nimous
shufflers) were Gustavus's brother-in-law, the Elector of Brandenburg,
and the Elector of Saxony. They were now doing their best to wriggle
out of their obligations, and by a shameful neutrality avert the
emperor's displeasure. But they had reckoned without their host if
they supposed that Gustavus would lend himself to such a scheme. The
reply which he gave to Herr von Wilmerstorff, who had been sent to him
by the Elector to urge an armistice, was refreshingly plain, while the
argument which accompanied it was completely unanswerable. When
nevertheless the Elector continued to resort to shilly-shallying and
all sorts of ambiguous tactics, Gustavus lost his patience, marched
his army to the gates of Berlin, and compelled him to make his choice
of party once, for all. The treaty of alliance was then signed, on the
Elector's part reluctantly and with a heavy heart; for these two
brothers-in-law were so vastly different, that it was scarcely to be
expected that they would be congenial. Gustavus, though he was not
without personal ambition, was fired with noble zeal for the
Protestant cause, and believed it worthy of any sacrifice, however
great; while the Elector was only bent on saving his own precious
skin and extricating himself with the least possible damage from the
dangerous situation in which he had been caught.

[Illustration: Gustavus Adolphus before the battle of Lutzen.]

With the same promptness with which he had brought his brother-in-law
of Brandenburg to terms, Gustavus forced the hand of the Elector of
Saxony, who now overcame his scruples and sent him the needed
reinforcements. An imperial army of forty thousand men, under the
command of an Italian adventurer named Torquato Conti, had been sent
against him, immediately on his landing in Pomerania, but no battle
had been fought, and beyond laying waste the country the Imperialists
had so far accomplished nothing. The emperor, who had predicted that
"the Snow-king would melt under the rays of the Imperial sun," became
alarmed at his successes and selected Tilly to stay his southward
advance. This able and experienced general promptly assumed the
command of the forces of the Catholic League, and in order to strike
terror into the hearts of the Protestant princes, sacked and pillaged
the city of Magdeburg in Lower Saxony, giving it over without
restraint to devastation and ruin by the brutal soldiery. The horrors
which were here enacted beggar descrip