ratified scarce one of the
German princes and nobles but required of Oxenstiern the gratification
of private greed and ambition, and each bargained for some possession
either already wrested or to be afterwards taken from the enemy. To the
Landgrave of Hesse the abbacies of Paderborn, Corvey, Munster, and Fulda
were promised, to Duke Bernhard of Weimar the Franconian bishoprics,
to the Duke of Wurtemburg the ecclesiastical domains and the Austrian
counties lying within his territories, all to be held as fiefs of
Sweden.

Oxenstiern, an upright and conscientious man, was disgusted at the
greed of these princes and nobles who professed to be warring solely
in defence of their religious liberties, and he once exclaimed that he
would have it entered in the Swedish archives as an everlasting memorial
that a prince of the German empire made a request for such and such
territory from a Swedish nobleman, and that the Swedish noble complied
with the request by granting him German lands. However, the negotiations
were at last completed, the Saxons marched towards Lusatia and Silesia
to act in conjunction with Count Thurn against the Austrians in that
quarter, a part of the Swedish army was led by the Duke of Weimar into
Franconia, and the other by George, Duke of Brunswick, into Westphalia
and Lower Saxony.

When Gustavus had marched south from Ingolstadt on the news of
Wallenstein's entry into Saxony he had left the Count Palatine of
Birkenfeld and General Banner to maintain the Swedish conquests
in Bavaria. These generals had in the first instance pressed their
conquests southward as far as Lake Constance; but towards the end of
the year the Bavarian General Altringer pressed them with so powerful an
army that Banner sent urgent requests to Horn to come to his assistance
from Alsace, where he had been carrying all before him. Confiding his
conquests to the Rhinegrave Otto Ludwig, Horn marched at the head of
seven thousand men towards Swabia. Before he could join Banner,
however, Altringer had forced the line of the Lech, and had received
reinforcements strong enough to neutralize the aid brought to Banner by
Horn. Deeming it necessary above all things to bar the future progress
of the enemy, Horn sent orders to Otto Ludwig to join him with all the
troops still remaining in Alsace; but finding himself still unable to
resist the advance of Altringer, he despatched an urgent request to Duke
Bernhard, who had captured Bamberg and