The Thirty Years' War - James Aitken Wylie

and divide his laurels with Tilly, had encamped on
the Elbe, and strongly fortified himself at the
bridge of Dessau. It would be easy for him to
march across the country to the Weser, and fall
upon the rear of the King of Denmark, should the
latter come to an engagement with Tilly. Christian
IV saw the danger, and arranged with Count
Mansfeld, who had under him a finely equipped
force, to make a diversion in his favor, by
marching through Germany to Hungary, joining
Gabriel Bethlen, and attacking Vienna. This
maneuver would draw off Wallenstein, and leave
him to cope with only the troops under Tilly. Duke
Christian of Brunswick had orders to enter
Westphalia, and thence extend his operations into
the Palatinate; and Duke John Ernest of Saxe-
Weimar, who was also in the field, was to act in
Saxony, and assist Mansfeld in executing the
diversion by which Wallenstein was to be drawn
off from the theater of war between the Weser and
the Elbe, and allow the campaign to be decided by
a trial of strength between Christian IV and the
general of the League.
80