The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Lion of the North, by G.A. Henty

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Title: The Lion of the North

Author: G.A. Henty

Release Date: February, 2004 [EBook #5075]
Posting Date: April 14, 2009

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LION OF THE NORTH ***

Produced by Martin Robb

THE LION OF THE NORTH

A Tale of the Times of Gustavus Adolphus,

By G. A. Henty

PREFACE.

MY DEAR LADS,

You are nowadays called upon to acquire so great a mass of learning
and information in the period of life between the ages of twelve and
eighteen that it is not surprising that but little time can be spared
for the study of the history of foreign nations. Most lads are,
therefore, lamentably ignorant of the leading events of even the most
important epochs of Continental history, although, as many of these
events have exercised a marked influence upon the existing state of
affairs in Europe, a knowledge of them is far more useful, and, it
may be said, far more interesting than that of the comparatively petty
affairs of Athens, Sparta, Corinth, and Thebes.

Prominent among such epochs is the Thirty Years' War, which arose from
the determination of the Emperor of Austria to crush out Protestantism
throughout Germany. Since the invasion of the Huns no struggle which
has taken place in Europe has approached this in the obstinacy of the
fighting and the terrible sufferings which the war inflicted upon the
people at large. During these thirty years the population of Germany
decreased by nearly a third, and in some of the states half the towns
and two-thirds of the villages absolutely disappeared.

The story of the Thirty Years' War is too long to be treated in one
volume. Fortunately it divides itself naturally into two parts. The
first begins with the entry of Sweden, under her chivalrous monarch
Gustavus Adolphus, upon the struggle, and terminates with his death and
that of his great rival Wallenstein. This portion of the war has been
treated in the present story. The second period begins at the point when
France assumed the leading part in the struggle, and concluded with the
peace which secu