The city of Magdeburg, capital of a duchy of the same name in Lower
Saxony, had entered into an alliance with Gustavus Adolphus, king of
Sweden, and had granted him a passage over its bridge of the Elbe,
by which the Imperialists were driven from the flat country. But the
Austrian general Tilly returned, and blockaded the place very closely.
The electors of Brandenburg and Saxony, disapproving of the conduct of
the inhabitants of Magdeburg, resolved to maintain their connection
with the emperor, and to assemble their _arrière-ban_, to oppose the
king of Sweden. Tilly left some troops to continue the blockade, and
marched with the bulk of his forces to Frankfort-on-the-Oder, where he
joined Torquato-Conti; he then crossed the electorate to attack the
Swedes, who were making progress in Mecklenburg. But the fortune of
Gustavus Adolphus had an ascendancy over that of the imperial general.
The king of Sweden left Mecklenburg, crossed the Oder, took Lanesberg
and Frankfort, and then turned suddenly towards Berlin, for the purpose
of succouring Magdeburg, which Tilly was now besieging in person.
Gustavus Adolphus advanced beyond Potsdam, and the Imperialists, who
held Brandenburg and Rathenau, fell back, at his approach, upon the
army which was besieging Magdeburg. The elector of Saxony refused to
grant the Swedes a passage over the bridge of the Elbe, at Wittemberg,
which prevented Gustavus from succouring the city of Magdeburg, as he
had intended.
This unfortunate city, which neither Tilly nor Wallenstein had
been able to take by force, at length succumbed to stratagem. The
Imperialists had entered into a negotiation with the Magdeburghers, by
the intervention of the Hanseatic cities; and they pretended during
these conferences not to fire upon the city. The Magdeburghers, at the
same time credulous and negligent, slumbered in this apparent security;
the citizens who had kept watch upon the ramparts, retired, in great
numbers, towards morning, to their own houses. Pappenheim, who directed
the siege, and who had advanced his attacks up to the counterscarp of
the fosse, perceived this circumstance, and took advantage of it. He
made his dispositions one morning, when there were but few people on
the ramparts; he gave four assaults at once, and made himself master
of them, without meeting with much resistance. At the same time, the
Croats, who lay near the Elbe, whose bed was then low, proceeded
along it, without departing far from its banks, and took the works on
the opposite side. As soon as Tilly was master of the cannons of the
rampart, he directed them in such a manner as to sweep the streets,
and the numbers of the Imperialists increasing every minute, all the
efforts the inhabitants could make became useless. Thus was this city,
one of the most ancient and flourishing of Germany, taken when it
least expected it, and barbarously given up three consecutive days
to pillage. All that the unbridled license of a soldiery can invent
when there is no check upon its fury; all that the most ferocious
cruelty inspires men with, when blind rage takes possession of their
senses, was perpetrated by the Imperialists in this desolated city.
The soldiers, in troops, with arms in their hands, rushed tumultuously
through the streets, massacring indifferently old men, women, and
children, those who attempted to defend themselves, and those who
made not the least resistance: the houses were pillaged and sacked,
the streets were inundated with blood and covered with dead bodies;
nothing was seen but heaps of corpses, some still palpitating, lying
in perfect nakedness; the cries of the murdered and the shouts of
their murderers mingled in the air, and inspired horror and disgust.
In this cruel butchery perished nearly all the citizens: only fourteen
hundred were saved. These had shut themselves up in the dome, and
obtained their pardon of Tilly. To massacres, very naturally succeeded
conflagrations; the flames arose from all parts, and in a few hours,
private houses and public edifices only formed one heap of ashes. It
seems scarcely credible, but only one hundred and forty houses were
left standing of this noble city. Twelve hundred maidens, it is said,
drowned themselves to avoid dishonour. All Germany, friends as well
as enemies, pitied the fate of this city, and deplored the melancholy
extirpation of its inhabitants. The cruelty of the Imperialists created
the more horror, from history presenting but few examples of such
shocking inhumanity.