mergence conducted with great prudence. That they might secure an
honorable peace they presented a bold front of war. A council of regency
was appointed, abundant succors in men and money voted, and the
Chancellor Oxenstiern, a man of commanding civil and military talents,
was intrusted with the sole conduct of the war. The Senate declared the
young queen the legitimate successor to the throne, and forbade all
allusion to the claims of Ladislaus, under the penalty of high treason.

Oxenstiern proved himself worthy to be the successor of Gustavus. He
vigorously renewed alliances with the German princes, and endeavored to
follow out the able plans sketched by the departed monarch. Wallenstein,
humiliated by his defeat, had fallen back into Bohemia, and now, with
moderation strangely inconsistent with his previous career, urged the
emperor to conciliate the Protestants by publishing a decree of general
amnesty, and by proposing peace on favorable terms. But the iron will of
Ferdinand was inflexible. In heart, exulting that his most formidable
foe was removed, he resolved with unrelenting vigor to prosecute the
war. The storm of battle raged anew; and to the surprise of Ferdinand,
Oxenstiern moved forward with strides of victory as signal as those of
his illustrious predecessor. Wallenstein meanly attempted to throw the
blame of the disaster at Lutzen upon the alleged cowardice of his
officers. Seventeen of them he hanged, and consigned fifty others to
infamy by inscribing their names upon the gallows.

So haughty a man could not but have many enemies at court. They
combined, and easily persuaded Ferdinand, who had also been insulted by
his arrogance, again to degrade him. Wallenstein, informed of their
machinations, endeavored to rally the army to a mutiny in his favor.
Ferdinand, alarmed by this intelligence, which even threatened his own
dethronement, immediately dismissed Wallenstein from the command, and
dispatched officers from Vienna to seize his person, dead or alive. This
roused Wallenstein to desperation. Having secured the cooeperation of his
leading officers, he dispatched envoys to the Swedish camp, offering to
surrender important fortresses to Oxenstiern, and to join him against
the emperor. It was an atrocious act of treason, and so marvellous in
its aspect, that Oxenstiern regarded it as mere duplicity on the part of
Wallenstein, intended to lead him into a trap. He therefore dismissed
the envoy, rejecting t