accoutrements; and however sparing they were of their prowess against the foe, they were liberal enough with it against the defenceless citizens and peasantry whom they were summoned to defend.  Against the bravery and the formidable discipline of the Swedes this splendidly attired army, however, made no long stand.  On the first advance of the Swedish cavalry a panic seized them, and they were driven without difficulty from their cantonments in Wuertzburg; the defeat of a few regiments occasioned a general rout, and the scattered remnant sought a covert from the Swedish valor in the towns beyond the Rhine.  Loaded with shame and ridicule, the duke hurried home by Strasburg, too fortunate in escaping, by a submissive written apology, the indignation of his conqueror, who had first beaten him out of the field and then called upon him to account for his hostilities.  It is related upon this occasion that, in a village on the Rhine a peasant struck the horse of the duke as he rode past, exclaiming, “Haste, Sir, you must go quicker to escape the great King of Sweden!”

The example of his neighbors’ misfortunes had taught the Bishop of Bamberg prudence.  To avert the plundering of his territories, he made offers of peace, though these were intended only to delay the king’s course till the arrival of assistance.  Gustavus Adolphus, too honorable himself to suspect dishonesty in another, readily accepted the bishop’s proposals and named the conditions on which he was willing to save his territories from hostile treatment.  He was the more inclined to peace, as he had no time to lose in the conquest of Bamberg, and his other designs called him to the Rhine.  The rapidity with which he followed up these plans cost him the loss of those pecuniary supplies which, by a longer residence in Franconia, he might easily have extorted from the weak and terrified bishop.  This artful prelate broke off the negotiation the instant the storm of war passed away from his own territories.  No sooner had Gustavus marched onward than he threw himself under the protection of Tilly, and received the troops of the Emperor into the very towns and fortresses which shortly before he had shown himself ready to open to the Swedes.  By this stratagem, however, he delayed only for a brief interval the ruin of his bishopric.  A Swedish general who had been left in Franconia, undertook to punish the perfidy of the bishop; and the ecclesiastical territory became the seat of war, and was ravaged alike by friends and foes.

The formidable presence of the Imperialists had hitherto been a check upon the Franconian States; but their retreat, and the humane conduct of the Swedish king, emboldened the nobility and other inhabitants of this circle to declare in his favor.  Nuremberg joyfully committed itself to his protection; and the Franconian nobles were won to his cause by flattering proclamations, in which he condescended to apologize for his hostile appearance in their dominions.  The fertility