ion won her favor on all sides, which
was increased by her loving devotion to him while in prison. After his
death she was granted an estate in Finland, and there she lived, loved
and esteemed by all who knew her and winning the warm devotion of her
children and grandchildren. She survived to a good old age, withdrawn but
happy, and the memory of her virtues and benevolence still lives among
the peasantry of the neighborhood of her abode.

_GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS ON THE FIELD OF LEIPSIC._

With the accession to the throne of Sweden in 1611 of Gustavus Adolphus,
grandson of Gustavus Vasa, that country gained its ablest king, and the
most famous with the exception of the firebrand of war, Charles XII., of
later date. For courage, judgment, administrative ability, generous
devotion to the good of his country, and military genius this great
monarch was unequalled in his time and won a renown which has placed his
name in the roll of the great rulers of mankind.

The son of Charles IX., the third and ablest son of Gustavus Vasa to fill
the throne, he was carefully educated in all the lore of his time and
when a boy of sixteen won a brilliant victory over a Danish invading
army. During the same year he ascended the throne, his father dying on
November 30, 1611.

During the preceding reigns Sweden had taken a prominent part in the
affairs of northern Europe, having frequent wars with Russia, Poland, and
Denmark, and the young king fell heir to these wars, all of which he
prosecuted with striking ability. But a conflict soon broke out that
threatened all Europe and brought Sweden into the field as the arbiter of
continental destinies. This was the famous "Thirty Years' War," the
greatest and most ferocious religious war known in history. Into it
Sweden was drawn and the hand of Gustavus was potent in saving the
Protestant cause from destruction. The final event in his career, in
which he fell covered with glory on the fatal field of Lutzen, is dealt
with in the German "Historical Tales." We shall here describe another
equally famous battle of the war, that of Leipsic.

It was in 1629, when Denmark was in peril from the great armies of
Ferdinand II. of Austria, and Sweden also was threatened, that Gustavus
consented to become the champion of the Protestants of northern Europe,
and in June, 1630, he landed in Pomerania at the head of eight thousand
men. Here six Scottish regiments joined him, under the Duke of Hamilton,
an