is bravery, and led the arms of the
Emperor on the Elbe and the Weser to victory. The wild impetuous fire
of his temperament, which no danger, however apparent, could cool, or
impossibilities check, made him the most powerful arm of the imperial
force, but unfitted him for acting at its head. The battle of Leipzic,
if Tilly may be believed, was lost through his rash ardor. At the
destruction of Magdeburg, his hands were deeply steeped in blood; war
rendered savage and ferocious his disposition, which had been
cultivated by youthful studies and various travels. On his forehead,
two red streaks, like swords, were perceptible, with which nature had
marked him at his very birth. Even in his later years these became
visible, as often as his blood was stirred by passion; and
superstition easily persuaded itself that the future destiny of the
man was thus impressed upon the forehead of the child. As a faithful
servant of the House of Austria, he had the strongest claims on the
gratitude of both its lines, but he did not survive to enjoy the most
brilliant proof of their regard. A messenger was already on his way
from Madrid, bearing to him the order of the Golden Fleece, when death
overtook him at Leipzic.

Though _Te Deum_, in all Spanish and Austrian lands, was sung in honor
of a victory, Wallenstein himself, by the haste with which he quitted
Leipzic and, soon after, all Saxony, and by renouncing his original
design of fixing there his winter-quarters, openly confessed his
defeat. It is true he made one more feeble attempt to dispute, even in
his flight, the honor of victory, by sending out his Croats next
morning to the field; but the sight of the Swedish army drawn up in
order of battle, immediately dispersed these flying bands, and Duke
Bernard, by keeping possession of the field, and soon after by the
capture of Leipzic, maintained indisputably his claim to the title of
victor.

But it was a dear conquest, a dearer triumph! It was not till the fury
of the contest was over that the full weight of the loss sustained was
felt and the shout of triumph died away into a silent gloom of
despair. He, who had led them to the charge, returned not with them:
there he lay upon the field which he had won, mingled with the dead
bodies of the common crowd. After a long and almost fruitless search,
the corpse of the king was discovered, not far from the great stone,
which, for a hundred years before, had stood between Luetzen and the