Drearily passed the days in the beleaguered camp, varied only by an
occasional raid by small parties to drive in cattle from the surrounding
country, or to intercept convoys of provisions on their way to the
Imperialists' camp. So active and watchful were the Croats that these
enterprises seldom succeeded, although, to enable his men to move with
celerity, Gustavus mounted bodies of infantry on horseback. Thus they
were enabled to get over the ground quickly, and if attacked they
dismounted and fought on foot.
To these mounted infantry the name of dragoons was given, and so useful
were they found that the institution was adopted in other armies, and
dragoons became a recognized portion of every military force. In time
the custom of dismounting and fighting on foot was gradually abandoned,
and dragoons became regular cavalry; but in modern times the utility of
Gustavus's invention of mounted infantry has been again recognized,
and in all the small wars in which England has been engaged bodies of
mounted infantry have been organized. Ere long mounted infantry will
again become a recognized arm of the service.
But these raids in search of provisions occupied but a small portion
of the army. The rest passed their time in enforced idleness. There was
nothing to be done save to clean and furbish their arms and armour; to
stand on the ramparts and gaze on the distant heights of the Alte Veste,
to watch the solid columns of the Imperial army, which from time to time
Wallenstein marched down from his stronghold and paraded in order of
battle, as a challenge to the Swedes to come out and fight, or to loiter
through the narrow streets of Nuremberg, and to talk to the citizens,
whose trade and commerce were now entirely at a standstill. Malcolm,
with the restlessness of youth, seldom stayed many hours quiet in camp.
He did not care either for drinking or gambling; nor could he imitate
the passive tranquillity of the old soldiers, who were content to sleep
away the greater part of their time. He therefore spent many hours every
day in the city, where he speedily made many acquaintances.
In the city of Nuremberg time dragged as slowly as it did in the camp.
At ordinary times the centre of a quiet and busy trade, the city was
now cut off from the world. The shops were for the most part closed; the
artisans stood idle in the streets, and the townsfolk had nought to do,
save to gather in groups and discuss the times, or to take occasional
excursions beyond the gates into the camp of their allies. The advances
then of the young Scottish officer were willingly responded to, and he
soon became intimate in the houses of all the principal citizens; and
while the greater part of his comrades spent their evenings in drinking
and gambling, he enjoyed the hours in conversation and music in the
houses of the citizens of Nuremberg.
The long inaction brought its moral consequences, and the troops became
demoralized and insubordinate from their enforced idleness. Plundering
and acts of violence became so common that Gustavus was obliged to issue
the most stringent ordinances to restore discipline; and an officer and
many men had to be executed before the spirit of insubordination was
quelled. In order to pass some of the hours of the days Malcolm obtained
leave from one of the great clockmakers of the town--for Nuremberg was
at that time the centre of the craft of clockmaking--to allow him to
work in his shop, and to learn the mysteries of his trade.
Most of the establishments were closed, but Malcolm's acquaintance
was one of the wealthiest of the citizens, and was able to keep his
craftsmen at work, and to store the goods he manufactured until better
times should return. Malcolm began the work purely to occupy his time,
but he presently came to take a lively interest in it, and was soon
able to take to pieces and put together again the cumbrous but simple
machines which constituted the clocks of the period.
Workshops were not in those days factories. The master of a craft
worked, surrounded by his craftsmen and apprentices. Every wheel and
spring were made upon the premises, fashioned and finished with chisel
and file; and there was an interest in the work far beyond any which it
possesses in the present day, when watches are turned out wholesale, the
separate parts being prepared by machinery, and the work of the artisan
consisting solely in the finishing and putting them together.
Laying aside his armour and gay attire, and donning a workman's apron,
Malcolm sat at the bench by the side of the master, shaping and filing,
and listening to his stories connected with the trade and history
of Nuremberg. He anticipated no advantage from the knowledge he was
gaining, but regarded it simply as a pleasant way of getting through a
portion of the day.
Thus for three months the armies confronted each other. Provisions were
becoming terribly scarce, the magazines of the city were emptying fast,
and although working night and day, the mills of the place did not
suffice to grind flour for the needs of so many mouths. The population
of the city itself was greatly swollen by the crowds of Protestant
fugitives who had fled there for refuge on the approach of the
Imperialists, and the magazines of the city dwindled fast under the
demands made upon them by this addition, and that of the Swedish army,
to the normal population. Fever broke out in the city and camp. The
waters of the Pegnitz were tainted by the carcasses of dead horses and
other animals. The supplies of forage had long since been exhausted, and
the baggage and troop animals died in vast numbers.
