church being more subject there to the state than in any other part of Italy.

For these reasons I took no pleasure in filling my memoirs of Italy with remarks of places or things; all the antiquities and valuable remains of the Roman nation are done better than I can pretend to, by such people who made it more their business; as for me, I went to see, and not to write, and as little thought then of these memoirs, as I ill furnished myself to write them.

ARRIVE

CHAPTER III.

AT VIENNA-ACCOUNT OF THE WAR IN GERMANY -OF THE FAMOUS CONCLUSIONS OF LEIPSIC-JOURNEY FROM VIENNA TO PRAGUE-DREADFUL STORM OF MAGDEBURGH, AND CRUELTIES OF THE IMPERIAL SOLDIERS-I LEAVE THE EMPEROR'S SERVICE IN DISGUST, AND ARRIVE AT LEIPSIC-ACCOUNT OF AFFAIRS THERE.

I left Italy in April, and taking the tour of Bavaria, though very much out of the way, I passed through Munich, Passau, Lintz, and at last to Vienna.

I came to Vienna the 10th of April, 1631, intending to have gone from thence down the Danube into Hungary, and by means of a pass which I obtained from the English ambassador at Constantinople, I designed to have seen all the great towns on the Danube, which were then in the hands of the Turks, and which I had read much of in the history of the war between the Turks and the Germans; but I was diverted from my design by the following occasion.

There had been a long bloody war in the empire of Germany for twelve years, between the emperor, the Duke of Bavaria, the King of Spain, and the popish princes and electors on the one side, and the protestant princes on the other; and both sides having been exhausted by the war, and even the catholics themselves beginning to dislike the growing power of the house of Austria, 'twas thought all the parties were willing to make peace.

Nay, things were brought to that pass that some of the popish princes and electors began to talk of making alliances with the King of Sweden.

Here it is necessary to observe, that the two Dukes of Mecklenburgh having been dispossessed of most of their dominions by the tyranny of the Emperor Ferdinand, and being in danger of losing the rest, earnestly solicited the King of Sweden to come to their assistance; and that prince, as he was related to the house of Mecklenburgh, and especially as he was willing to lay hold of any opportunity to break with the emperor, against whom he had laid up an implacable prejudice, was very ready and forward to come to their assistance.

The reasons of his quarrel with the emperor were grounded upon the imperialists concerning themselves in the war of Poland, where the emperor had sent eight thousand foot and two thousand horse to join the Polish army against the king, and had thereby given some check to his arms in that

war.

In pursuance therefore of his resolution to quarrel with the emperor, but more particularly at the instances of the princes above named, his Swedish majesty had landed the year before at Straelsund with about twelve thousand men, and having joined with some forces which he had left in Polish Prussia, all which did not make thirty thousand men, he began a war with the emperor, the greatest in event, filled with the most famous battles, sieges, and extraordinary actions, including its wonderful success and happy conclusion, of any war ever maintained in the world.

The King of Sweden had already taken Stetin, Straelsund, Rostock, Wismar, and all the strong places on the Baltic, and began to spread himself in Germany; he had made a league with the French, as I observed in my story of Saxony; he had now made a treaty with the Duke of Brandenburgh, and, in short, began to be terrible to the empire.

In this conjecture the empire called the general diet of the empire to be held at Ratisbon, where, as was pretended, all sides were to treat of peace, and to join forces to beat the Swedes out of the empire. Here the emperor, by a most exquisite management, brought the affairs of the diet to a conclusion, exceedingly to his own advantage, and to the farther oppression of the protestants; and in particular, in that the war against the King of Sweden was to be carried on in such a manner that the whole burthen and

charge would lie on the protestants themselves, and they be made the instruments to oppose their best friends. Other matters also ended equally to their disadvantage, as the methods resolved on to recover the church lands, and to prevent the education of the protestant clergy; and what remained was referred to another general diet to be held at Frankfort-au-main, in August, 1631.

I won't pretend to say the other protestant princes of Germany had never made any overtures to the King of Sweden to come to their assistance, but it is plain that they had entered into no league with him; that appears from the difficulties which retarded the fixing of the treaties afterwards, both with the Dukes of Brandenburgh and Saxony, which unhappily occasioned the ruin of Magdeburgh.

But it is plain the Swede was resolved on a war with the emperor; his Swedish majesty might, and indeed could not but foresee, that if he once showed himself with a sufficient force on the frontiers of the empire, all the protestant princes would be obliged by their interest or by his arms to fall in with him, and this the consequence made appear to be a just conclusion; for the electors of Brandenburgh and Saxony were both forced to join with him.

