The Thirty Years' War - James Aitken Wylie

promised this dignity to Wallenstein. The Swedes
did not know what to make of this strange
proposal; but at last, deeming it an artful trap to
seize their army and deliver it up to the emperor,
they rejected it. The real intentions of Wallenstein
still remain a mystery; but we incline to the belief
that he was then meditating some deep revenge on
the emperor, whom he had never forgiven for
dismissing him, and that he was not less desirous
of striking a blow at the Jesuits, who he knew
cordially hated him, and were intriguing against
him at the court of Vienna. It is said that he was
revolving even mightier projects. He harbored the
daring purpose of putting down all the lords, lay
and ecclesiastical, of Germany, of combining its
various countries into one kingdom, and setting
over it a single chief. Ferdinand II was to be
installed meanwhile as the nominal sovereign, but
Wallenstein would govern through him, as
Richelieu did through Louis XIII. The Turks were
to be driven out of Europe, and Wallenstein, at the
head of a gigantic army, was to make himself
Dictator of Christendom. Such was the colossal
scheme with which he was credited, and which is
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