s never
lost their formation, never turned their backs to the foe; and thus
the fight went on till the darkness gathered thicker and thicker, the
combatants could no longer see each other, and the desperate battle came
to an end.

In the darkness, Wallenstein drew off his army and fell back to Leipzig,
leaving behind him his colours and all his guns. In thus doing he threw
away the opportunity of turning what his retreat acknowledged to be a
defeat into a victory on the following morning, for scarcely had he left
the field when the six regiments of Pappenheim's infantry arrived from
Halle. Had he held his ground he could have renewed the battle in the
morning, with the best prospects of success, for the struggle of
the preceding day had been little more than a drawn battle, and the
accessions of fresh troops should have given him a decided advantage
over the weary Swedes. The newcomers, finding the field deserted, and
learning from the wounded lying thickly over it that Wallenstein had
retreated, at once marched away.

In the Swedish camp there was no assurance whatever that a victory had
been gained, for nightfall had fallen on the Imperialists fighting as
stubbornly as ever. The loss of the king, the master spirit of the war,
dispirited and discouraged them, and Duke Bernhard and Kniphausen held
in the darkness an anxious consultation as to whether the army should
not at once retreat to Weissenburg. The plan was not carried out, only
because it was considered that it was impracticable--as the army would
be exposed to destruction should the Imperialists fall upon them while
crossing the terrible morass in their rear.

The morning showed them that the Imperialists had disappeared, and that
the mighty struggle had indeed been a victory for them--a victory won
rather by the superior stubbornness with which the Swedish generals held
their ground during the night, while Wallenstein fell back, than to the
splendid courage with which the troops had fought on the preceding
day. But better far would it have been for the cause which the Swedes
championed, that they should have been driven a defeated host from the
field of Lutzen, than that they should have gained a barren victory at
the cost of the life of their gallant monarch--the soul of the struggle,
the hope of Protestantism, the guiding spirit of the coalition against
Catholicism as represented by Ferdinand of Austria.

The losses in the battle were about equal, no les