The Thirty Years' War - James Aitken Wylie

day of confusion. The light horseman of the
Cossacks was the object of special terror. His
movements were rapid, and he passed along
plundering and slaughtering without much
distinction of friend or foe. There came a mingling
of Mohammedans in the corps raised in the
provinces which abutted on the Turkish frontier.
But most hated of all were the Croats, because they
were of all others the most barbarous and the most
cruel. So multiform was the host that now covered
the Fatherland! We know not where in history
another such assemblage of ruffians, plunderers,
and murderers is to be beheld as is now seen
settling down in Germany. Had the slaughter been
confined to the battle-field, the carnage would have
been comparatively trifling; but all the land was a
battle-field, and every day of the thirty years was a
day of battle, for not a day but blood was shed. The
times of the Goths furnish us with no such dark
picture. When these nations descended from the
North to overthrow the Roman Empire, they
pressed forward and did not return on their course.
The cities, the cultivation, and the men who were
trampled down in their march rose up again when
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