ing an immediate end to the war. He afterward endeavored to renew
the negotiation; but the favorable moment was past, and Wallenstein's
offended pride never forgave the first neglect.

But the king's hesitation, perhaps, only accelerated the breach, which
their characters made inevitable sooner or later. Both framed by
nature to give laws, not to receive them, they could not long have
cooeperated in an enterprise which eminently demanded mutual submission
and sacrifice. Wallenstein was _nothing_ where he was not
_everything_; he must either act with unlimited power, or not at
all. So cordially, too, did Gustavus dislike control that he had
almost renounced his advantageous alliance with France, because it
threatened to fetter his own independent judgment. Wallenstein was
lost to a party, if he could not lead; the latter was, if possible,
still less disposed to obey the instructions of another. If the
pretensions of a rival would be so irksome to the Duke of Friedland,
in the conduct of combined operations, in the division of the spoil
they would be insupportable. The proud monarch might condescend to
accept the assistance of a rebellious subject against the Emperor, and
to reward his valuable services with regal munificence; but he never
could so far lose sight of his own dignity, and the majesty of
royalty, as to bestow the recompense which the extravagant ambition of
Wallenstein demanded, and requite an act of treason, however useful,
with a crown. In him, therefore, even if all Europe should tacitly
acquiesce, Wallenstein had reason to expect the most decided and
formidable opponent to his views on the Bohemian crown; and in all
Europe he was the only one who could enforce his opposition.
Constituted Dictator in Germany by Wallenstein himself, he might turn
his arms against him, and consider himself bound by no obligations to
one who was himself a traitor. There was no room for a Wallenstein
under such an ally; and it was, apparently, this conviction, and not
any supposed designs upon the imperial throne, that he alluded to,
when, after the death of the King of Sweden, he exclaimed, "It is well
for him and me that he is gone! The German Empire does not require two
such leaders."

His first scheme of revenge on the house of Austria had indeed failed;
but the purpose itself remained unalterable; the choice of means alone
was changed. What he had failed in effecting with the King of Sweden,
he hoped to obtain with les