nard of Saxe-Weimar, renewed the fight with resistless impetuosity, eager to recover the body of the king, and avenge his fall. Both purposes they effected, though at a bloody cost. One affecting circumstance was noticed in the morning after the field was won. The Yellow Guard of Gustavus, his favourite band, was cut to pieces, and lay on the ground close by the spot where he had fallen, precisely in the order in which they had met the foe, having disdained to yield one inch. The body of the king, known only by its bulk and by certain scars, was carried to Stockholm, and there interred amid the tears of a whole nation. He was but thirty-eight years of age at the period of his death. Gustavus was succeeded on the throne of Sweden by his daughter Christina, a child of six years of age, during whose minority Oxenstiern conducted the administration. The eccentricities of this queen, the daughter of the great Gustavus, form a curious page in the history of the seventeenth century. CONTINUATION AND CONCLUSION OF THE WAR-PEACE OF WESTPHALIA. We have thus sketched the history of the thirty years to the death of Gustavus Adolphus at the battle of Lutzen in 1632. Our account of the remaining sixteen years of this great struggle, to its conclusion in 1648, must be as brief as possible; nor, indeed, are there the same elements of interest to make a long account desirable. The Swedes did not abandon Germany after the death of their king. "Gustavus," says Schiller, "had inspired the men to whom he had left the administration of his kingdom with his own genius. However dreadful the intelligence of his death was to them, they did not lose courage, and that noble assembly displayed the spirit of old Rome when assailed by Brennus and Hannibal: the greater the price of the acquired advantages, the less could they be relinquished; the king could not be sacrificed in vain. The Swedish Council of state, divided between the prosecution of a doubtful war, and an advantageous though a disgraceful peace, courageously embraced the cause of danger and honour. At the same time promises of friendship and support were made by England, Holland, and France; and the Swedish council of state received powerful encouragement to continue a war which had hitherto been maintained with such reputation. However France had cause to behold the king of Sweden's death with pleasure, it saw the necessity of continuing the Swedish alliance: without exposing itself to the utmost danger, it could not permit the affairs of the Swedes to go to ruin in Germany: without receiving support, Sweden must be compelled to a disadvantageous peace with Austria, and in that case all the efforts were lost which it cost to contain that dangerous power within bounds; or, in the other case, want and necessity led the troops to provide for their own subsistence in the territories of the Catholic princes, and France would then appear as the betrayer of those states which she had taken under her protection. The death of Gustavus Adolphus, instead of terminating the French alliance with Sweden, rather increased it. Strengthened by these alliances, secured in their interior and on their exterior by frontier garrisons and fleets, the regency did not lose a moment to continue the war, and determined to procure, in case fortune attended their arms, a German province at least as an indemnification of their expenses. Secure amid its seas, Sweden was not much more endangered if its armies were forcibly expelled from Germany, than if they voluntarily retired from it; and the former was as honourable as the latter measure was disgraceful. A leader of abilities, however, was requisite to manage the Swedish affairs in Germany, and be possessed of the power to regulate both war and peace according to his own disposition. This minister must be invested with a dictatorial power, and with the authority of the crown which he represented, in order to maintain its dignity, to create union among the common operations, to give his orders the greater effect, and fully to supply the place of the monarch whom he succeeded. Such a character was found in the person of Oxenstiern, the chancellor and prime minister, and, what is more, the deceased king's friend, who was fully acquainted with his secrets, versed in German politics and in the different interests of Europe; and, without comparison, was the most capable of following the plan of Gustavus Adolphus." Nor was a general wanting fit to succeed Gustavus in the field. Bernard of Saxe-Weimar, one of the most distinguished commanders of the age, assumed Gustavus's place, and, in the eyes of all Europe, presumed to cope with Wallenstein. The war was continued for sixteen months with various success, when the career of Wallenstein was brought to a violent close. His haughty conduct, and, in particular, the tenacity with which he held the right-granted to him on assuming the command-of being supreme in his army, giving great offence to various individuals, a conspiracy was formed for his overthrow. The emperor was induced to give his approbation of the designs of the conspirators; and on the 25th of February 1634 Wallenstein was assassinated in his camp. He was succeeded in the command of the Imperial army by Ferdinand, the young king of Hungary, son and heir of the emperor, with two distinguished generals Gallas, and John Von Werth-for his lieutenants. Reinforced by fresh troops from Spain and Italy, he was able to give the Swedes a complete defeat at Nördlingen on the 7th of September 1634, taking the Swedish general, Horn, prisoner. Depressed by this defeat, most of the Protestant princes who had hitherto taken part with the Swedes were glad to conclude a treaty with the emperor. The terms of this peace, effected at Prague on the 30th of May 1635, were, that the Protestants should for ever retain the mediate ecclesiastical benefices (those not depending immediately upon the emperor) acquired before the pacification of Passau in 1552; that they should also retain possession of the others for a period of forty years, during which a committee of both religions would deliberate on the manner in which they should be finally disposed of; that the exercise of the Protestant religion, with certain restrictions, should be permitted in all the territories of the empire, except Bohemia and the provinces belonging to the house of Austria; and that there should be a mutual restitution of all advantages gained since the invasion of Gustavus. The only Protestant states of importance who did not adhere to this treaty were Hesse-Cassel, Würtemberg, and Baden; the others embraced the opportunity of being reconciled with the emperor. The whole weight of the war consequently devolved upon Sweden. Called in originally to assist the German Protestants, the Swedes found themselves, after years of hard-fighting, all at once deserted by the very men for whose liberties they had been shedding their