ch was afterwards justified by the event. Ratisbon resisted
for a short time; but, finding that the promised relief did not arrive,
it capitulated on the 5th of November, Maximilian having left the town
before the surrender.

The duke now pushed on towards Vienna, and captured Straubing and
Plattling. John of Werth, who was posted here, not being strong enough
to dispute the passage of the Isar, fell back towards the Bohemian
frontier, hoping to meet the troops which the emperor had urged
Wallenstein to send to his aid, but which never came. Duke Bernhard
crossed the Isar unopposed, and on the 12th came within sight of Passau.

So far Wallenstein had not moved; he had seemed to comply with the
emperor's request to save Ratisbon, but had seemed only, and had not
set a man in motion to reinforce John of Werth. He refused, in fact, to
fritter away his army. Had he sent Gallas with 12,000 men to join John
of Werth, and had their united forces been, as was probable, attacked
and defeated by the Swedes, Wallenstein would have been too weak to save
the empire. Keeping his army strong he had the key of the position in
his hands.

He had fixed upon Passau as the point beyond which Duke Bernhard should
not be allowed to advance, and felt that should he attack that city he
and his army were lost. In front of him was the Inn, a broad and deep
river protected by strongly fortified places; behind him John of Werth,
a bitterly hostile country, and the river Isar. On his left would
be Wallenstein himself marching across the Bohemian forest. When,
therefore, he learned that Duke Bernhard was hastening on from the Isar
towards Passau he put his army in motion and marched southward, so as to
place himself in the left rear of the duke. This movement Duke Bernhard
heard of just when he arrived in sight of Passau, and he instantly
recognized the extreme danger of his position, and perceived with his
usual quickness of glance that to be caught before Passau by Wallenstein
and John of Werth would be absolute destruction. A moment's hesitation
and the Swedish army would have been lost. Without an hour's delay he
issued the necessary orders, and the army retraced its steps with all
speed to Ratisbon, and not stopping even there marched northward
into the Upper Palatinate, to defend that conquered country against
Wallenstein even at the cost of a battle.

But Wallenstein declined to fight a battle there. He had but one army,
and were that arm