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3)2
Invasion of the emperor’s
hereditary dominions. HISTORY OF THE SWEDES. Advance to Vienna, and
successful retreat. [1633—
of a leg, at the moment unfit for service. Gue’briant,
with the Frencli trooj)S, formerly of Weimar, parted
from the Swedes and moved to the Rhine. Tors-
tenson himself, after his arrival in the army, con-
tinued so ill, that a report was spread of his death,
aud at the decampment before the occupation of
the passes of the Elbe, in the beginning of 1G42,
being crippled in hand and foot, he was obliged to
be carried in a litter ^. At Saltzwedel he caused a
court-martial to be held upon colonel Seckendorf,
who, being detected in carrying on a secret inter-
course with the enemy, was condemned to death®.
The enemy, after the abandonment of his design
upon impoverished Mecklenburg, at length fell
back upon Saxony, where the Bavarians sepa-
rated from the Imperialists ; Torstenson, secured
on the side of Brandenburg by the treaty of armis-
tice with the new elector, resolved to repair to
Silesia, where Francis Albert, duke of Lauenburg,
now imperial field-marshal, was far superior to
Stalhandske. While Torstenson was collecting jwo-
visions on the way to Westphalia, he took the oppo-
site direction, and crossed the Elbe on the 2Cth and
spring of this year, sent home, to bring over new reinforce-
ments from Sweden. Notwithstanding his reference to a
good understanding with Baner, tliere yet appear in this
correspondence some sharp letters from Baner to Wrangel,
in regard to errors committed in the heat of youth. Wrangel
then solicited Torstenson’s intercession, and the latter pro-
mised "to excuse him to the field-marshal the best he
could,"—by letter from Alt-Bunzlau, June 8, 1040. Mor-
taigne was one of the two colonels deputed from the army
to Stockholm, and afterwards, by the confidence reposed in
him, contributed much to the appeasing of the troubles.
5
Putiendorf, xiv. § 2. In Torstenson’s letters, many of
which are extant in the correspondence of C. G. Wrangel, it
often appears that he was unable to subscribe them, and
that his secretary wrote his name.
6 " He was one of those implicated in that business which
was on foot while we lay before Wolfenbuttel," writes C. G.
Wrangel to his fatlier, Osterburg, Feb. 5, 1042. " While
Torstenson now made such an example, thereby strength-
ening his authority not a little, he resolved not to make in-
quisition against those who were privy to the matter, but to
leave them time for amendment. Furthermore, he provided
also for his wife and bereaved children at Erfurt, which
most of all went to Seckendorrs heart at his death." Puffen-
dorf, XIV. § 3.
7 " When he died of his wounds, Arnheim’s designs were
made void." Puffendorf, xiv. § 15. Arnheim, who had
exchanged the imperial for the Saxon service, but quitted
the latter after the peace of Prague, was surprised by a party
of Swedes on his estate of Boitzenburg, in Ukermaik,
March 7, 1637, and sent prisoner to Sweden. This act of
violence ensued upon the order of the high-chancellor, to
take or slay him. Letters upon the subject to Salvlus and
the legate, Steno Bielke, are to be found in the registry for
1637, of the 7th and Hth January. In these, mention is
made "of the wicked plots of the elector of Saxony to the
ruin of Sweden abroad, at the instigation of Arnheim." Sal-
vius and Bielke were therefore to endeavour, unobserved,
through the commandant in Wismar, or any other trusty
officer," to surprise or make away with the said Arnheim, in
order at once to close his eyes; him, who performs that well,
we will remember with a considerable reward." Arnheim,
who was kept some time in the castle of Orebro, escaped
from his arrest in Stockholm in the autumn of 1038, and now
offered to raise for the emperor an army of his own against
the Swedes. Having been nominated generalissimo of the
emperor and the elector of Saxony in Silesia, he died April
18, 16-11, and the duke of Lauenburg, who commanded un-
der him, then obtained the chief generalship.
