In this campaign he met the League’s troops, sent to chase him back to his own so that Wallenstein, the leader of the imperial armies, might be “General of the Baltic Sea,” unmolested.  “Go to Poland,” he commanded one of his lieutenants, “and drive the snow-king out; or else tell him that I shall come and do it myself.”  The proud soldier never knew how near he came to entertaining the snow-king as his unwilling guest then.  In a fight between his rear-guard and the imperial army Gustav Adolf was disarmed and taken prisoner by two troopers.  There was another prisoner who had kept his pistol.  He handed it to the King behind his back and with it he shot one of his captors and brained the other.  For all that they nearly got him.  He saved himself only by wriggling out of his belt and leaving it in the hands of the enemy.  Eight years he campaigned in Poland and Prussia, learning the arts of war.  Then he was ready for his life-work.  He made a truce with Poland that freed his hands for a season, and went home to Sweden.

That spring (1629) he laid before the Swedish Estates his plan of freeing the Protestants.  To defend Sweden, he declared, was to defend her faith, and the Estates voted supplies for the war.  To gauge fully the splendid courage of the nation it must be remembered that the whole kingdom, including Finland, had a population of only a million and a half at the time and was preparing to attack the mighty Roman empire.  In the first year of the war the Swedish budget was thirteen millions of dollars, of which nine and a half went for armaments.  The whole army which Gustav Adolf led into Germany numbered only 14,000 soldiers, but it was made up of Swedish veterans led by men whose names were to become famous for all time, and welded together by an unshakable belief in their commander, a rigid discipline and a religious enthusiasm that swayed master and men with a common impulse.  Such a combination has in all days proven irresistible.

The King’s farewell to his people—­he was never to see Sweden again—­moved a nation to tears.  He spoke to the nobles, the clergy and to the people, admonishing them to stand together in the hard years that were coming and gave them all into the keeping of God.  They stood on the beach and watched his ships sail into the sunset until they were swallowed up in glory.  Then they went back home to take up the burden that was their share.  On the Ruegen shore the King knelt with his men and thanked God for having brought them safe across the sea, then seized a spade, and himself turned the first sod in the making of a camp.  “Who prays well, fights well,” he said.