Produced by Martin Robb
THE LION OF THE NORTH
A Tale of the Times of Gustavus Adolphus,
By G. A. Henty
PREFACE.
MY DEAR LADS,
You are nowadays called upon to acquire so great a mass of learning
and information in the period of life between the ages of twelve and
eighteen that it is not surprising that but little time can be spared
for the study of the history of foreign nations. Most lads are,
therefore, lamentably ignorant of the leading events of even the most
important epochs of Continental history, although, as many of these
events have exercised a marked influence upon the existing state of
affairs in Europe, a knowledge of them is far more useful, and, it
may be said, far more interesting than that of the comparatively petty
affairs of Athens, Sparta, Corinth, and Thebes.
Prominent among such epochs is the Thirty Years' War, which arose from
the determination of the Emperor of Austria to crush out Protestantism
throughout Germany. Since the invasion of the Huns no struggle which
has taken place in Europe has approached this in the obstinacy of the
fighting and the terrible sufferings which the war inflicted upon the
people at large. During these thirty years the population of Germany
decreased by nearly a third, and in some of the states half the towns
and two-thirds of the villages absolutely disappeared.
The story of the Thirty Years' War is too long to be treated in one
volume. Fortunately it divides itself naturally into two parts. The
first begins with the entry of Sweden, under her chivalrous monarch
Gustavus Adolphus, upon the struggle, and terminates with his death and
that of his great rival Wallenstein. This portion of the war has been
treated in the present story. The second period begins at the point when
France assumed the leading part in the struggle, and concluded with the
peace which secured liberty of conscience to the Protestants of Germany.
This period I hope to treat some day in another story, so that you may
have a complete picture of the war. The military events of the present
tale, the battles, sieges, and operations, are all taken from the best
authorities, while for the account of the special doings of Mackay's,
afterwards Munro's Scottish Regiment, I am indebted to Mr. J. Grant's
Life of Sir John Hepburn.
Yours sincerely,
G. A. HENTY
CHAPTER I THE INVITATION
It was late in the afternoon in the spring of the year 1630; the
hilltops of the south of Scotland were covered with masses of cloud, and
a fierce wind swept the driving rain before it with such force that it
was not easy to make way against it. It had been raining for three days
without intermission. Every little mountain burn had become a boiling
torrent, while the rivers had risen above their banks and flooded the
low lands in the valleys.
The shades of evening were closing in, when a lad of some sixteen years
of age stood gazing across the swollen waters of the Nith rushing past
in turbid flood. He scarce seemed conscious of the pouring rain; but
with his lowland bonnet pressed down over his eyes, and his plaid
wrapped tightly round him, he stood on a rising hummock of ground at the
edge of the flood, and looked across the stream.
“If they are not here soon,” he said to himself, “they will not get
across the Nith tonight. None but bold riders could do so now; but
by what uncle says, Captain Hume must be that and more. Ah! here they
come.”
As he spoke two horsemen rode down the opposite side of the valley and
halted at the water's edge. The prospect was not a pleasant one. The
river was sixty or seventy feet wide, and in the centre the water swept
along in a raging current.
“You cannot cross here,” the boy shouted at the top of his voice. “You
must go higher up where the water's deeper.”
The wind swept his words away, but his gestures were understood.
“The boy is telling us to go higher up,” said one of the horsemen.
“I suppose he is,” the other replied; “but here is the ford. You see the
road we have travelled ends here, and I can see it again on the other
side. It is getting dark, and were we to cross higher up we might lose
our way and get bogged; it is years since I was here. What's the boy
going to do now? Show us a place for crossing?”
The lad, on seeing the hesitation of the horsemen, had run along the
bank up the stream, and to their surprise, when he had gone a little
more than a hundred yards he dashed into the water. For a time the water
was shallow, and he waded out until he reached the edge of the regular
bank of the river, and then swam out into the current.
“Go back,” the horseman shouted; but his voice did not reach the
swimmer, who, in a few strokes, was in the full force of the stream, and
was soon lost to the sight of the horsemen among the short foaming waves
of the torrent.
“The boy will be drowned,” one of the horsemen said, spurring his horse
up the valley; but in another minute the lad was seen breasting the
calmer water just above the ford.
“You cannot cross here, Captain Hume,” he said, as he approached the
horsemen. “You must go nigh a mile up the river.”
“Why, who are you, lad?” the horseman asked, “and how do you know my
name?”
“I'm the nephew of Nigel Graheme. Seeing how deep the floods were I came
out to show you the way, for the best horse in the world could not swim
the Nith here now.”
“But this is the ford,” Captain Hume said.
