y destroyed, Duke Bernhard, with the prestige of
victory upon him, could resume his march upon Vienna, which would then
be open to him. Therefore, having secured the safety of the capital, he
fell back again into winter quarters in Bohemia. Thus Ferdinand again
owed his safety to Wallenstein, and should have been the more grateful
since Wallenstein had saved him in defiance of his own orders.

At the time he fully admitted in his letters to Wallenstein that the
general had acted wisely and prudently, nevertheless he was continually
listening to the Spaniards, the Jesuits, and the many envious of
Wallenstein's great position, and hoping to benefit by his disgrace,
and, in spite of all the services his great general had rendered him,
was preparing to repeat the humiliation which he had formerly laid upon
him and again to deprive him of his command.

Wallenstein was not ignorant of the intrigue against him. Vast as
were his possessions, his pride and ambition were even greater. A
consciousness of splendid services rendered and of great intellectual
power, a belief that the army which had been raised by him and was to
a great extent paid out of his private funds, and which he had so often
led to victory, was devoted to him, and to him alone, excited in his
mind the determination to resist by force the intriguers who dominated
the bigoted and narrow minded emperor, and, if necessary, to hurl the
latter from his throne.

CHAPTER XX FRIENDS IN TROUBLE

One day in the month of December, when Malcolm Graheme was with his
regiment on outpost duty closely watching the Imperialists, a countryman
approached.

"Can you direct me to Captain Malcolm Graheme, who, they tell me,
belongs to this regiment?"

"You have come to the right man," Malcolm said. "I am Captain
Graheme--what would you with me?"

"I am the bearer of a letter to you," the man said, and taking off his
cap he pulled out the lining and brought out a letter hidden beneath it.

"I am to ask for some token from you by which it may be known that it
has been safely delivered."

Malcolm cut with his dagger the silk with which the letter was fastened.
It began:

"From the Lady Hilda, Countess of Mansfeld, to Captain Malcolm Graheme
of Colonel Munro's Scottish regiment.--My dear friend,--I do not know
whether you have heard the misfortune which has fallen upon us. The
town and castle of Mansfeld were captured two months since by a sudden
assault of the Imperi