Still there was no sign of a change. Wallenstein would not attack,
Gustavus could not. The Swedish king waited to take advantage of some
false move on the part of the Imperial commander; but Wallenstein was as
great a general as himself, and afforded him no opening, turning a deaf
ear to the entreaties and importunities of Maximilian that he would end
the tedious siege by an attack upon the small and enfeebled army around
Nuremberg.
All this time Gustavus was in constant communication with his generals
outside, his messengers making their way by speed or stratagem through
the beleaguering Croats, and kept up the spirits of his men by daily
reviews and by the cheerful countenance which he always wore.
The Swedish columns were gradually closing in towards Nuremberg. One was
led by the chancellor Oxenstiern, to whom had been committed the care of
the Middle Rhine and the Lower Palatinate, where he had been confronted
by the Spanish troops under Don Philip de Sylva.
On the 11th July, leaving Horn with a small force to oppose the
Spaniards, the chancellor set out to join his master. On the way he
effected a junction with the forces of the Landgrave of Hesse-Cassel.
This general had been opposed in Westphalia by Pappenheim, but he seized
the opportunity when the latter had marched to relieve Maestricht, which
was besieged by Frederic of Nassau, to march away and join Oxenstiern.
The Scotch officers Ballandine and Alexander Hamilton were with their
regiment in the Duchy of Magdeburg. When the news of the king's danger
reached them without waiting for instructions they marched to Halle and
joining a portion of the division of the Duke of Saxe-Weimar, to which
they were attached, pushed on to Zeitz, and were there joined by the
duke himself, who had hurried on from the Lake of Constance, attended
only by his guards, but, picking up five Saxon regiments in Franconia.
Together they passed on to Wurtzburg, where they joined Oxenstiern and
the Landgrave of Hesse-Cassel. General Banner, with the fourth corps,
was at Augsburg, opposed to Cratz, who was at the head of the remains of
Tilly's old army.
Slipping away from his foes he marched to Windsheim, and was there
joined by a body of troops under Bernhard of Weimar. The force from
Wurtzburg soon afterwards came up, and the whole of the detached corps,
amounting to 49,000 men, being now collected, they marched to Bruck,
ten miles north of Nuremberg. Three days later, on the 16th of August,
Gustavus rode into their camp, and on the 21st marched at their head
into Nuremberg, unhindered by the Imperialists.
Gustavus probably calculated that the Imperialists would now move down
and offer battle; but Wallenstein, who had detached 10,000 men to bring
up supplies, could not place in the field a number equal to those of the
reinforcements, and preferred to await an attack in the position which
he had prepared with such care. He knew the straits to which Nuremberg
and its defenders were reduced, and the impossibility there would be of
feeding the new arrivals.
The country round for a vast distance had been long since stripped of
provisions, and Gustavus had no course open to him but to march
away with his army and leave the city to its fate, or to attack the
Imperialists in their stronghold.
On the day after his arrival, the 21st of August, Gustavus marched out
and opened a cannonade upon the Imperialists' position, in order to
induce Wallenstein to come down and give battle. Wallenstein was not,
however, to be tempted, but kept his whole army busy with the spade and
axe further intrenching his position. The next day the king brought his
guns nearer to the enemy's camp, and for twenty-four hours kept up a
heavy fire. The only result, however, was that Wallenstein fell back
a few hundred yards on to two ridges, on one of which was the ruined
castle called the Alte Veste; the other was known as the Altenburg. The
ascent to these was steep and craggy, and they were covered by a thick
forest. Here Wallenstein formed in front of his position a threefold
barrier of felled trees woven and interlaced with each other, each
barrier rising in a semicircle one above the other. Before the Swedish
cannon ceased to fire the new position of the Imperialists had been made
impregnable.