“Yes, this is the ford in dry weather. The bottom here is hard rock and
easy to ride over when the river is but waist deep, but below and above
this place it is covered with great boulders. The water is six feet
deep here now, and the horses would be carried down among the rocks, and
would never get across. A mile up the river is always deep, and though
the current is strong there is nothing to prevent a bold horseman from
swimming across.”
“I thank you heartily, young sir,” Captain Hume said. “I can see how
broken is the surface of the water, and doubt not that it would have
fared hard with us had we attempted to swim across here. In faith,
Munro, we have had a narrow escape.”
“Ay, indeed,” the other agreed. “It would have been hard if you and I,
after going through all the battlefields of the Low Countries, should
have been drowned here together in a Scottish burn. Your young friend is
a gallant lad and a good swimmer, for in truth it was no light task to
swim that torrent with the water almost as cold as ice.”
“Now, sirs, will you please to ride on,” the boy said; “it is getting
dark fast, and the sooner we are across the better.”
So saying he went off at a fast run, the horses trotting behind him. A
mile above he reached the spot he had spoken of. The river was narrower
here, and the stream was running with great rapidity, swirling and
heaving as it went, but with a smooth even surface.
“Two hundred yards farther up,” the boy said, “is the beginning of the
deep; if you take the water there you will get across so as to climb up
by that sloping bank just opposite.”
He led the way to the spot he indicated, and then plunged into the
stream, swimming quietly and steadily across, and allowing the stream to
drift him down.
The horsemen followed his example. They had swum many a swollen river,
and although their horses snorted and plunged at first, they soon
quieted down and swam steadily over. They just struck the spot which the
boy had indicated. He had already arrived there, and, without a word,
trotted forward.
It was soon dark, and the horsemen were obliged to keep close to his
heels to see his figure. It was as much as they could do to keep up with
him, for the ground was rough and broken, sometimes swampy, sometimes
strewn with boulders.
“It is well we have a guide,” Colonel Munro said to his companion; “for
assuredly, even had we got safely across the stream, we should never
have found our way across such a country as this. Scotland is a fine
country, Hume, a grand country, and we are all proud of it, you know,
but for campaigning, give me the plains of Germany; while, as for your
weather here, it is only fit for a water rat.”
Hume laughed at this outburst.
“I sha'n't be sorry, Munro, for a change of dry clothes and a corner by
a fire; but we must be nearly there now if I remember right. Graheme's
hold is about three miles from the Nith.”
The boy presently gave a loud shout, and a minute later lights were seen
ahead, and in two or three minutes the horsemen drew up at a door beside
which two men were standing with torches; another strolled out as they
stopped.
“Welcome, Hume! I am glad indeed to see you; and--ah! is it you, Munro?
it is long indeed since we met.”
“That is it, Graheme; it is twelve years since we were students together
at St. Andrews.”
“I did not think you would have come on such a night,” Graheme said.
“I doubt that we should have come tonight, or any other night, Nigel, if
it had not been that that brave boy who calls you uncle swam across
the Nith to show us the best way to cross. It was a gallant deed, and I
consider we owe him our lives.”
“It would have gone hard with you, indeed, had you tried to swim the
Nith at the ford; had I not made so sure you would not come I would have
sent a man down there. I missed Malcolm after dinner, and wondered what
had become of him. But come in and get your wet things off. It is a
cold welcome keeping you here. My men will take your horses round to the
stable and see that they are well rubbed down and warmly littered.”
In a quarter of an hour the party were assembled again in the sitting
room. It was a bare room with heavily timbered ceiling and narrow
windows high up from the ground; for the house was built for purposes
of defence, like most Scottish residences in those days. The floor was
thickly strewn with rushes. Arms and trophies of the chase hung on
the walls, and a bright fire blazing on the hearth gave it a warm and
cheerful aspect. As his guests entered the room Graheme presented them
with a large silver cup of steaming liquor.
“Drain this,” he said, “to begin with. I will warrant me a draught of
spiced wine will drive the cold of the Nith out of your bones.”
The travellers drank off the liquor.
“'Tis a famous drink,” Hume said, “and there is nowhere I enjoy it so
much as in Scotland, for the cold here seems to have a knack of getting
into one's very marrow, though I will say there have been times in the
Low Countries when we have appreciated such a draught. Well, and how
goes it with you, Graheme?”
“Things might be better; in fact, times in Scotland have been getting
worse and worse ever since King James went to England, and all the court
with him. If it were not for an occasional raid among the wild folks of
Galloway, and a few quarrels among ourselves, life would be too dull to
bear here.”
