le as that of
his foeman, and the two great opponents lay waiting face to face, while
famine slowly decimated their ranks.

It was an extraordinary position. Both sides depended for food on
foraging, and between them they had swept the country clean. The
peasantry fled in every direction from Wallenstein's pillaging troops,
who destroyed all that they could not carry away. It had become a
question with the two armies which could starve the longest, and for
three months they lay encamped, each waiting until famine should drive
the other out. Surely such a situation had never before been known.

What had preceded this event? A few words will tell. Ferdinand the
emperor had, with the aid of Tilly and Wallenstein, laid all Germany
prostrate at his feet. Ferdinand the zealot had, by this effort to
impose Catholicism on the Protestant states, speedily undone the work of
his generals, and set the war on foot again. Gustavus Adolphus, the hero
of Sweden, had come to the aid of the oppressed Protestants of Germany,
borne down all before him, and quickly won back northern Germany from
the oppressor's hands.

And now the cruelty of that savage war reached its culminating point.
When Germany submitted to the emperor, one city did not submit.
Magdeburg still held out. All efforts to subdue it proved fruitless, and
it continued free and defiant when all the remainder of Germany lay
under the emperor's control.

It was to pay dearly for the courage of its citizens. When the war broke
out again, Magdeburg was besieged by Tilly with his whole force. After a
most valiant defence it was taken by storm, and a scene of massacre and
ruin followed without a parallel in modern wars. When it ended,
Magdeburg was no more. Of its buildings all were gone, except the
cathedral and one hundred and thirty-seven houses. Of its inhabitants
all had perished, except some four thousand who had taken refuge in the
cathedral. Man, woman, and child, the sword had slain them all, Tilly
being in considerable measure responsible for the massacre, for he was
dilatory in ordering its cessation. When at length he did act there was
little to save. All Europe thrilled with horror at the dreadful news,
and from that day forward fortune fled from the banners of Count Tilly.

On September 7, 1631, the armies of Gustavus and Tilly met at Leipsic,
and a terrible battle ensued, in which the imperialists were completely
defeated and all the fruits of their former vict