Unfortunately for Gustavus he had at this moment lost the services
of the best officer in his army, Sir John Hepburn, whom he had always
regarded as his right hand. The quarrel had arisen from some trifling
circumstance, and Gustavus in the heat of the moment made some
disparaging allusion to the religion of Hepburn, who was a Catholic and
also to that officer's love of dress and finery. The indignant Hepburn
at once resigned his commission and swore never again to draw his sword
in the service of the king--a resolution to which he adhered, although
Gustavus, when his anger cooled, endeavoured in every way to appease the
angry soldier.
As he persisted in his resolution Colonel Munro was appointed to the
command of the Green Brigade. It is probable that the quarrel was the
consummation of a long standing grievance. Hepburn as well as the other
Scottish officers had shared the indignation of Sir John Hamilton when
the latter resigned in consequence of the Swedish troop being placed in
the post of honour at the storm of the castle of Marienburg after the
Scots had done all the work. There had, too, been much discontent among
them concerning the Marquis of Hamilton, whom they considered that
Gustavus had treated ungenerously; and still more concerning Lieutenant
Colonel Douglas, whom Gustavus had committed to a common prison for
a slight breach of etiquette, a punishment at which the English
ambassador, Sir Harry Vane, remonstrated, and which the whole Scottish
officers considered an insult to them and their country.
There were probably faults on both sides. The Scottish troops were the
backbone of the Swedish army, and to them were principally due almost
the whole of the successes which Gustavus had gained. Doubtless
they presumed upon the fact, and although Gustavus recognized his
obligations, as is shown by the immense number of commands and
governorships which he bestowed upon his Scottish officers, he may
well have been angered and irritated by the insistance with which they
asserted their claims and services. It was, however, a most unfortunate
circumstance that just at this critical moment he should have lost the
services of an officer whose prudence was equal to his daring, and who
was unquestionably one of the greatest military leaders of his age.
It is probable that had Hepburn remained by his side the king would
not have undertaken the attack upon the impregnable position of the
Imperialists. Deprived of the counsellor upon whose advice he had
hitherto invariably relied, Gustavus determined to attempt to drive
Wallenstein from his position, the decision being finally induced by a
ruse of the Imperialist commander, who desired nothing so much as that
the Swedes should dash their forces against the terrible position he
had prepared for them. Accordingly on the 24th of August he directed
a considerable portion of his force to march away from the rear of his
position as if, alarmed at the superior strength of the Swedes, he had
determined to abandon the heights he had so long occupied and to march
away.
Gustavus fell into the trap, and prepared at once to assault the
position. Two hundred pieces of artillery heralded the advance, which
was made by the whole body of the musketeers of the army, drafted
from the several brigades and divided into battalions 500 strong, each
commanded by a colonel. It was a terrible position which they were
advancing to storm. Each of the lines of intrenchments was surmounted
by rows of polished helmets, while pikes and arquebuses glittered in
the sunshine; but it was not long that the scene was visible, for as the
battalions approached the foot of the Altenburg 80 pieces of artillery
opened from its summit and from the ridge of the Alte Veste, while
the smoke of the arquebuses drifted up in a cloud from the lines of
intrenchments.
Steadily and in good order the Scotch and Swedish infantry pressed
forward, and forcing the lower ditch strove to climb the rocky heights;
but in vain did they strive. Over and over again they reached the
intrenchments, but were unable to force their way through the thickly
bound fallen trees, while their lines were torn with a storm of iron
and lead. Never did the Scottish soldiers of Gustavus fight with greater
desperation and valour. Scores of them rolled lifeless down the slope,
but fresh men took their places and strove to hack their way through the
impenetrable screen through which the Imperialist bullets whistled like
hail.
At last, when nigh half their number had fallen, the rest, exhausted,
broken, and in disorder, fell suddenly back. Gustavus in person then led
on his Finlanders, but these, after a struggle as obstinate and heroic
as that of their predecessors, in their turn fell back baffled. The
Livonians next made the attempt, but in vain.
In the meantime a sharp conflict had taken place between the Imperial
cavalry and the Swedish left wing. Wallenstein's cuirassiers, hidden by
the smoke, charged right through a column of Swedish infantry; but this
success was counterbalanced by the rout of Cronenberg's Invincibles,
a magnificent regiment of 1500 horsemen, by 200 Finland troopers. The
troops of Duke Bernhard of Weimar, among whom were still the Scottish
regiments of Hamilton and Douglas, marched against the heights which
commanded the Alte Veste, and drove back the Imperialists with great
loss. Five hundred musketeers of the Green Brigade under Colonel Munro
then pushed gallantly forward and posted themselves far in advance,
resisting all attempts of the Imperialists to drive them back, until
Lieutenant Colonel Sinclair, who was now in command of Munro's own
regiment, brought it forward to his assistance. Until the next morning
this body of one thousand men maintained the ground they had won in
spite of all the efforts of the Imperialists to dislodge them.