“But why bear it?” Captain Hume asked. “You used to have plenty of
spirit in our old college days, Graheme, and I wonder at your rusting
your life out here when there is a fair field and plenty of honour,
to say nothing of hard cash, to be won in the Low Country. Why, beside
Hepburn's regiment, which has made itself a name throughout all Europe,
there are half a score of Scottish regiments in the service of the King
of Sweden, and his gracious majesty Gustavus Adolphus does not keep them
idle, I warrant you.”
“I have thought of going a dozen times,” Graheme said, “but you see
circumstances have kept me back; but I have all along intended to cross
the seas when Malcolm came of an age to take the charge of his father's
lands. When my brother James was dying from that sword thrust he got in
a fray with the Duffs, I promised him I would be a father to the boy,
and see that he got his rights.”
“Well, we will talk of the affair after supper, Graheme, for now that
I have got rid of the cold I begin to perceive that I am well nigh
famished.”
As the officer was speaking, the servitors were laying the table, and
supper was soon brought in. After ample justice had been done to this,
and the board was again cleared, the three men drew their seats round
the fire, Malcolm seating himself on a low stool by his uncle.
“And now to business, Nigel,” Colonel Munro said. “We have not come back
to Scotland to see the country, or to enjoy your weather, or even for
the pleasure of swimming your rivers in flood.
“We are commissioned by the King of Sweden to raise some 3000 or 4000
more Scottish troops. I believe that the king intends to take part in
the war in Germany, where the Protestants are getting terribly mauled,
and where, indeed, it is likely that the Reformed Religion will be
stamped out altogether unless the Swedes strike in to their rescue. My
chief object is to fill up to its full strength of two thousand men
the Mackay Regiment, of which I am lieutenant colonel. The rest of the
recruits whom we may get will go as drafts to fill up the vacancies in
the other regiments. So you see here we are, and it is our intention
to beat up all our friends and relations, and ask them each to raise a
company or half a company of recruits, of which, of course, they would
have the command.
“We landed at Berwick, and wrote to several of our friends that we were
coming. Scott of Jedburgh has engaged to raise a company. Balfour of
Lauderdale, who is a cousin of mine, has promised to bring another; they
were both at St. Andrew's with us, as you may remember, Graheme. Young
Hamilton, who had been an ensign in my regiment, left us on the way. He
will raise a company in Douglasdale. Now, Graheme, don't you think you
can bring us a band of the men of Nithsdale?”
“I don't know,” Graheme said hesitatingly. “I should like it of all
things, for I am sick of doing nothing here, and my blood often runs
hot when I read of the persecutions of the Protestants in Germany; but I
don't think I can manage it.”
“Oh, nonsense, Nigel!” said Hume; “you can manage it easily enough if
you have the will. Are you thinking of the lad there? Why not bring him
with you? He is young, certainly, but he could carry a colour; and as
for his spirit and bravery, Munro and I will vouch for it.”
“Oh, do, uncle,” the lad exclaimed, leaping to his feet in his
excitement. “I promise you I would not give you any trouble; and as for
marching, there isn't a man in Nithsdale who can tire me out across the
mountains.”
“But what's to become of the house, Malcolm, and the land and the
herds?”
“Oh, they will be all right,” the boy said. “Leave old Duncan in charge,
and he will look after them.”
“But I had intended you to go to St. Andrews next year, Malcolm, and
I think the best plan will be for you to go there at once. As you say,
Duncan can look after the place.”
Malcolm's face fell.
“Take the lad with you, Graheme,” Colonel Munro said. “Three years under
Gustavus will do him vastly more good than will St. Andrews. You know it
never did us any good to speak of. We learned a little more Latin than
we knew when we went there, but I don't know that that has been of any
use to us; whereas for the dry tomes of divinity we waded through, I
am happy to say that not a single word of the musty stuff remains in my
brains. The boy will see life and service, he will have opportunities
of distinguishing himself under the eye of the most chivalrous king in
Europe, he will have entered a noble profession, and have a fair chance
of bettering his fortune, all of which is a thousand times better than
settling down here in this corner of Scotland.”
“I must think it over,” Graheme said; “it is a serious step to take.
I had thought of his going to the court at London after he left the
university, and of using our family interest to push his way there.”
“What is he to do in London?” Munro said. “The old pedant James, who
wouldn't spend a shilling or raise a dozen men to aid the cause of his
own daughter, and who thought more of musty dogmatic treatises than of
the glory and credit of the country he ruled over, or the sufferings
of his co-religionists in Germany, has left no career open to a lad of
spirit.”
“Well, I will think it over by the morning,” Graheme said. “And now tell
me a little more about the merits of this quarrel in Germany. If I
am going to fight, I should like at least to know exactly what I am
fighting about.”
