l state of insolvency; and
therefore the maintenance of great armies became impossible.

It is evident that there was a fatal disproportion between the military
strength of the parties and the ultimate object of every war. None of
them could entirely subdue their opponents. The armies were too small,
and had too little durability, to be able to control by regular
strategic operations, the numerous and warlike people of wide-spread
districts. Whilst a victorious army was ruling near the Rhine or the
Oder, a new enemy was collecting in the north on the shores of the
Baltic. The German theatre of war, also, was not so constituted as to
be easily productive of lasting results. Almost every city, and many
country seats were fortified. The siege guns were still unwieldy and
uncertain in their aim, and the defence of fortified places was
proportionably stronger than the attack. Thus war became principally a
combat of sieges; every captured town weakened the victorious army,
from the necessity of leaving garrisons. When a province had been
conquered, the conqueror was often not in a position to withstand the
conquered in open battle. By new exertion the conqueror was driven from
the field; then followed fresh sieges and captures, and again fatal
disruption of strength.

It was a war full of bloody battles and glorious victories, and also of
excessive alternations of fortune. Numerous were the dark hero forms
that loomed out of the chaos of blood and fire; the iron Ernst von
Mansfeld, the fantastic Brunswicker, Bernhard of Weimar; and on the
other side, Maximilian of Bavaria, and the generals of the League,
Tilly, Pappenheim, and the able Mercy; the leaders of the Imperial
army, the daring Wallenstein and Altringer; the great French heroes,
Conde and Turenne, and amongst the Swedes, Horn, Bauer, Torstenson,
Wrangel, and above all the mighty prince of war, Gustavus Adolphus. How
much manly energy excited to the highest pitch, and yet how slow and
poor were the political results obtained! how quickly was again lost,
what appeared to have been obtained by the greatest amount of power!
How often did the parties themselves change the objects after which
they were striving, nay even the banner for which they desired victory!

The political events of the war can only be briefly mentioned here;
they may be divided into three periods. The first, from 1618 to 1630,
is the time of the Imperial triumphs. The Protestant estates of
Bohemia