Thus the little Swedish force would be
isolated in the heart of Germany; and should Ferdinand abandon Vienna
at his approach and altogether refuse to treat with him--which his
obstinacy upon a former occasion when in the very hands of his enemy
rendered probable--the Swedes would find themselves in a desperate
position, isolated and alone in the midst of enemies.

There was another consideration. An Imperialist diet was at that moment
sitting at Frankfort, and Ferdinand was using all his influence to
compel the various princes and representatives of the free cities to
submit to him. It was of the utmost importance that Gustavus should
strengthen his friends and overawe the waverers by the approach of his
army. Hitherto Franconia and the Rhine provinces had been entirely
in the hands of the Imperialists, and it was needful that a
counterbalancing influence should be exerted. These considerations
induced Gustavus to abandon the tempting idea of a march upon Vienna.
The Elector of Saxony was charged with carrying the war into Silesia and
Bohemia, the Electors of Hesse and Hesse-Cassel were to maintain Lower
Saxony and Westphalia, and the Swedish army turned its face towards the
Rhine.

On the 20th of September it arrived before Erfurt, an important
fortified town on the Gera, which surrendered at discretion. Gustavus
granted the inhabitants, who were for the most part Catholics, the free
exercise of their religion, and nominated the Duke of Saxe-Weimar to be
governor of the district and of the province of Thuringen, and the
Count of Lowenstein to be commander of the garrison, which consisted of
Colonel Foulis's Scottish regiment, 1500 strong.

Travelling by different routes in two columns the army marched to
Wurtzburg, the capital of Franconia, a rich and populous city,
the Imperialist garrison having withdrawn to the strong castle of
Marienburg, on a lofty eminence overlooking the town, and only separated
from it by the river Maine. The cathedral at Wurtzburg is dedicated to
a Scottish saint, St. Kilian, a bishop who with two priests came from
Scotland in the year 688 to convert the heathen of Franconia. They
baptized many at Wurtzburg, among them Gospert, the duke of that
country. This leader was married to Geilana, the widow of his brother;
and Kilian urging upon him that such a marriage was contrary to the laws
of the Christian church, the duke promised to separate from her. Geilana
had not, like her lord, accepted