“My dear fellow,” Hume laughed, “you will never make a soldier if you
always want to know the ins and outs of every quarrel you have to fight
about; but for once the tenderest conscience may be satisfied as to
the justice of the contention. But Munro is much better versed in the
history of the affair than I am; for, to tell you the truth, beyond the
fact that it is a general row between the Protestants and Catholics, I
have not troubled myself much in the matter.”
“You must know,” Colonel Munro began, “that some twenty years ago the
Protestant princes of Germany formed a league for mutual protection and
support, which they called the Protestant Union; and a year later the
Catholics, on their side, constituted what they called the Holy League.
At that time the condition of the Protestants was not unbearable. In
Bohemia, where they constituted two-thirds of the population, Rudolph
II, and after him Mathias, gave conditions of religious freedom.
“Gradually, however, the Catholic party about the emperor gained the
upper hand; then various acts in breach of the conditions granted to the
Protestants were committed, and public spirit on both sides became
much embittered. On the 23d of May, 1618, the Estates of Bohemia met
at Prague, and the Protestant nobles, headed by Count Thurn, came there
armed, and demanded from the Imperial councillors an account of the high
handed proceedings. A violent quarrel ensued, and finally the Protestant
deputies seized the councillors Martinitz and Slavata, and their
secretary, and hurled them from the window into the dry ditch, fifty
feet below. Fortunately for the councillors the ditch contained a
quantity of light rubbish, and they and their secretary escaped without
serious damage. The incident, however, was the commencement of war.
Bohemia was almost independent of Austria, administering its own
internal affairs. The Estates invested Count Thurn with the command of
the army. The Protestant Union supported Bohemia in its action. Mathias,
who was himself a tolerant and well meaning man, tried to allay the
storm; but, failing to do so, marched an army into Bohemia.
“Had Mathias lived matters would probably have arranged themselves,
but he died the following spring, and was succeeded by Ferdinand II.
Ferdinand is one of the most bigoted Catholics living, and is at the
same time a bold and resolute man; and he had taken a solemn vow at
the shrine of Loretto that, if ever he came to the throne, he would
re-establish Catholicism throughout his dominions. Both parties prepared
for the strife; the Bohemians renounced their allegiance to him and
nominated the Elector Palatine Frederick V, the husband of our Scotch
princess, their king.
“The first blow was struck at Zablati. There a Union army, led by
Mansfeldt, was defeated by the Imperial general Bucquoi. A few days
later, however, Count Thurn, marching through Moravia and Upper Austria,
laid siege to Vienna. Ferdinand's own subjects were estranged from him,
and the cry of the Protestant army, 'Equal rights for all Christian
churches,' was approved by the whole population--for even in Austria
itself there were a very large number of Protestants. Ferdinand had but
a few soldiers, the population of the city were hostile, and had Thurn
only entered the town he could have seized the emperor without any
resistance.
“Thurn hesitated, and endeavoured instead to obtain the conditions of
toleration which the Protestants required; and sixteen Austrian barons
in the city were in the act of insisting upon Ferdinand signing these
when the head of the relieving army entered the city. Thurn retired
hastily. The Catholic princes and representatives met at Frankfort and
elected Ferdinand Emperor of Germany. He at once entered into a strict
agreement with Maximilian of Bavaria to crush Protestantism throughout
Germany. The Bohemians, however, in concert with Bethlem Gabor, king
of Hungary, again besieged Vienna; but as the winter set in they were
obliged to retire. From that moment the Protestant cause was lost;
Saxony and Hesse-Darmstadt left the Union and joined Ferdinand. Denmark,
which had promised its assistance to the Protestants, was persuaded to
remain quiet. Sweden was engaged in a war with the Poles.
“The Protestant army was assembled at Ulm; the army of the League, under
the order of Maximilian of Bavaria, was at Donauworth. Maximilian worked
upon the fears of the Protestant princes, who, frightened at the contest
they had undertaken, agreed to a peace, by which they bound themselves
to offer no aid to Frederick V.
“The Imperial forces then marched to Bohemia and attacked Frederick's
army outside Prague, and in less than an hour completely defeated it.
Frederick escaped with his family to Holland. Ferdinand then took steps
to carry out his oath. The religious freedom granted by Mathias was
abolished. In Bohemia, Moravia, Silesia, and Austria proper. Many of the
promoters of the rebellion were punished in life and property. The year
following all members of the Calvinistic sect were forced to leave their
country, a few months afterwards the Lutherans were also expelled, and
in 1627 the exercise of all religious forms except those of the Catholic
Church was forbidden; 200 of the noble, and 30,000 of the wealthier and
industrial classes, were driven into exile; and lands and property to
the amount of 5,000,000 or 6,000,000 pounds were confiscated.
