The Thirty Years' War - James Aitken Wylie

approach of evil days! We behold zeal on the
Popish side, and only faint-heartedness and
indifference on that of the Protestants.
The troops of the League, under Duke
Maximilian's famous general, Tilly, were now on
their march to the Palatinate; but the Protestant
princes and free cities sat still, content to see the
fall of that powerful Protestant province, without
lifting a finger on its behalf. At that moment a
soldier of fortune, whose wealth lay in his sword,
assembled an army of 20,000, and came forward to
fill the vacant place of the cities and princes.
Ernest, Count Mansfeld, offered battle to the troops
of Spain and Bavaria, on behalf of the Elector
Frederick. Mansfeld was soon joined by the
Margrave of Baden, with a splendid troop.
Christian, Duke of Brunswick, who had conceived
a romantic passion for Elizabeth of Bohemia, the
Electress-Palatine, whose glove he always wore in
his hat, also joined Count Mansfeld, with an army
of some 20,000, which he had raised in Lower
Saxony, and which lie maintained without pay, a
secret he had learnt from Mansfeld.
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