bank, which, as
before, lay twelve feet below them, was too hot for the Imperialists;
whereupon Tilly, to be provided for the king at his coming over, falls
to work in a wood right against the point, and raises a great battery
for twenty pieces of cannon, with a breastwork or line, as near the
river as he could, to cover his men, thinking that when the king had
built his bridge he might easily beat it down with his cannon.
But the king had doubly prevented him, first by laying his bridge so
low that none of Tilly's shot could hurt it; for the bridge lay not
above half a foot above the water's edge, by which means the king, who
in that showed himself an excellent engineer, had secured it from
any batteries to be made within the land, and the angle of the bank
secured it from the remoter batteries on the other side, and the
continual fire of the cannon and small shot beat the Imperialists from
their station just against it, they having no works to cover them.
And in the second place, to secure his passage he sent over about
200 men, and after that 200 more, who had orders to cast up a large
ravelin on the other bank, just where he designed to land his bridge.
This was done with such expedition too, that it was finished before
night, and in condition to receive all the shot of Tilly's great
battery, and effectually covered his bridge. While this was doing the
king on his side lays over his bridge. Both sides wrought hard all
day and night, as if the spade, not the sword, had been to decide
the controversy, and that he had got the victory whose trenches and
batteries were first ready. In the meanwhile the cannon and musket
bullets flew like hail, and made the service so hot that both sides
had enough to do to make their men stand to their work. The king, in
the hottest of it, animated his men by his presence, and Tilly, to
give him his due, did the same; for the execution was so great, and
so many officers killed, General Altringer wounded, and two
sergeant-majors killed, that at last Tilly himself was obliged
to expose himself, and to come up to the very face of our line to
encourage his men, and give his necessary orders.
And here about one o'clock, much about the time that the king's
brigade and works were finished, and just as they said he had ordered
to fall on upon our ravelin with 3000 foot, was the brave old
Tilly slain with a musket ball in the thigh. He was carried off to
Ingolstadt, and lived some days aft
|