The Thirty Years' War - James Aitken Wylie

earing and a higher faith in his mission; and from
this hour his conquests become more rapid and
brilliant. He sees One moving before him, and
giving him victory; mighty armies and renowned
captains are driven before him as chaff is driven
before the wind; the gates of proud cities are
unlocked at his approach, and the keys of strong
fortresses are put into his hand; rivers are divided
that he may pass over; and his banners are borne
triumphantly onwards till they are seen waving on
the frontier of Austria. Germany was liberated.
But Germany was not able to accept her
liberation. The princes who were now delivered
from a yoke under which they had groaned, and
who might now freely profess the Protestant faith,
and re-establish the exercise of the Protestant
worship among their subjects, were unable to prize
the boon which had been put within their reach.
They began to mistrust and intrigue against their
deliverer, and to quarrel with the arrangements
necessary for securing the fruits of what had been
achieved with so much toil and danger.
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