CHAPTER XIX: THE PEASANTS' REVOLT
After eating a meal Hector had a talk aside with MacIntosh.
"Do you really think that these varlets will venture to attack us?"
"I do indeed," the old sergeant said. "They have taken several placesas strong as this by sudden assault. They are desperate, and, as I hear,fight like demons, regardless as to how many fall. As far as stout armsgo we are well supplied, for there are at least a hundred men capableof bearing arms, and all have had more or less drill since I have beenhere. Unfortunately, however, our wall pieces are old and scarce fitfor service, several of them will, I feel sure, burst at the firstdischarge."
"But they have no artillery at all, MacIntosh?"
"I am sorry to say that they have, sir, and a good amount of it. Theycaptured ten field pieces when they defeated the troops, and haveobtained a score of others from the chateaux that they have taken. Theyhave only to plant them three or four hundred yards away at the end ofthe plateau, and they would easily batter down the gates, and might evenin time effect a breach in the walls."
"That is serious indeed, MacIntosh. Is there any other way in which theycan attack us save in front?"
"I think not. I was careful to examine the face of the precipice when Ifirst took command here, and wherever it seemed to me that an active mancould climb up I had portions of the rock blown up, and have so scarpedthe face that I do not think it is scalable by human foot. But thereis nothing to prevent their crossing the fosse on a dark night, and sostealing along and making an attack on all sides of the house."
"Then our first care must be to prevent this, MacIntosh, by buildingwalls along by the fosse from the corner towers to the edge of theplateau. The distance is very short, not more than eight or ten yards atthe outside. We have, I see, any number of horses and not a few carts.Let the tenants be set to work at once, and, going down the road intothe ravine below, fill their carts with blocks of stone and haul them uphere. Let active boys be sent out in all directions as scouts to bringin word when the insurgents are approaching; and at the same time lettwenty well armed men of the garrison go down with the carts, so as togive confidence to the tenants and cover their retreat up the road ifthe insurgents should suddenly make their appearance. Let some of themen take billhooks and axes down with them, and cut poles. These must besharpened, and as the walls are built, fixed among the stones so as tomake a cheval-de-frise. At the same time let half a dozen stout laddersbe constructed, so that the defenders of these walls may, if unable tohold them, make their retreat up to the battlements. I wish now thatI had ordered a strong bastion to be thrown up so as to cover the gatefrom an attack by artillery, but it did not seem likely that we shouldbe besieged by any force having guns, and I let the matter remain untilthe tenants should be better off and we could spend our money on suchwork. However, it is too late now to think of that. I suppose there is aportcullis to the gate?"
"Yes, and I got it in good working order when I first came here; but thecannon would speedily shatter that, as well as the bridge drawn up infront of it and the gate behind it."
"Then as I have no doubt that there are plenty of flour sacks, wemust fill these with earth and pack them between the bridge and theportcullis, and fasten the bridge in its place with any chains that maybe available, so that it will keep erect. The earth packing, howevermuch it may be battered, will protect the portcullis of the gate forsome time against their fire."
"It is a good idea if we have time to carry it out, colonel. We havestill four or five hours' daylight, and as I think that this is of evengreater importance than the side walls, we will set the tenants to workat once, and it will save time if they take down the sacks, of which, asyou say, we have an abundance."
A few minutes later a dozen active boys left the castle, and scatteredto various points on the hills around, so as to command a view over aconsiderable extent of country. Soon after, some thirty carts went downthe road accompanied by a number of men with shovels, and twenty of thegarrison commanded by one of the old soldiers. All returned loaded withsacks of earth; these were taken into the castle, when the portculliswas lowered and the drawbridge across the fosse raised. An opening wasleft on the top to allow the sacks to be lowered into the space betweenthe bridge and the portcullis. A score of men with ropes went on to thewall above and lowered them behind the drawbridge, where five or six menstowed them away. As soon as it became dark torches were lighted, and byten o'clock a solid mass of sacks filled with earth were packed in thespace between the portcullis and the drawbridge.
The night passed off quietly, the horses and carts remaining beyond thefosse. Planks had been placed across one end of this, and the horses andcarts taken over. The horses were picketed round the castle, a supplyof forage being placed there for their use, while the carts were packedclosely by the fosse, so as to form an obstacle to any of the assailantswho might try to pass. At daybreak they were again run across theplanks, the horses brought round and harnessed, the scouts being sentout as on the day before. All day the work went on, and by nightfalltwo walls twenty feet long and eight feet high, bristling with pointedstaves, were erected. They stood some twenty feet back from the edge ofthe fosse, and extended from the wall to the verge of the precipice. Thecarts and horses had, before the walls were built, been taken roundto the back of the castle, where the plateau extended some fifty yardsbeyond the defences. Evening was just coming on when the boys came in,two of them bringing a report that a great crowd of men could be seenapproaching from the west.
