re he was badly received, because he had not brought the
money expected by the king. His retreat cut off, and without the means
of procuring supplies in that remote country, the valiant warrior found
himself at the end of his resources. Return was impossible, for
Wallenstein occupied the roads. In the end he was forced to sell his
artillery and ammunition, disband his army, and proceed southward
towards Venice, whence he hoped to reach England and procure a new
supply of funds. But on arriving at the village of Urakowitz, in Bosnia,
his strength, worn out by incessant struggles and fatigues, gave way,
and the noble warrior, the last hope of Protestantism in Germany, as it
seemed, breathed his last, a disheartened fugitive.

On feeling the approach of death, he had himself clothed in his military
coat, and his sword buckled to his side. Thus equipped, and standing
between two friends, who supported him upright, the brave Mansfeld
breathed his last. His death left his cause almost without a supporter,
for the same year his friend, Duke Christian of Brunswick, expired, and
with them the Protestants lost their only able leaders; King Christian
of Denmark, their principal successor, being greatly wanting in the
requisites of military genius.

Ferdinand seemed triumphant and the cause of his opponents lost. All
opposition, for the time, was at an end. Tilly, whose purposes were the
complete restoration of Catholicism in Germany, held the provinces
conquered by him with an iron hand. Wallenstein, who seemingly had in
view the weakening of the power of the League and the raising of the
emperor to absolutism, broke down all opposition before his irresistible
march.

His army had gradually increased till it numbered one hundred thousand
men,--a host which it cost him nothing to support, for it subsisted on
the devastated country. He advanced through Silesia, driving all his
enemies before him; marched into Holstein, in order to force the King of
Denmark to leave Germany; invaded and devastated Jutland and Silesia;
and added to his immense estate the duchy of Sagan and the whole of
Mecklenburg, which latter was given him by the emperor in payment of his
share of the expenses of the war. This raised him to the rank of prince.
As for Denmark, he proposed to get rid of its king and have Ferdinand
elected in his stead.

The career of this incomprehensible man had been strangely successful.
Not a shadow of reverse had met him. What