" An extract from a letter of Torstenson to C. G. Wrangel
27th March, at Werben. He marched through
Lusatia, joined Stalhandske at Sorau (by which his
force was increased to 20,000 men), took Glogau on
the 24th April by storm, made himself master of
several places in the neighbourhood, and threat-
ened Schweidnitz. He anticipated the duke of
Lauenburg, who was hastening to the defence of that
fortress, beat him, and took him prisoner ’, after
which Schweidnitz, on the 24th May, surrendered.
Thereupon he pursued the Imperialists into Mo-
ravia, put to flight the provincial estates assembled
in Olmutz, took that town on the 6th July, and
allowed colonel Hellmuth Wrangel to stretch his
excursions to witliin six miles of Vienna. It was
now time to think of a retreat. He left a strong
garrison in Olmutz, retraced his steps to Silesia,
where Lilyehoek had meanwhile taken Neisse, and
joined the remainder of the army at the fortress
of Kosel, which, as also Oppeln immediately there-
after, was won by the storming hand. He next laid
siege to Brieg so vigorously, that he hoped, within
a few days, to be master of the fortress ’
; but now
may be added to our narrative, framed after Puffendorf, of
these military occurrences. The letter is written in Ger-
man :
" After the rencounter that lately chanced at Schweid-
nitz, the enemy with his remaining troops broke up from his
camp at Breslau, and proceeded to Brieg I directed my
march to Neisse, and arrived there on the 24th May, with in-
tent to make trial of my fortune as well further on the enemy
as on the town of Neisse ;
to which end I on the 27th moved
off from Neisse with the mostof tlie cavalry, fifteen hundred
foot, and some light guns, leaving there general Lilyehtek
with the infantry and heavy artillery to make a real attack
on the place, and so with the people I kept about me took
my way towards Olmutz. As now no more of the enemy
were fallen in with than one regiment of foot, which was
destroyed on the2&th at Sternberg by Colonel Hellm. Wrangel,
and they having turned to the left hand toward Weisskirch,
Meseritz, and the Wallachian mountains, could not there be
conveniently attacked, I marched straight to Olmutz, the
chief town of Moravia, and resolved the foUowmg day to
attack it in earnest. The commandant Miniati, as general
commissary of the margraviate of Moravia, who lay therein
with eight hundred newly-levied German and Polish soldiers,
defended himself with the burgesses valiantly, but never-
theless was compelled to the accoid after a four days’ siege,
and so marched out on the 5th of this month with the garri-
son. The same day Prossnitz and Littau also capitulated at
discretion, as likewise on the 8th Neustadt of Moravia, a
place of considerable strength, to major-general Konigsmark.
Having now received intelligence that Neisse had surren-
dered by accord on the 5th, I broke up the 7th from Olmutz,
in order, in the then condition of the enemy, to make myself
master of the other important places in Silesia, fell back
again and made a junction with the bulk of the army at
Cosel, which town the following day, after a breach had been
opened, was taken by storm, the castle being surrendered to
grace or ungrace. I broke up on the 12th, and came to Op-
peln. The commandant, lieutenant-colonel of count Gallas’
regiment, when a breach was opened, quitted the town and
retired to the castle, which because of its great strength he
held for four days; but at length, on the 17th, was obliged to
surrender to grace or ungrace. Yesterday I broke up from
thence, and to-day am here before the town of Brieg, wherein
are one thousand five hundred foot, and two colonels, and
will do n}y best. Duke Francis Albert died at Schweidnitz,
the 31st May, from two shots he had received, and in his
place is now come Piccolomini, who now commands as
general field-marshal the collective Imperialist army, which
is yet stationed at Brunn, in Moravia." Torstenson to C. G.
Wrangel, field-camp at Brieg, June 17, 1642. (On the out-
side of the letter is written,
"
Presented the I8th July, 1642,
when the first men of the reinforcement were landed at
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