MacIntosh, with thirty men, were at once lowered down from thebattlements, and took up their places in an intrenchment which had beenduring the day thrown up at the point where the road came up to theplateau, while a score of the tenants assembled at the edge of thecliff, where great piles of blocks of stone had been collected inreadiness to throw down. Lighted torches were placed at intervals alongthe road, and three or four great cressets, holding balls of tow soakedin turpentine and oil, were set up on the edge of the plateau; thesewere to be lighted when the peasants attempted to mount the hill.
An hour passed, and then a flame sprang up from a house and outbuildingsin the valley, lighting up the ground around and showing that a greatcrowd was gathered on the road there.
"How many should you say there were, MacIntosh?"
"I should put them at four or five thousand."
"Yes, they are certainly not short of four thousand. What wild lookingfigures! They are just the same in appearance as those who attackedMadame de Blenfoix's chateau. See, they are lighting torches, and Iexpect they mean to make an attack at once. Their guns are with thatgroup in the rear of the others; at any rate they will not be of anyuse in assisting them to make their way up this road. They are evidentlyworking themselves up to a state of madness. There are half a dozenfellows addressing them from various points."
The men who had been brought down to guard the intrenchments at the headof the road were all armed with muskets, and carried in addition longpikes. Presently a roar of shouts and yells was heard, and then therewas a rush on the part of the crowd towards the foot of the long ascent.
Hector moved to the place where the tenants were posted.
"Do not hurl a single stone down until I give you the word, nor lightthe cressets; the torches they carry will be quite sufficient for usto make them out, and the attack will be all the more successful if itcomes as a surprise."
Then he returned to the breastwork. The men here had been posted byMacIntosh eight abreast. When the head of the column of insurgentswere halfway up the hill they opened a scattered fire; they had armedthemselves with the muskets they had taken from the troops.
"Their guns will be of little use to them, for few of them can ever havehad firearms in their hands before; do not fire a shot, MacIntosh, untilI give the order. It is clear that someone must have told them that wehave thrown up this intrenchment today, or they would not have wastedtheir ammunition."
Not a shot was fired until the leaders of the peasa
nts were within fortyyards. Up to this time no torches had been shown in the intrenchments,but now these were suddenly brought forward, and Hector, in his helmetand body armour, mounted on to the breastwork. The head of the columnpaused on seeing a row of levelled muskets and three rows of pikesforming a hedge of steel.
"My men," Hector shouted in a loud clear voice, "halt, I beseech you,before harm comes to you! I know that you have sore grievances, I knowthat you and your wives and families are well nigh famishing, but how doyou think that you will better your condition by assaulting castles andburning down chateaux? You are but preparing labour for yourselves andheaping up fresh imposts on your own heads, for it is you who will haveto rebuild them, it is you who will have to pay for the damage thatyou have done. At any rate, none can say that you have cause for enmityagainst me and mine, for I have done all in my power to mitigate thesufferings of my people, and the proof is that not one of them hasjoined you. The taxes that press so heavily upon you are not the work ofyour feudal lords, they are caused by the necessity for defending Franceagainst the assaults of foreign enemies, and were every noble in theland slain it would still be necessary that these taxes shouldbe collected, unless France is to be overrun by the Spaniards andAustrians. I would fain abstain from spilling one drop of your blood,but I must defend myself if you attack me, and I warn you that, numerousas you are, you will not succeed in capturing my castle. I am a soldierof France, and as I have shed my blood in defending her against herenemies, so if you persist I shall not hesitate in shedding yours in myown defence. I implore you to disperse to your homes; even if you gainsuccesses for a time, it would but draw down vengeance upon you."
The assailants had paused when he commenced to speak, and those in fronthad listened to his words, but those behind, not knowing what was goingon, continued to shout and to press up the hill. As he finished speakingthere was a yell of defiance, and the column rushed forward.
"Aim low," Hector shouted as he leapt down among his men, "fire!" Eightmuskets flashed out. "Second line, fire! Now handle your pikes, the rearlines will reserve their fire."
Although ten or twelve of the leading rank of the insurgents had fallen,there was no pause among the others, and they rushed forward to thehedge of pikes.
"Take charge here, MacIntosh; I will run and get the stones at work." Inhalf a minute he stood by the side of the tenants.
"Heave then down!" he said. He had chosen a spot where the rock roseperpendicularly above the road. "Drop them over," he said, "so that theymay fall straight. The biggest you must roll over with your levers, butwork them to the edge and let them topple over; don't thrust them out orthey will bound over the road. Now!"
Twenty rocks were dropped down together. Even above the din of shoutingthe crash as they fell below was heard, followed instantly by yells andcries.