Colonel Munro was severely wounded in the left side. Lieutenant Colonel
Maken, Capt. Innis, and Capt. Traill were killed, and an immense number
of other Scottish officers were killed and wounded. The news was brought
down to Gustavus of the advantage gained by Duke Bernhard, but he
was unable to take advantage of it by moving his army round to that
position, as he would have exposed himself to a counter attack of the
enemy while doing so. He therefore launched a fresh column of attack
against the Alte Veste.
This was followed by another and yet another, until every regiment in
the army had in its turn attempted to storm the position, but still
without success.
The battle had now raged for ten hours, and nightfall put an end to
the struggle. Hepburn had all day ridden behind the king as a simple
cavalier, and had twice carried messages through the thick of the fire
when there were no others to bear them, so great had been the slaughter
round the person of the king.
It was the first time that Gustavus had been repulsed, and he could
hardly yet realize the fact; but as messenger after messenger came in
from the different divisions he discovered how terrible had been his
loss. Most of his generals and superior officers had been killed or
wounded, 2000 men lay dead on the field, and there were nigh three times
that number of wounded.
The Imperialists on their side lost 1000 killed and 1500 wounded; but
the accounts of the losses on both sides differ greatly, some placing
the Imperial loss higher than that of the Swedes, a palpably absurd
estimate, as the Imperialists, fighting behind shelter, could not have
suffered anything like so heavily as their assailants, who were exposed
to their fire in the open.
Hepburn bore the order from the king for Munro's troops and those of
Duke Bernhard to retire from the position they had won, as they were
entirely cut off from the rest of the army, and would at daylight have
had the whole of the Imperialists upon them. The service was one of
great danger, and Hepburn had to cut his way sword in hand through the
Croats who intervened between him and his comrades of the Green Brigade.
He accomplished his task in safety, and before daylight Munro's men
and the regiments of Duke Bernhard rejoined the army in the plain. But
though repulsed Gustavus was not defeated. He took up a new position
just out of cannon shot of the Altenburg, and then offered battle to
Wallenstein, the latter, however, well satisfied with his success,
remained firm in his policy of starving out the enemy, and resisted
every device of the king to turn him from his stronghold.
For fourteen days Gustavus remained in position. Then he could hold out
no longer. The supplies were entirely exhausted. The summer had been
unusually hot. The shrunken waters of the Pegnitz were putrid and
stinking, the carcasses of dead horses poisoned the air, and fever
and pestilence raged in the camp. Leaving, then, Kniphausen with eight
thousand men to aid the citizens of Nuremberg to defend the city should
Wallenstein besiege it, Gustavus marched on the 8th of September by
way of Neustadt to Windsheim, and there halted to watch the further
movements of the enemy.
Five days later Wallenstein quitted his camp and marched to Forsheim.
So far the advantage of the campaign lay with him. His patience and iron
resolution had given the first check to the victorious career of the
Lion of the North.
Munro's regiment, as it was still called--for he was now its full
colonel, although Lieutenant Colonel Sinclair commanded it in the
field--had suffered terribly, but less, perhaps, than some of those
who had in vain attempted to force their way up the slopes of the Alte
Veste; and many an eye grew moist as at daybreak the regiment marched
into its place in the ranks of the brigade and saw how terrible had been
the slaughter among them. Munro's soldiers had had but little of that
hand to hand fighting in which men's blood becomes heated and all
thought of danger is lost in the fierce desire to kill. Their losses
had been caused by the storm of cannonball and bullet which had swept
through them, as, panting and breathless, they struggled up the steep
slopes, incapable of answering the fire of the enemy. They had had their
triumph, indeed, as the Imperial regiments broke and fled before their
advance; but although proud that they at least had succeeded in a day
when failure was general, there was not a man but regretted that he had
not come within push of pike of the enemy.
