g perpetually defeated; but to save the emperor from the League,
and the oppressive superiority of Bavaria.

It was the beginning of the Austrian army. The regiments that
followed Wallenstein to the sea still subsist, and are the same that
fought under Eugene and the archduke Charles. They were quickly
victorious; they overran Silesia, and at the bridge of Dessau they
gained a victory over Mansfeld.

Mansfeld was one of the mere adventurers who disgrace the war. But he
was a born soldier. Repulsed on the Elbe, he made his way through the
hereditary provinces, intending to embark at Venice for England. In a
Bosnian village his strength gave out. His death was nobler than his
life, and is a legendary reminiscence in Germany. For he buckled on
his armour, made his companions hold him upright, and met death
standing, with his drawn sword.

Wallenstein was rewarded by being made Duke of Mecklenburg and admiral
of the Baltic. He governed his principality well; but his fleet and
his docks were destroyed by the Danes, and he was forced to raise the
siege of Stralsund. He was unable to act in combination with Tilly
and the League. They wished to make their religion dominate, without
detriment to their position in the empire. Wallenstein meant that the
emperor should dominate, at the expense of the princes, whether
Catholic or Protestant, between whom he made no distinction. The very
existence of the force under his command implied that the purpose and
policy of the Habsburgs were not those of their allies, and that,
after profiting by their services, he meant to rob them of their
results. His imperialism was so dazzling, his success so unbroken,
that Ferdinand would not check him, but strove to appease the League
with fair assurances, and to induce its efficient leader Maximilian to
trust the commander-in-chief.

Ferdinand had now reached a degree of power that Charles V never
enjoyed. He had crushed the revolution at home, the opposition in
Germany, and Lutheran loyalty was still unshaken. In his desire to
conciliate the League, while he made their conquests serve his power,
in March 1629 he published an edict restoring to the clergy all the
Church property in Protestant hands. The Lutherans would have to give
back two archbishoprics, twelve bishoprics, innumerable abbeys; while
the Calvinists were to lose the benefit of the Peace of Religion. The
Edict of Restitution gave up the immediate purposes of the e