ng
in dismay, General Pappenheim, with eight fresh regiments of imperial
cavalry, came galloping upon the field. This seemed at once to restore
the battle to the imperialists, and the Swedes were apparently undone.
But just then a chance bullet struck Pappenheim and he fell, mortally
wounded, from his horse. The cry ran through the imperial ranks,
"Pappenheim is killed and the battle is lost." No further efforts of
Wallenstein were of any avail to arrest the confusion. His whole host
turned and fled. Fortunately for them, the darkness of the approaching
night, and a dense fog settling upon the plain, concealed them from
their pursuers. During the night the imperialists retired, and in the
morning the Swedes found themselves in possession of the field with no
foe in sight. But the Swedes had no heart to exult over their victory.
The loss of their beloved king was a greater calamity than any defeat
could have been. His mangled body was found, covered with blood, in the
midst of heaps of the slain, and so much mutilated with the tramplings
of cavalry as to be with difficulty recognized.

CHAPTER XIX.

FERDINAND II., FERDINAND III. AND LEOPOLD I

From 1632 to 1662.

Character of Gustavus Adolphus.--Exultation of the Imperialists.--
Disgrace of Wallenstein.--He Offers to Surrender to the Swedish
General.--His Assassination.--Ferdinand's Son Elected as his
Successor.--Death of Ferdinand.--Close of the War.--Abdication of
Christina.--Charles Gustavus.--Preparations for War.--Death Of Ferdinand
III.--Leopold Elected Emperor.--Hostilities Renewed.--Death of Charles
Gustavus.--Diet Convened.--Invasion of the Turks.

The battle of Lutzen was fought on the 16th of November, 1632. It is
generally estimated that the imperial troops were forty thousand, while
there were but twenty-seven thousand in the Swedish army. Gustavus was
then thirty-eight years of age. A plain stone still marks the spot where
he fell. A few poplars surround it, and it has become a shrine visited
by strangers from all parts of the world. Traces of his blood are still
shown in the town-house of Lutzen, where his body was transported from
the fatal field. The buff waistcoat he wore in the engagement, pierced
by the bullet which took his life, is preserved as a trophy in the
arsenal at Vienna.

Both as a monarch and a man, this illustrious sovereign stands in the
highest ranks. He possessed the peculiar power of winning the ardent
attachment of all