seldom accorded to opponents.

His death was considered as a national misfortune; the deliverer and
the saviour of the people was lost: we also, whether Catholic or
Protestant, should not only regard with heartfelt sympathy that pure
hero life, which in the prime of its strength was so suddenly
extinguished, but we should also contemplate with the deepest gratitude
the influence of the King upon the German war; for he had, in a time of
desperation, defended that which Luther had attained for the whole
nation,--freedom of soul, and capacity for the development of national
strength against the most fearful enemy of the German national
existence, against a crushing despotism in Church and State. But we
must also observe concerning him, that the fate which he met strikes us
as more peculiarly tragical because he drew it upon himself. History
makes us acquainted with some characters which, after mighty deeds, are
suddenly struck down at the height of their fame by a rapid change of
fate in the midst of powerful but unaccomplished conception. Such
heroes have a popular mixture of qualities of soul, which make them the
privileged favourites both of posterity and art. Such was the case with
the almost fabulous hero, the great Alexander; and thus it was, in a
more limited sphere, with smaller means, with the Swedish King Gustavus
Adolphus: but however accidental the fever or the bullet which carried
them off may appear to us, their destruction arose from their own
greatness. The conqueror of Asia had become an Asiatic despot before he
died; the deliverer of Germany was shot by an Imperial mercenary when
he was rushing through the dust of the battle-field, not like a General
of the seventeenth century, but like a "Viking" of the olden time, who
fought their battles in wild excitement under the protection of the
battle-maidens of Odin. Often already had the incautious heroism of the
King led him into rash daring and useless danger, and long had his
faithful adherents feared that he would at some time meet his end thus.
It was a wise policy which led him to establish himself on the German
coast, in order to secure to his Sweden the dominion of the Baltic,
also to draw the sea-ports to his interests, and to desire firm points
of support on the Oder, Elbe, and Weser. But what duty did he owe to
the German Empire, whose own Emperor wished to suppress the national
life and popular development by Roman money, and calling thither hordes