t it, and guided by such political prudence, Gustavus
Adolphus was irresistible.

With the sword in one hand and mercy in the other, he traversed
Germany as a conqueror, a lawgiver, and a judge, in as short a time
almost as the tourist of pleasure. The keys of towns and fortresses
were delivered to him, as if to the native sovereign. No fortress was
inaccessible; no river checked his victorious career. He conquered by
the very terror of his name. The Swedish standards were planted along
the whole stream of the Main: the Lower Palatinate was free, the
troops of Spain and Lorraine had fled across the Rhine and the
Moselle. The Swedes and Hessians poured like a torrent into the
territories of Mentz, of Wuertzburg, and Bamberg, and three fugitive
bishops, at a distance from their sees, suffered dearly for their
unfortunate attachment to the Emperor. It was now the turn for
Maximilian, the leader of the League, to feel in his own dominions the
miseries he had inflicted upon others. Neither the terrible fate of
his allies, nor the peaceful overtures of Gustavus, who, in the midst
of conquest, ever held out the hand of friendship, could conquer the
obstinacy of this prince. The torrent of war now poured into Bavaria.
Like the banks of the Rhine, those of the Lecke and the Donau were
crowded with Swedish troops. Creeping into his fortresses, the
defeated Elector abandoned to the ravages of the foe his dominions,
hitherto unscathed by war, and on which the bigoted violence of the
Bavarians seemed to invite retaliation. Munich itself opened its gates
to the invincible monarch, and the fugitive Palatine, Frederick V., in
the forsaken residence of his rival, consoled himself for a time for
the loss of his dominions.

While Gustavus Adolphus was extending his conquests in the south, his
generals and allies were gaining similar triumphs in the other
provinces. Lower Saxony shook off the yoke of Austria, the enemy
abandoned Mecklenburg, and the imperial garrisons retired from the
banks of the Weser and the Elbe. In Westphalia and the Upper Rhine,
William, Landgrave of Hesse, rendered himself formidable; the Duke of
Weimar in Thuringia, and the French in the Electorate of Treves; while
to the eastward the whole kingdom of Bohemia was conquered by the
Saxons. The Turks were preparing to attack Hungary, and in the heart
of Austria a dangerous insurrection was threatened. In vain did the
Emperor look around to the courts of Europe for s