my to join the Imperialists, who
were also strengthened by the arrival of 10,000 Spanish veterans, and
early in May the new Imperial general entered the Palatinate and marched
to lay siege to Ratisbon. To oppose the Imperial army, which numbered
35,000 men, Duke Bernhard, after having drawn together all the troops
scattered in the neighbourhood, could only put 15,000 in the field. With
so great a disparity of force he could not offer battle, but in every
way he harassed and interrupted the advance of the Imperialists, while
he sent pressing messages to Oxenstiern for men and money, and to
Marshal Horn, who commanded in Alsace, to beg him march with all haste
to his assistance.

Unfortunately Horn and Duke Bernhard were men of extremely different
temperaments. The latter was vivacious, enterprising, and daring even to
rashness, ready to undertake any enterprise which offered the smallest
hope of success. Marshal Horn, on the other hand, although a good
general, was slow, over cautious and hesitating, and would never move
until his plans appeared to promise almost a certainty of success.
Besides this, Horn, a Swede, was a little jealous that Duke Bernhard, a
German, should be placed in the position of general-in-chief, and this
feeling no doubt tended to increase his caution and to delay his action.

Consequently he was so long a time before he obeyed the pressing
messages sent by the duke, that Ratisbon, after a valiant defence,
surrendered on the 29th of July, before he had effected a junction with
the duke's army. The Imperialists then marched upon Donauworth, and this
place, after a feeble defence, also capitulated. The duke, heartbroken
at seeing the conquests, which had been effected at so great a loss of
life and treasure, wrested from his hands while he was unable to strike
a blow to save them, in despair marched away to Swabia to meet the
slowly advancing army of Marshal Horn.

No sooner was the junction effected than he turned quickly back and
reached the vicinity of Nordlingen, only to find the enemy already there
before him, and posted on the more advanced of the two heights which
dominate the plain. By a skillful manoeuvre, however, he was enabled to
throw within its walls a reinforcement to the garrison of eight hundred
men.

Nordlingen, an important free town, stands on the south bank of the
Ries, some 18 miles to the northeast of Donauworth. It was surrounded by
a wall, interspersed with numerous tower