rush upon the enemy. Before the
weight and fury of the charge the veterans of Spain gave way, and the
Scots found themselves on the crest of the hill which they had lately
ascended. No sooner were they free from the Spanish ranks than the
musketeers of the latter opened fire upon them, and numbers fell in the
retreat. When they reached the foot of the fatal hill, and bleeding and
breathless gathered round their commander, Munro burst into tears on
finding that of the noble regiment he had led up the hill scarce enough
remained to form a single company. Seven times now had Horn striven
to carry the hill, seven times had he been repulsed with terrible
slaughter, and he now began to fall back to join the force of Duke
Bernhard. The latter, recognizing that the battle was lost, and that
Horn, if not speedily succoured, was doomed, for the Imperialists,
flushed with victory, were striving to cut him off, made a desperate
attack upon the enemy hoping to draw their whole forces upon himself,
and so enable Horn to retire. For the moment he succeeded, but he was
too weak in numbers to bear the assault he had thus provoked. John of
Werth, who commanded the Imperial cavalry, charged down upon the Swedish
horsemen and overthrew them so completely that these, forced back upon
their infantry, threw them also into complete disorder.

The instant Horn had given the orders to retreat, Colonel Munro, seeing
the danger of the force being surrounded, formed up the little remnant
of his regiment and set off at the double to rejoin the force of the
duke. It was well that he did so, for just when he had passed over the
intervening ground the Imperialist cavalry, fresh from the defeat of the
Swedes, swept across the ground, completely cutting off Horn's division
from that of the duke. A few minutes later Marshal Horn, surrounded
on all sides by the enemy, and feeling the impossibility of further
resistance with his weakened and diminished force, was forced to
surrender with all his command.

Duke Bernhard narrowly escaped the same fate; but in the end he managed
to rally some nine thousand men and retreated towards the Maine. The
defeat was a terrible one; ten thousand men were killed and wounded, and
four thousand under Horn taken prisoners; all the guns, equipage, and
baggage fell into the hands of the enemy.

Nordlingen was the most decisive battle of the war; its effect was to
change a war which had hitherto been really only a civil war-