“Pray not to me,” he said harshly, “but to God for yourself and for your people, for in truth you have need.”

For once thoughts of vengeance seemed to fill his soul.  “No, no!” he thundered when the frightened burgomaster pleaded that his townsmen should not be held accountable for the cruelty of the country-folk, “you are beasts, not men, and deserve to be wiped from the earth with fire and sword.”  From out the multitude there came a warning voice:  “Will the King now abandon the path of mercy for the way of vengeance and visit his wrath upon these innocent people?” No one saw the speaker.  The day was oppressively hot and the King came near fainting in the saddle.  As he rode out of the city toward the camp, a bolt of lightning struck the ground beside him and a mighty crash of thunder rolled overhead.  Pale and thoughtful, he rode on.  But Landshut was spared.  That evening General Horn brought the anxious citizens the King’s promise of pardon.

A few weeks later tidings reached Gustav Adolf that Wallenstein and the Elector of Bavaria were marching to effect a junction at Nuernberg.  If they took the city, his line of communication was cut and his army threatened.  Wallenstein, who was a traitor, had been in disgrace; but he was a great general and in his dire need Emperor Ferdinand had no one else to turn to.  So he took him back on his own terms, and in the spring he had an army of forty thousand veterans in the field.  This was the host he was leading against Nuernberg.  But the King got there first and intrenched himself so strongly that there was no ousting him.  Wallenstein followed suit and for eleven weeks the enemies eyed one another from their “lagers,” neither willing to risk an attack.  In the end Gustav Adolf tried, but even his Finns could not take the impregnable heights the enemy held.  At last he went away with colors flying and bands playing, right under the enemy’s walls, in the hope of tempting him out.  But he never stirred.

When Wallenstein was sure he had gone, he burned his camp and turned toward Saxony to punish the Elector for joining the Swedes.  A wail of anguish went up from that unhappy land and the King heard it clear across the country.  By forced marches he hurried to the rescue of his ally, picking up Bernhard of Saxe-Weimar on the way.  At Naumburg the people crowded about him and sought to kiss or even to touch his garments.  The King looked sadly at them.  “They put their trust in me, poor weak mortal, as if I were the Almighty.  It may be that He will punish their folly soon upon the object of their senseless idolatry.”  He had come to stay, but when he learned that Wallenstein had sent Pappenheim away to the west, thus weakening his army, and was going into winter quarters at Luetzen, near Leipzig, a half-day’s march from the memorable Breitenfeld, he broke camp at once and hastened to attack him.  Starting early, his army reached Luetzen at nightfall on November 15, 1632.