in their castles; they already saw their sees
tottering, their churches profaned, and their religion degraded. The
malice of his enemies had circulated the most frightful
representations of the persecuting spirit and the mode of warfare
pursued by the Swedish king and his soldiers, which neither the
repeated assurances of the king, nor the most splendid examples of
humanity and toleration, ever entirely effaced. Many feared to suffer
at the hands of another what in similar circumstances they were
conscious of inflicting themselves. Many of the richest Roman
Catholics hastened to secure by flight their property, their religion,
and their persons, from the sanguinary fanaticism of the Swedes. The
bishop himself set the example. In the midst of the alarm, which his
bigoted zeal had caused, he abandoned his dominions, and fled to
Paris, to excite, if possible, the French ministry against the common
enemy of religion.

The further progress of Gustavus Adolphus in the ecclesiastical
territories agreed with this brilliant commencement. Schweinfurt, and
soon afterward Wuertzburg, abandoned by their Imperial garrisons,
surrendered; but Marienberg he was obliged to carry by storm. In this
place, which was believed to be impregnable, the enemy had collected a
large store of provisions and ammunition, all of which fell into the
hands of the Swedes. The king found a valuable prize in the library of
the Jesuits, which he sent to Upsal, while his soldiers found a still
more agreeable one in the prelate's well-filled cellars; his treasures
the bishop had in good time removed. The whole bishopric followed the
example of the capital, and submitted to the Swedes. The king
compelled all the bishop's subjects to swear allegiance to himself;
and, in the absence of the lawful sovereign, appointed a regency,
one-half of whose members were Protestants. In every Roman Catholic
town which Gustavus took, he opened the churches to the Protestant
people, but without retaliating on the Papists the cruelties which
they had practised on the former. On such only as sword in hand
refused to submit, were the fearful rights of war enforced; and for
the occasional acts of violence committed by a few of the more lawless
soldiers, in the blind rage of the first attack, their humane leader
is not justly responsible. Those who were peaceably disposed, or
defenceless, were treated with mildness. It was a sacred principle of
Gustavus to spare the blood of his en