“The hereditary dominions of Frederick V were invaded, the Protestants
were defeated, the Palatinate entirely subdued, and the electorate was
conferred upon Maximilian of Bavaria; and the rigid laws against the
Protestants were carried into effect in the Palatinate also. It had now
become evident to all Europe that the Emperor of Austria was determined
to stamp out Protestantism throughout Germany; and the Protestant
princes, now thoroughly alarmed, besought aid from the Protestant
countries, England, Holland, and Denmark. King James, who had seen
unmoved the misfortunes which had befallen his daughter and her husband,
and who had been dead to the general feeling of the country, could no
longer resist, and England agreed to supply an annual subsidy; Holland
consented to supply troops; and the King of Denmark joined the League,
and was to take command of the army.
“In Germany the Protestants of lower Saxony and Brunswick, and the
partisan leader Mansfeldt, were still in arms. The army under the king
of Denmark advanced into Brunswick, and was there confronted by that of
the league under Tilly, while an Austrian army, raised by Wallenstein,
also marched against it. Mansfeldt endeavoured to prevent Wallenstein
from joining Tilly, but was met and defeated by the former general.
Mansfeldt was, however, an enterprising leader, and falling back into
Brandenburg, recruited his army, joined the force under the Duke of
Saxe-Weimar, and started by forced marches to Silesia and Moravia, to
join Bethlem Gabor in Hungary. Wallenstein was therefore obliged to
abandon his campaign against the Danes and to follow him. Mansfeldt
joined the Hungarian army, but so rapid were his marches that his force
had dwindled away to a mere skeleton, and the assistance which it
would be to the Hungarians was so small that Bethlem Gabor refused to
cooperate with it against Austria.
“Mansfeldt disbanded his remaining soldiers, and two months afterwards
died. Wallenstein then marched north. In the meantime Tilly had attacked
King Christian at Lutter, and completely defeated him. I will tell you
about that battle some other time. When Wallenstein came north it
was decided that Tilly should carry the war into Holland, and that
Wallenstein should deal with the King of Denmark and the Protestant
princes. In the course of two years he drove the Danes from Silesia,
subdued Brandenburg and Mecklenburg, and, advancing into Pomerania,
besieged Stralsund.
“What a siege that was to be sure! Wallenstein had sworn to capture the
place, but he didn't reckon upon the Scots. After the siege had begun
Lieutenant General Sir Alexander Leslie, with 5000 Scots and Swedes,
fought his way into the town; and though Wallenstein raised fire upon
it, though we were half starved and ravaged by plague, we held out for
three months, repulsing every assault, till at last the Imperialists
were obliged to draw off; having lost 12,200 men.
“This, however, was the solitary success on our side, and a few months
since, Christian signed a peace, binding himself to interfere no more in
the affairs of Germany. When Ferdinand considered himself free to carry
out his plans, he issued an edict by which the Protestants throughout
Germany were required to restore to the Catholics all the monasteries
and land which had formerly belonged to the Catholic Church. The
Catholic service was alone to be performed, and the Catholic princes
of the empire were ordered to constrain their subjects, by force if
necessary, to conform to the Catholic faith; and it was intimated to the
Protestant princes that they would be equally forced to carry the edict
into effect. But this was too much. Even France disapproved, not from
any feeling of pity on the part of Richelieu for the Protestants, but
because it did not suit the interests of France that Ferdinand should
become the absolute monarch of all Germany.
“In these circumstances Gustavus of Sweden at once resolved to assist
the Protestants in arms, and ere long will take the field. That is
what has brought us here. Already in the Swedish army there are 10,000
Scotchmen, and in Denmark they also form the backbone of the force; and
both in the Swedish and Danish armies the greater part of the native
troops are officered and commanded by Scotchmen.
“Hitherto I myself have been in the Danish service, but my regiment is
about to take service with the Swedes. It has been quietly intimated to
us that there will be no objection to our doing so, although Christian
intends to remain neutral, at any rate for a time. We suffered very
heavily at Lutter, and I need 500 men to fill up my ranks to the full
strength.
“Now, Graheme, I quite rely upon you. You were at college with Hepburn,
Hume, and myself, and it will be a pleasure for us all to fight side by
side; and if I know anything of your disposition I am sure you cannot
be contented to be remaining here at the age of nine-and-twenty, rusting
out your life as a Scotch laird, while Hepburn has already won a name
which is known through Europe.”