to assist them, for fear of the charge of maintaining them; and this was the cause of the city's ruin. The city of Nuremburg opened their arms to receive the assistance proffered by the Swedes, and their purses to defend their town and common cause; and this was the saving them absolutely from destruction. The rich burghers and magistrates kept open houses, where the officers of the army were always welcome; and the council of the city took such care of the poor, that there was no complaining, nor any disorders in the whole city. their friends; and here he showed his mastership in the war, for by this means his conquests went on as effectually as if he had been abroad himself. In the meantime, it was not to be expected two such armies should lie long so near without some action. The Imperial army, being masters of the field, laid the country for about twenty miles round Nuremburg in a manner desolate: what the inhabitants could carry away had been before secured in such strong towns as had garrisons to protect them, and what was left the hungry Cra bats devoured, or set on fire; but sometimes they were met with by our men, who often paid them home for it. There had passed several rencounters between There is no doubt but it cost the city a great our parties and theirs; and, as it falls out in such deal of money; but I never saw a public charge cases, sometimes one side, sometimes the other borne with so much cheerfulness, nor managed got the better; but I have observed there never with so much prudence and conduct, in my life. was any party sent out by the king's special ap The city fed about fifty thousand every day, in-pointment but always came home with victory. cluding their own poor, besides themselves; and The first considerable attempt, as I remember, yet the king had lain thus three months, and was made on a convoy of ammunition. The party finding his armies longer in coming up than he sent out was commanded by a Saxon colonel, and expected, asked the burgrave how their maga-consisted of a thousand horse and five hundred zines held out. He answered, they desired his dragoons, who burnt above six hundred waggons majesty not to hasten things for them, for they loaded with ammunition and stores for the army, could maintain themselves and him twelve months besides taking about two thousand muskets, which longer, if there was occasion. This plenty kept they brought back to the army. both the army and city in good health, as well as in good heart; whereas nothing was to be had of us but blows; for we fetched nothing from without our works, nor had any business without the line but to interrupt the enemy. The manner of the king's encampment deserves a particular attention. He was a complete surveyor, and a master in fortification, not to be outdone by any. He had posted his army in the suburbs of the town, and drawn lines round the whole circumference, so that he begirt the whole city with his army: his works were large, the ditch deep, flanked with innumerable bastions, ravelins, hornworks, forts, redoubts, batteries, and pallisadoes, the incessant work of eight thousand men for about fourteen days. Besides that, the king was adding something or other to it every day; and the very posture of his camp was enough to tell a larger army than Wallenstein's that he was not to be assaulted in his trenches. The king's design appeared chiefly to be the preservation of the city; but that was not allhe had three armies acting abroad in three several places, namely, Gustavus Horne was on the Mosel; the chancellor Oxenstern about Mentz, Cologne, and the Rhine; Duke William and Duke Bernard, together with General Bannier, in Bavaria; and though he designed they should all join him, and had written to them to that purpose, yet he did not hasten them, knowing that while he kept the main army at bay about Nuremburg they would, without opposition, reduce those several countries they were acting in to his power. This occasioned his lying longer in the camp at Nuremburg than he would have done. and also his giving the Imperialists so many alarms by his strong parties of horse, of which he was well provided, that they might not be able to make any considerable detachments for the relief of vice that the Imperialists had formed a magazine The latter end of July the king received adfor provisions at a town called Freynstat, twenty miles from Nuremburg. Hither all the booty and parts adjacent, were brought and laid up in and contributions raised in the Upper Palatinate, being placed to defend it; and when a quantity a place of security, a garrison of six hundred men of provisions was got together, convoys were appointed to fetch it off. The king resolved, if possible, to take or destroy this magazine; and sending for Colonel Dubalt, a Swede, a man of extraordinary conduct, he tells him his design, and also that he must be the instrument to put it in execution, and ordered him to take what forces he thought convenient. The colonel, who well knew the town, and the country about it, told his majesty he would attempt it with all his heart; but he was afraid it would require some foot to make the attack. "We cannot stay for them," says the king: "you must then take some dragoons with you;" and immediately the king called for me. I was just going up the stairs as the king's page was coming out to inquire for me; so I went immediately to the king. "Here is a piece of hot work for you," says his majesty; "Dubalt will tell it you-go together and contrive it." We immediately withdrew; and when the colone had acquainted me with the discourse which had passed between the king and himself, I replied I thought dragoons might do as well; so we agreed to take sixteen hundred horse and four hundred dragoons. The king, impatient in his design, came into the room to us to know what we had resolved on, approved our measures, gave us orders immediately, and, turning to me, says, "You shall |