ont. Over this plain the Swedes
and Saxons advanced in two columns, towards a small stream named the
Lober, which ran in Tilly's front.

To prevent this crossing Pappenheim had early moved at the head of two
thousand cuirassiers, a movement which Tilly reluctantly permitted,
though strictly ordering him not to fight. Disregarding this order
Pappenheim charged the vanguard of the Swedes, only to find that he had
met an impregnable line and to be driven back in disorder. To check
pursuit he set fire to a village at the crossing-point, but this had no
effect upon the movement of the advancing troops nor his own disorderly
retreat.

The army of Gustavus was organized for the coming battle in the following
manner. On the right the Swedes were drawn up in a double line; the
infantry being in the centre, divided into small battalions that could be
rapidly manoeuvred without breaking their order; the cavalry on the
wings, similarly drawn up in small squadrons, with bodies of musketeers
between; this being done to make a greater show of force and annoy the
enemy's horse. On the left, at a considerable distance, were the Saxons.

It was the defeat of Pappenheim which obliged Tilly to abandon his first
strong position and draw up his army under the western heights, where it
formed a single extended line, long enough to outflank the Swedish army;
the infantry in large battalions, the cavalry in equally large and
unwieldy squadrons; the artillery, as stated, on the slopes above. The
position was one for defence rather than attack, for Tilly's army could
not advance far without being exposed to the fire of its own artillery.
Each army numbered about thirty-five thousand men.

These forces were small in view of the momentous nature of the struggle
before them and the fact that two great generals, both hitherto
invincible, were now to be matched in a contest on which the fate of the
whole war largely depended and to which the two parties battling for the
mastery looked forward with fear and trembling. But of the two, while
Gustavus was cool and collected, Tilly seemed to have lost his usual
intrepidity. He was anxious to avoid battle, and had formed no regular
plan to fight the enemy when forced into it by Pappenheim's impetuous
charge. "Doubts which he had never before felt struggled in his bosom;
gloomy forebodings clouded his ever-open brow; the shade of Magdeburg
seemed to hover over him."

The lines being ready for action, Ki