has so majestically versified was
read--

"God is the refuge of his saints,
When storms of dark distress invade;
Ere we can offer our complaints,
Behold him present with his aid.

"Let mountains from their seats be hurled
Down to the deep, and buried there,
Convulsions shake the solid world;
Our faith shall never yield to fear."

From twenty thousand voices the solemn hymn arose and floated over the
field--celestial songs, to be succeeded by demoniac clangor. Both
parties appealed to the God of battle; both parties seemed to feel that
their cause was just. Alas for man!

Gustavus now ordered the attack. A solid column emerged from his ranks,
crossed the road, in breathless silence approached the trenches, while
both armies looked on. They were received with a volcanic sheet of flame
which prostrated half of them bleeding upon the sod. Gustavus ordered
column after column to follow on to support the assailants, and to
pierce the enemy's center. In his zeal he threw himself from his horse,
seized a pike, and rushed to head the attack. Wallenstein energetically
ordered up cavalry and artillery to strengthen the point so fiercely
assailed. And now the storm of war blazed along the whole lines. A
sulphureous canopy settled down over the contending hosts, and
thunderings, shrieks, clangor as of Pandemonium, filled the air. The
king, as reckless of life as if he had been the meanest soldier, rushed
to every spot where the battle raged the fiercest. Learning that his
troops upon the left were yielding to the imperial fire, he mounted his
horse and was galloping across the field swept by the storm of war, when
a bullet struck his arm and shattered the bone. Almost at the same
moment another bullet struck his breast, and he fell mortally wounded
from his horse, exclaiming, "My God! my God!"

The command now devolved upon the Duke of Saxe Weimar. The horse of
Gustavus, galloping along the lines, conveyed to the whole army the
dispiriting intelligence that their beloved chieftain had fallen. The
duke spread the report that he was not killed, but taken prisoner, and
summoned all to the rescue. This roused the Swedes to superhuman
exertions. They rushed over the ramparts, driving the infantry back upon
the cavalry, and the whole imperial line was thrown into confusion. Just
at that moment, when both parties were in the extreme of exhaustion,
when the Swedes were shouting victory and the imperialists were flyi