Malcolm Graheme had passed scatheless through the fray--a good fortune
that had attended but few of his brother officers. His uncle was badly
wounded, and several of his friends had fallen. Of the men who had
marched from Denmark but a year before scarce a third remained in the
ranks, and although the regiment had been strengthened by the breaking
up of two or three of the weaker battalions and their incorporation
with the other Scottish regiments, it was now less than half its former
strength. While Gustavus and Wallenstein had been facing each other at
Nuremberg the war had continued without interruption in other parts, and
the Swedes and their allies had gained advantages everywhere except in
Westphalia and Lower Saxony, where Pappenheim had more than held his own
against Baudissen, who commanded for Gustavus; and although Wallenstein
had checked the king he had gained no material advantages and had
wrested no single town or fortress from his hands. Gustavus was still in
Bavaria, nearer to Munich than he was, his garrisons still holding Ulm,
Nordlingen, and Donauworth, its strongest fortresses.
He felt sure, however, that it would be impossible for Gustavus to
maintain at one spot the army which he had at Windsheim, and that
with so many points to defend he would soon break it up into separate
commands. He resolved then to wait until he did so, and then to sweep
down upon Northern Germany, and so by threatening the king's line of
retreat to force him to abandon Bavaria and the south and to march to
meet him.
At present he was in no position to risk a battle, for he had already
detached 4000 men to reinforce Holk, whom he had sent with 10,000
to threaten Dresden. The 13,000 Bavarians who were with him under
Maximilian had separated from him on his way to Forsheim, and on
arriving at that place his army numbered but 17,000 men, while Gustavus
had more than 40,000 gathered at Windsheim.
Gustavus, on his part, determined to carry out his former projects, to
march against Ingolstadt, which he had before failed to capture, and
thence to penetrate into Upper Austria. But fearful lest Wallenstein,
released from his presence, should attempt to recover the fortresses in
Franconia, he despatched half his force under Duke Bernhard to prevent
the Imperial general from crossing the Rhine. Could he succeed in
doing this he would be in a position to dictate terms to the emperor in
Vienna.
On the 12th of October he reached Neuberg, on the Danube, and halted
there, awaiting the arrival of his siege train from Donauworth.
While making the most vigorous exertions to press on the necessary
arrangements for his march against Vienna he received the most urgent
messages to return to Saxony. Not only, as he was told, had Wallenstein
penetrated into that province, but he was employing all his influence to
detach its elector from the Protestant cause, and there was great fear
that the weak prince would yield to the solicitations of Wallenstein and
to his own jealousy of the King of Sweden.
No sooner, in fact, had Gustavus crossed the Danube than Wallenstein
moved towards Schweinfurt, and by so doing drew to that place the
Swedish army under the command of Duke Bernhard. He then suddenly
marched eastward at full speed, capturing Bamberg, Baireuth, and
Culmbach, and pushed on to Colberg.
The town was captured, but the Swedish Colonel Dubatel, who was really
a Scotchman, by name M'Dougal, a gallant and brilliant officer, threw
himself with his dragoons into the castle, which commanded the town, and
defended it so resolutely against the assaults of Wallenstein that
Duke Bernhard had time to march to within twenty miles of the place.
Wallenstein then raised the siege, marched east to Kronach, and then
north to Weida, on the Elster. Thence he pressed on direct to Leipzig,
which he besieged at once; and while the main body of his troops were
engaged before the city, others took possession of the surrounding towns
and fortresses.
Leipzig held out for only two days, and after its capture Wallenstein
marched to Merseburg, where he was joined by the army under Pappenheim.
Thus reinforced he was in a position to capture the whole of Saxony. The
elector, timid and vacillating, was fully conscious of his danger and
the solicitations of Wallenstein to break off from his alliance with the
King of Sweden and to join the Imperialists were strongly seconded by
Marshal Von Arnheim, his most trusted councillor, who was an intimate
friend of the Imperialist general.
It was indeed a hard decision which Gustavus was called upon to make. On
the one hand Vienna lay almost within his grasp, for Wallenstein was
now too far north to interpose between him and the capital. On the other
hand, should the Elector of Saxony join the Imperialists, his position
after the capture of Vienna would be perilous in the extreme. The
emperor would probably leave his capital before he arrived there, and
the conquest would, therefore, be a barren one. Gustavus reluctantly
determined to abandon his plan, and to march to the assistance of
Saxony.