First, they were willing to join with him, at least they could not find in their hearts to join with the emperor, of whose powers they had such just apprehensions; they wished the Swedes success, and would have been very glad to have had the work done at another man's charge; but like true Germans they were more willing to be saved than to save themselves, and therefore hung back and stood upon terms.

Secondly, they were at last forced to it; the first was forced to join by the King of Sweden himself, who being come so far was not to be dallied with; and had not the Duke of Brandenburgh complied as he did, he had been ruined by the Swede; the Saxon was driven into the arms of the Swede by force, for Count Tilly, ravaging his country, made him comply with any terms to be saved from destruction.

Thus matters stood at the end of the diet at Ratisbon; the King of Sweden began to see himself leagued against at the diet both by protestant and papist; and, as I have often heard his majesty say since, he had resolved to try to force

ORIGINAL CAUSES OF THE WAR.

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hem off from the emperor, and to treat them as enemies equally with the rest if they did not.

But the protestants convinced him soon after, that though they were tricked into the outward appearance of a league against him at Ratisbon, they had no such intentions; and by their ambassadors to him let him know, that they only wanted his powerful assistance to defend their councils, when they would soon convince him that they had a due sense of the emperor's designs, and would do their utmost for their liberty; and these I take to be the first invitations the King of Sweden had to undertake the protestant cause as such, and which entitled him to say he fought for the liberty and religion of the German nation.

I have had some particular opportunities to hear these things from the mouths of some of the very princes themselves, and therefore am the forwarder to relate them; and I place them here, because previous to the part I acted on this bloody scene, it is necessary to let the reader into some part of the story, and to show him in what manner and on what occasions this terrible war began.

The protestants, alarmed at the usage they had met with at the former diet, had secretly proposed among themselves o form a general union or confederacy, for preventing that ruin which they saw, unless some speedy remedies were applied, would be inevitable. The elector of Saxony, the head of the protestants, a vigorous and politic prince, was the first that moved it; and the landgrave of Hesse, a zealous and gallant prince, being consulted with, it rested a great while between those two, no method being found practicable to bring it to pass; the emperor being so powerful in all parts, that they foresaw the petty princes would not dare to negotiate an affair of such a nature, being surrounded with the imperial forces, who by their two generals Wallestein and Tilly, kept them in continual subjection and terror.

This dilemma had like to have stifled the thoughts of the union as a thing impracticable, when one Seigensius, a Lutheran minister, a person of great abilities, and one whom the elector of Saxony made great use of in matters of policy as well as religion, contrived for them this excellent expedient.

I had the honour to be acquainted with this gentleman while I was at Leipsic; it pleased him exceedingly to have

been the contriver of so fine a structure as the conclusions of Leipsic, and he was glad to be entertained on that subject. I had the relation from his own mouth, when, but very modestly, he told me he thought it was an inspiration darted on a sudden into his thoughts, when the Duke of Saxony calling him into his closet one morning with a face full of concern, shaking his head and looking very earnestly: What will become of us, doctor? said the duke, we shall all be undone at Frankfort-au-main. Why so, please your highness? says the doctor. Why, they will fight with the King of Sweden with our armies and our money, says the duke, and devour our friends and ourselves, by the help of our friends and ourselves. But what is become of the confederacy then, said the doctor, which your highness had so happily framed in your thoughts, and which the landgrave of Hesse was so pleased with? Become of it, says the duke, it is a good thought enough, but it is impossible to bring it to pass among so many members of the protestant princes as are to be consulted with, for we neither have time to treat, nor will half of them dare to negotiate the matter, the Imperialists being quartered in their very bowels. But may not some expedient be found out, says the doctor, to bring them all together to treat of it in a general meeting? It is well proposed, says the duke, but in what town or city shall they assemble, where the very deputies shall not be besieged by Tilly or Wallestein in fourteen days time, and sacrificed to the cruelty and fury of the emperor Ferdinand? Will your highness be the easier in it, replies the doctor, if a way may be found out to call such an assembly upon other causes, at which the emperor may have no umbrage, and perhaps give his assent? You know the diet at Frankfort is at hand; it is necessary the protestants should have an assembly of their own, to prepare matters for the general diet, and it may be no difficult matter to obtain it. The duke, surprised with joy at the motion, embraced the doctor with an extraordinary transport. Thou hast done it, doctor, said he, and immediately caused him to draw a form of a letter to the emperor, which he did with the utmost dexterity of style, in which he was a great master, representing to his imperial majesty, that in order to put an end to the troubles of Germany, his majesty would be pleased to permit the protestant princes of the empire to hold a diet to themselves, to consider of such