of it was plausibly near the
truth; and their suspicions were confirmed when the Duke of Weimar
took Ratisbon. The Elector of Bavaria had sent full warning; the
Aulic Council had sent positive orders. But Wallenstein refused to
move.

Fearing that he might be deposed before he could execute what he had
long meditated, he summoned his colonels to Pilsen, and threatened to
resign. They pledged themselves to stand by him. The clause, saving
their duty to the emperor, was struck out of the declaration by him.
He still hoped to succeed. But Ferdinand issued orders that he should
be no longer obeyed; and these orders, proclaimed at Prague to sound
of drum, were accepted by the army. A successor was appointed;
Piccolomini, the real victor at Lutzen, was made field-marshal; and
the officers were drawn away by the prospect of the impending
confiscations. They amounted, eventually, to fourteen millions of
florins. The Spanish envoy, Onate, at last sent word in Ferdinand's
name that Wallenstein should be mastered, alive or dead. Wallenstein
understood that he was in danger, and begged Weimar to come to his
assistance with cavalry.

He started from Pilsen, with the remnant of his troops, to meet Weimar
at Eger, where two Scotch Presbyterians were in command, who inspired
confidence. But on the way he met the Irish regiment of dragoons,
with their colonel, Butler, and required them to accompany him. They
were going to Prague, to join his enemies, and were the authors of his
death. Butler persuaded the two Scotsmen, Lesley and Gordon, and the
few officers, known to be Wallenstein's immediate friends, were
invited to a banquet in the castle of Eger, and there cut down. When
the Countess Kinsky, who was the wife of one of them, learnt of her
husband's death, she had the presence of mind instantly to destroy his
papers, and the secret of Wallenstein's treason was lost in that
conflagration. Devereux, one of Butlers captains, went with a handful
of men to the general's quarters and despatched him. The deed was
approved by the emperor, and the murderers were rewarded. This is the
dramatic end of the struggle, so far as it was caused by genuine
problems of Church and State.

A war of aggression and desolation ensued, and lasted many years,
without higher significance. When the Imperialists had gained another
victory at Nordlingen, Lutheran Saxony made its peace, at Prague, in
1635.

Then Richelieu took up the conflic