y aided by the musketeers who were interspersed
among the squadrons of horse. While the contest went on and the vigor of
the attack was showing signs of weakening, King Gustavus, having put
Pappenheim to rout, wheeled to the left and by a sharp attack captured
the heights on which the enemy's artillery was planted. A short struggle
gave him possession of the guns and soon Tilly's army was being rent with
the fire of its own cannon.

This flank attack by artillery, coming in aid of the furious onset of the
Swedes, quickly threw the imperial ranks into confusion. Hitherto deemed
invincible, Tilly's whole army broke into wild disorder, a quick retreat
being its only hope. The only portion of it yet standing firm was a
battalion of four veteran regiments, which had never yet fled the field
and were determined never to do so.

Closing their ranks, they forced their way by a fierce charge through the
opposing army and gained a small thicket, where they held their own
against the Swedes until night, when only six hundred of them remained.
With the retreat of this brave remnant the battle was at an end, the
remainder of Tilly's army being then in full flight, actively pursued by
the Swedish cavalry, which kept close upon their tracks until the
darkness of night spread over the field.

On all sides the bells of the villages pealed out the tidings of the
victory, and the people poured forth in pursuit of the fleeing foe,
giving short shrift to the unhappy fugitives who fell into their hands.
Eleven thousand of Tilly's men had fallen and more than five thousand,
including the wounded, were held as prisoners. On the other side the
Saxons had lost about two thousand, but of the Swedes only about seven
hundred had fallen. The camp and artillery of the enemy had fallen into
the hands of Gustavus, and more than a hundred standards had been taken.
The rout was so complete that Tilly had left with him only about six
hundred men and Pappenheim less than fifteen hundred. Thus was destroyed
that formidable army which had long been the terror of Germany.

As for Tilly himself, chance alone left him his life. Exhausted by his
wounds and summoned to surrender by a Swedish captain of horse, he
refused. In an instant more he would have been cut down, when a pistol
shot laid low the Swede. But though saved in body, he was lost in spirit,
utterly depressed and shaken by the defeat which had wiped out, as he
thought, the memory of all his past e