of soldiers from half Europe? When Gustavus Adolphus conceived the idea
of making himself lord paramount over the German Princes, when he
proceeded to form an hereditary power for himself in Germany, he was no
longer the great cotemporary of Richelieu, but again the descendant of
an old Norman chieftain. It is possible that the power of the man,
during a longer life and after many victories, might have brought under
his sway, with or without an Imperial throne, the greater part of
Germany; but that Sweden, the foundation of his power, was not in a
position to exercise a lasting supremacy over Germany, a small distant
country over a larger, must have been obvious even then to the weakest
politician. The King might still for some years longer have sacrificed
the peasant sons of Sweden on the German battle-fields, and corrupted
the Swedish nobility by German plunder; but he could not build up an
enduring dynasty for both people, whatever his genius might have
accomplished for a time. Men of ordinary powers would soon have
restored things to their natural condition. We are therefore of
opinion, that he died just when his lofty desires were beginning to
contend against a fundamental law of the new state life, and we may
assume that even a longer life of success would not have made much
alteration in our position. When he died, his natural heir in Germany
was already twelve years of age: this heir was Frederic William, the
great Elector of Brandenburg. Gustavus Adolphus was the last but one of
the northern princes to whom the old Scandinavian expedition to the
south proved fatal. Charles XII., dying before Friedrichshall, was the
last.

As the funeral lament died away in Germany, there began a reaction in
public opinion against the foreigners. The Catholic faction had, during
the whole war, the doubtful advantage that their quarrels and private
dissensions were not brought to light by the press, but their
Protestant opponents were broken into parties. It was more especially
after Saxony, in 1635, had endeavoured, at Prague, to make an
inglorious reconciliation with the Emperor by a separate peace, that
there arose both in the north and south an Imperial and a Swedish
party, and much weak dissension besides. The French endeavoured, but
without success, to gain by means of the press, adherents on the Rhine.
Bernhard von Weimar found warm admirers, who foresaw in him the
successor of Gustavus Adolphus. He possessed great talents