ut the formidable power with which the Emperor seconded his seductive
proposals, and the miseries which, in the case of hesitation, he
threatened to accumulate upon Saxony, might at length overcome the
resolution of the Elector, should he be left exposed to the vengeance
of his enemies; while an indifference to the fate of so powerful a
confederate would irreparably destroy the confidence of the other
allies in their protector. This consideration induced the king a
second time to yield to the pressing entreaties of the Elector and to
sacrifice his own brilliant prospects to the safety of this ally. He
had already resolved upon a second attack on Ingoldstadt; and the
weakness of the Elector of Bavaria gave him hopes of soon forcing this
exhausted enemy to accede to a neutrality. An insurrection of the
peasantry in Upper Austria opened to him a passage into that country,
and the capital might be in his possession before Wallenstein could
have time to advance to its defence. All these views he now gave up
for the sake of an ally, who, neither by his services nor his fidelity
was worthy of the sacrifices; who, on the pressing occasions of
common good, had steadily adhered to his own selfish projects; and who
was important, not for the services he was expected to render, but
merely for the injuries he had it in his power to inflict. Is it
possible, then, to refrain from indignation, when we know that, in
this expedition, undertaken for the benefit of such an ally, the great
king was destined to terminate his career?

Rapidly assembling his troops in Franconia, he followed the route of
Wallenstein through Thuringia. Duke Bernard of Weimar, who had been
dispatched to act against Pappenheim, joined the king at Armstadt, who
now saw himself at the head of 20,000 veterans. At Erfurt he took
leave of his queen, who was not to behold him save in his coffin at
Weissenfels. Their anxious adieus seemed to forbode an eternal
separation. He reached Naumburg on the 1st of November, 1632, before
the corps, which the Duke of Friedland had dispatched for that
purpose, could make itself master of that place. The inhabitants of
the surrounding country flocked in crowds to look upon the hero, the
avenger, the great king, who, a year before, had first appeared in
that quarter, like a guardian angel. Shouts of joy everywhere attended
his progress; the people knelt before him, and struggled for the honor
of touching the sheath of his sword or the