places, and would everywhere
dispute with him the passage over the river. In his rear was Tilly,
who was fast recruiting his force, and would soon be joined by the
auxiliaries from Lorraine. Every Papist presented an inveterate foe,
while his connection with France did not leave him at liberty to act
with freedom against the Roman Catholics. Gustavus had foreseen all
these obstacles, and at the same time the means by which they were to
be overcome. The strength of the Imperialists was broken and divided
among different garrisons, while he would bring against them one by
one his whole united force. If he was to be opposed by the fanaticism
of the Roman Catholics, and the awe in which the lesser states
regarded the Emperor's power, he might depend on the active support of
the Protestants, and their hatred to Austrian oppression. The ravages
of the Imperialists and Spanish troops also powerfully aided him in
these quarters where the ill-treated husbandman and citizen alike
sighed for a deliverer, and where the mere change of yoke seemed to
promise a relief. Emissaries were dispatched to gain over to the
Swedish side the principal free cities, particularly Nuremberg and
Frankfort. The first that lay in the king's march, and which he could
not leave unoccupied in his rear, was Erfurt. Here the Protestant
party among the citizens opened to him, without a blow, the gates of
the town and the citadel. From the inhabitants of this, as of every
important place which afterward submitted, he exacted an oath of
allegiance, while he secured its possession by a sufficient garrison.
To his ally, Duke William of Weimar, he intrusted the command of an
army to be raised in Thuringia. He also left his queen in Erfurt, and
promised to increase its privileges. The Swedish army now crossed the
Thuringian forest in two columns, by Gotha and Arnstadt, and having
delivered, in its march, the county of Henneberg from the
Imperialists, formed a junction on the third day near Koenigshofen, on
the frontiers of Franconia.

Francis, Bishop of Wuertzburg, the bitter enemy of the Protestants, and
the most zealous member of the League, was the first to feel the
indignation of Gustavus Adolphus. A few threats gained for the Swedes
possession of his fortress of Koenigshofen, and with it the key of
the whole province. At the news of this rapid conquest, dismay seized
all the Roman Catholic towns of the circle. The Bishops of Wuertzburg
and Bamberg trembled