were dealt, and
murders perpetrated, such as have never been heard of since the
beginning of Christianity. When the banner was unfurled, it was
customary for the combatants to join hands and vow to fight out their
quarrel when their term of service was ended, and till then to live
together in brotherly love. When this disbanding took place, the most
disorderly of the soldiers combined together and began an "armour
cleaning" of those comrades to whom, during service, the officers had
shown favour; that is to say, they robbed them of all, deprived them of
their clothes, beat and almost killed them. All these crimes were
tolerated, and the powerless commander-in-chief looked passively on
these proceedings as a mere custom of war.

During the Hungarian campaigns the soldiers adopted the habit of only
remaining by their banners during the summer months; they found their
reckoning in serving a short time, and mutinying if more was desired of
them; for during the autumn and winter they went with two, three, or
more boys as "_Gartbrueder_"[10] through the country, a fearful plague
to the formers in eastern Germany. In the frontier countries, Silesia,
Austria, Bohemia, and Styria, it was even commanded by the sovereigns
to pay a farthing to every soldier who was roving about as
"_Gartbrueder_." Thus by their refractory conduct they daily obtained a
gulden or more; their boys pilfered where they could, and were
notorious poachers. Wallhausen, whilst making other energetic
complaints, reckons that the support of a standing army would cost less
to the princes and states, and secure greater success against the
enemy, than this old bad system.

More than once during the long war, these wild armies were brought
under the constraint of strict discipline by the powerful will of
individuals, and each time great military successes were obtained; but
this was not of any duration. The discipline of the Wallenstein army
was excellent in a military point of view; but what the commander
permitted with regard to citizens and peasants was horrible. Even
Gustavus Adolphus could not preserve for more than a year, the strict
discipline which on his landing in Pomerania was so triumphantly lauded
by the Protestant ecclesiastics. It is true that the military law and
articles of war contained a number of legal rules for all soldiers,
concerning the forbearance to be observed even in an enemy's land
towards the people and their property. The women,