The Thirty Years' War - James Aitken Wylie

who was but too glad of an excuse for returning to
his palace and his table. Bohemia was again
subjugated to the scepter of Ferdinand, and
Wallenstein turned westward to measure swords
with a very different antagonist – Gustavus
Adolphus.
We parted from the King of Sweden at the
passage of the Lech, where Tilly received his
mortal wound. From this point Gustavus marched
on towards Augsburg, where he arrived on the 8th
of April, 1632. The Augsburg of that day was
renowned for the multitude of its merchants and
the opulence of its bankers. It was the city of the
Fuggers and the Baumgartens, at whose door
monarchs knocked when they would place an army
in the field. These men lived in stately mansions,
surrounded by gardens which outvied the royal
park at Blots. It was in one of their parterres that
the tulip first unfolded its gorgeous petals beneath
the sun of Europe.
But Augsburg wore in Protestant eyes a yet
greater attraction, from the circumstance that its
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