blood, and regarded as foreigners and intruders, whom it was expedient to get rid of as speedily as possible. It was, indeed, proposed to offer them an indemnification, and the small sum of 2,500,000 florins was mentioned as sufficient for the purpose but when Oxenstiern heard of it, he scouted the proposal. "What!" said he, "are the electors of Bavaria and Saxony to be paid for their services to the emperor with whole provinces; and are we Swedes, who have already sacrificed our king for Germany, to be dismissed with the paltry sum of 2,500,000 florins?" "We have been called Over the Baltic; we have saved the empire The reward which Sweden desired, and expected to be offered, was the duchy of Pomerania. In all likelihood, however, the Swedes would have been obliged to quit Germany, on the conclusion of the treaty of Prague, without any reward whatever, but for the interposition of a new ally in the affairs of the empire. This ally was France. Richelieu, whose eye had, during the whole struggle, been directed towards Germany, and who had cautiously interfered now and then whenever he perceived that he could do so favourably for the French interests, discerned in the present the fitting moment for a more open and decided course of action. He resolved to co-operate with the Swedes, and, as it were, purchase from them the good-will of the war; thus reaping, at small expense, all the advantages laboriously obtained during the past campaigns. Accordingly, for two years the war was carried on between the emperor and the vast majority of the states on the one hand, and the French, the Swedes, with one or two German states on the other. The entire character of the war, therefore, was altered. Originally a war of religion, a contest for liberty of conscience, it was now a confused medley of elements; German Catholics and German Protestants fighting side by side in the imperial armies against a strange confederacy of French Catholics, Swedish Protestants, and German Protestants, and all contending with different motives and different aims. Commenced with noble purposes and distinctlymarked designs, it was now a mere blind mêlée, perpetuated by the obstinacy of men who did not know how to conclude an affair once begun, and directed by the cunning of other men who wished to fish in troubled waters. Fortune again favoured the Swedes and their French allies; Banner, one of the Swedish generals, gaining a great victory at Wittstock, in September 1636. Not long afterwards, on the 15th of February 1637, the Emperor Ferdinand II. died in the fiftyninth year of his age. He was succeeded by his son, Ferdinand III., who, unable to bring the war to a conclusion, was obliged to continue it. His brother, Leopold William, was appointed to the command of the imperial armies. During the years 1639, 1640, and 1641, the Imperialists were, upon the whole, successful; the deaths of the Swedish generalissimos, Duke Bernard, and his successor Banner, proving a great discouragement to the allies. Banner's successor, Torstenson, however, led the Swedes to new triumphs; and, in co-operation with Marshal Turenne-who, after the deaths of Richelieu and Louis XIII., in 1643, was sent into Germany to command the French forces, as a general of the young king, Louis XIV.-he pursued a career of almost continuous victory. The emperor, now reduced to extremities, was deserted by many of his allies; among others the elector of Bavaria, who had hitherto remained faithful. On the 7th of May 1648, the Swedes gained a crowning victory at Susmarshausen, near Augsburg; and on the 31st of July, the Swedish general, Königsmark, surprised and took possession of part of the city of Prague. This was the last blow struck in "the thirty years' war," which, accordingly, was brought to a conclusion by the famous peace of Westphalia on the 24th of October 1648. detail the history of the negotiations which led to this peace, 27 To would require as much space as the narrative of the war itself. Commenced in 1640, these negotiations were protracted from time to time, abandoned, resumed, and varied, according as events seemed to favour the emperor or the allies; till at length, as we have seen, the misfortunes of the emperor brought them to a termination. As it may be interesting to know the precise results, with respect to the parties concerned, of this war of thirty years, which had cost such an enormous price, hurried so many hundred thousands to their graves, and occupied the thoughts of all the statesmen of Europe, we subjoin a summary of the articles of which the treaty of Westphalia was composed. 66 In the first place, Sweden, as Ian indemnification for her expense in the war, and for ceding several of her conquests to their former possessors," obtained the duchy of Pomerania, the town of Wismar in Mecklenburg, the archbishopric of Bremen, the bishopric of Verden, and five millions of thalers. By these territorial acquisitions Sweden became a member of the Germanic empire. France obtained as her share the full sovereignty of Upper and Lower Alsace, the bishoprics of Metz, Toul, and Verdun, and a number of minor properties. The Netherlands and Switzerland, till now regarded by a legal fiction as parts of the empire, were recognised as independent states. With regard to internal arrangements, and the distribution of the territories of the empire among the various Germanic princes, we need only mention that Charles Louis, the son of the unfortunate Elector Palatine, Frederick V., who, it will be remembered, lost all his possessions at the commencement of the war, in consequence of his rash attempt to become king of Bohemia, was restored to his father's dominions, except that portion of them which had been granted to Bavaria. He was also created an eighth elector of the empire his father's electorship having been alienated. In the matter of religion, the provisions were, upon the whole, liberal. The treaty effected by the policy of Charles V., in 1555, granting equal civil rights to Catholics and Protestants, was confirmed, the Calvinists being admitted to the same status as the Lutherans. Attached to this grand provision, however, there were several minor clauses, which afterwards proved the origin of dispute and confusion. The constitution of the empire was greatly modified. The potentates of the various states constituting the empire acquired the right of concluding separate alliances with foreign powers; and in the government of their own subjects they became almost independent. The authority of the emperor was thus very much abridged; and he became little more than the nominal head of a confederacy of a number of sovereign states. In short, the Germanic constitution was altered into the form which it substantially retained till the abolition of the empire by Napoleon in 1806. In conclusion, let us glance at "the thirty years' war" as it now appears to us, calmly looking back upon it through an in |