lames had begun to
subside, Tilly entered the town in triumph. To make room for his passage
the streets were cleared and six thousand carcasses thrown into the
Elbe. He ordered the pillage to cease, pardoned the scanty remnant of
the inhabitants, who had taken refuge in the cathedral, and, surrounded
by flames and carnage, had remained three days without food or
refreshment, under all the terrors of impending fate. After hearing a
_Te Deum_ in the midst of military pomp, he paraded the streets; and
even though his unfeeling heart seemed touched with the horrors of the
scene, he could not refrain from the savage exultation of boasting to
the emperor, and comparing the assault of Magdeburg to the sack of Troy
and of Jerusalem."

This terrible display of vengeance struck the Protestants with
consternation. The extreme Catholic party were exultant, and their
chiefs met in a general assembly and passed resolutions approving the
course of the emperor and pledging him their support. Ferdinand was much
encouraged by this change in his favor, and declared his intention of
silencing all Protestant voices. He recalled an army of twenty-four
thousand men from Italy. They crossed the Alps, and, as they marched
through the frontier States of the empire, they spread devastation and
ruin through all the Protestant territories, exacting enormous
contributions, compelling the Protestant princes, on oath, to renounce
the Protestant league, and to unite with the Catholic confederacy
against the King of Sweden.

In the meantime, Gustavus pressed forward into the duchy of Mecklenburg,
driving the imperial troops before him. Tilly retired into the territory
of the Elector of Saxony, robbing, burning and destroying everywhere.
Uniting his force with the army from Italy he ravaged the country,
resistlessly advancing even to Leipsic, and capturing the city. The
elector, quite unable to cope with so powerful a foe, retired with his
troops to the Swedish camp, where he entered into an offensive and
defensive alliance with Gustavus. The Swedish army, thus reinforced,
hastened to the relief of Leipsic, and arrived before its walls the very
day on which the city surrendered.

Tilly, with the pride of a conqueror, advanced to meet them. The two
armies, about equal in numbers, and commanded by their renowned
captains, met but a few miles from the city. Neither of the commanders
had ever before suffered a defeat. It was a duel, in which one or the
o