ve hostility of France. Charles must have done with
the rebellion, and that quickly.

Tortured by gout and fearing that his forces would prove inferior to the
Saxons, Charles moved painfully from Nordlingen to Regensburg and thence
to Eger, where he was joined by Ferdinand, Maurice, and the electoral
prince of Brandenburg. Spending Easter at Eger, he crossed the Saxon
frontier on April 13, 1547, with eighteen thousand foot and eight
thousand horse. Ten days of incessant marching brought him within touch
of the Elector, who was guarding the bridge of Meissen. John Frederick
had foolishly frittered away his forces in Saxon and Bohemian garrisons.
He now burned the bridge and retired down the Elbe to Muehlberg, hoping
to concentrate his scattered forces under the walls of Wittenberg, while
his bridge of boats would keep open communications with the left bank.

Charles was too quick for the ponderous Elector. He marched at midnight
on April 23-24, and at 9 A.M. reached the Elbe, nearly opposite
Muehlberg. As the mist cleared, Alba's light horse descried the bridge
of boats swinging from the farther bank, and a dozen Spaniards, covered
by an arquebuse fire, swam the river with swords between their teeth,
routed the guard, and brought the boats across. Meanwhile Alba and
Maurice found a ford by which the light horse crossed with arquebusiers
_en croupe_. Charles and Ferdinand followed, with the water up to the
girths, the Emperor pale as death and thin as a skeleton. The Elector,
after attending his Sunday sermon, was enjoying his breakfast; he made
no attempt to defend his strong position on the higher bank, but
withdrew his guns and infantry, covering the retreat in person with his
cavalry. The bulk of the imperial forces had crossed by the bridge of
boats, and the day was passed in a running rear-guard action. It was a
long-drawn sunset, and not till between six and seven did Alba, as ever
making sure, deliver his decisive attack. The Saxon horse had turned
fiercely on the pursuing light cavalry some nine miles from Muehlberg,
and then the imperialists, striking home, converted the retreat into a
headlong flight. More than a third of the Saxon forces were left upon
the field; the whole of their artillery and baggage train was taken.
John Frederick regained his timid generalship by his personal bravery.
Left almost single-handed in the wood through which his troops retired,
he slashed at the Neapolitan light-horsemen and Hu