u can explain that your
whole case is made out. But don't take it seriously, Malcolm," he
continued, seeing that the lad looked really crestfallen.

"You know I am only laughing, and there is not a man here, including
myself, who does not envy you a little for the numerous adventures which
have fallen to your lot, and for the courage and wisdom which you have
shown in extricating yourself from them."

"And now, please, will you tell me, colonel," Malcolm said more
cheerfully, "why we are turning our backs upon Ingolstadt and are
marching away without taking it? I have been away for ten days, you
know, and it is a mystery to me why we are leaving the only enemy
between us and Vienna, after having beaten him so heartily a fortnight
since, without making an effort to rout him thoroughly."

"Maximilian's position is a very strong one, my lad, and covered as he
is by the guns of Ingolstadt it would be even a harder task to dislodge
him than it was to cross the Lech in his teeth. But you are wrong; his
is not the only army which stands between us and Vienna. No sooner
is old Tilly dead than a greater than Tilly appears to oppose us.
Wallenstein is in the field again. It has been known that he has for
some time been negotiating with the emperor, who has been imploring him
to forgive the slight that was passed upon him before, and to again take
the field.

"Wallenstein, knowing that the game was in his hands, and that the
emperor must finally agree to any terms which he chose to dictate, has,
while he has been negotiating, been collecting an army; and when the
emperor finally agreed to his conditions, that he was at the conclusion
of the peace to be assured a royal title and the fief of a sovereign
state, he had an army ready to his hand, and is now on the point of
entering Bohemia with 40,000 men."

"What his plans may be we cannot yet say, but at any rate it would
not do to be delaying here and leaving Germany open to Wallenstein to
operate as he will. It was a stern day at Leipzig, but, mark my words,
it will be sterner still when we meet Wallenstein; for, great captain as
Tilly undoubtedly was, Wallenstein is far greater, and Europe will hold
its breath when Gustavus and he, the two greatest captains of the age,
meet in a pitched battle."

At Munich the regiments of Munro and Spynie were quartered in the
magnificent Electoral Palace, where they fared sumptuously and enjoyed
not a little their comfortable quarters and