"Move farther on and give them another shower," Hector said; and againthe rocks fell on the crowded causeway. The first volley had caused apause--numbers had been crushed, many of the stones as they rolleddown the road had carried confusion to those below; the second volleycompleted their discomfiture. Appalled by a discharge against whichthey had no shelter and which was wholly unexpected, those near whom thestones had fallen turned, and in their panic swept those below them onthe road down into the valley, many being overthrown and trampled todeath. Ignorant of what was going on behind them, the crowd above thespot where the stones had fallen were still pressing upward, those infront hewing with their scythes and axes at the pikeheads.
Hector ran back there. "The two rear ranks will now fire!" he said.
The men dropped their pikes, and two volleys of musketry were pouredinto the insurgents. Those of the front line were swept away by thefire, and for a moment the whole recoiled.
"Now, men," Hector shouted, "cross the breastwork and sweep them awaywith your pikes!"
With a cheer the men leapt over the embankment. There was room for tenabreast, and in a treble line with levelled spears they bore down uponthe rebels. The charge was irresistible. A few of the leaders of thepeasants threw themselves on to the spears and died there, the othersstrove, but in vain, to fly. Their comrades behind, ignorant of what wasgoing on, still pressed up, and it was not until the screams and shoutsof those in front, and the pressure downwards, brought the column to astand and then bore it backward, that they learned that the defendershad taken the offensive, and were sweeping all before them. Then a panicarose, and the peasants rushed down the road, the tenants above salutingthem as they passed with another volley of rocks. Halfway down the hillHector halted his men, and led them up to the intrenchment again over aroad encumbered with dead bodies.
"I think that will do," he said. "After the tale those who have gotdown safely will have to tell, we may be sure they will do nothing untilmorning, and it may well be that they may think it advisable to be offto attack some other place not so strongly defended. However, we willpresently beat them up, and if possible capture their cannon, andwithout them they could not hope to take any fortified house welldefended."
For a time there was a prodigious din in the valley, sounds of menshouting and quarrelling, of others trying in vain to make their voicesheard, and to address the excited peasants. In an hour it quieteddown, and by midnight all was still. Hector had been busy with hispreparations.
"How many horses have we?" he asked.
"Well nigh a hundred, colonel."
"That is more than enough. Now, MacIntosh, do you and the men here godown the road and pitch the bodies over; we should never get the horsesover them."
Then he went to where the tenants were still waiting. "Now, my lads," hesaid, "I want a big gap made in one of these walls we built today, wideenough for a horse to pass through it, and strong planks laid across thefosse." Then he ascended the ladder up to the battlements. He found thebaroness and her daughter standing over the gateway.
"Is all over?" they asked, as he came up to them.
"Yes, for the present. We have beaten them handsomely, and without theloss of a single man."
"Will they attack again in the morning, do you think?"
"I feel sure that they will not do so. You see, they relied upon theircannon for taking the chateau, and they find they are useless. I amgoing to make a sortie before daybreak, for I want to capture thosecannon. So long as they hold them they will continue their work, andthey may not always meet with so stout a resistance. The loss of theircannon will dishearten them, as well as lessen their power for evil. Ishall take every man who can carry arms, and leave ten at the breastworkto defend it; but there is no chance whatever of their attempting tocome up here while we are attacking them, so you need have no fear."
"We shall not be afraid, Colonel Campbell, our confidence in you isabsolute; but do you not think that you are running a great risk inattacking a force some forty times as large as your own?"
"One cannot call it a force, it is simply a mob, and a mob that hassuffered a terrible repulse, and the loss of three or four hundred mentonight. We shall take them by surprise. I am going to mount all thetenants. MacIntosh tells me that they have all been drilled as cavalryas well as infantry. He, with the twenty men of the regular garrison onfoot and ten of the tenants, will make straight for the guns. I shallbe with the horsemen, and as soon as we have scattered the mob, we willharness the horses to the guns and bring them up here, so that I shallstrengthen the castle as well as weaken the peasants."
The tenants were all informed of what was going to be done.
"It will be to your benefit as well as ours," he said, "for you may besure that in the morning, if they give up the idea of again attackingus, they will scatter all over the estates and sack and burn everyhouse, whereas if we succeed in dispersing them, no small portion ofthem will at once scatter to their homes, and the rest will take carenot to come near this neighbourhood again."
At twelve o'clock MacIntosh sent a man to say that the road down wasclear, and that three hundred and twenty dead bodies had been thrownover. At three o'clock
in the morning the horses, round whose hoofspieces of sacking had been tied, were led across the fosse. One ofMacIntosh's sergeants was put in charge of the ten men who were toremain at the intrenchment, the castle being left entirely in the handsof the women and boys. The mounted tenants were eighty in number, allcarrying long spears and swords. The torches had long since burnt out,and each man leading his horse went noiselessly down the road, MacIntoshwith the footmen leading the way. They halted at the bottom of theroad. There was no sound from the spot where the insurgents were lyinga couple of hundred yards down the valley, fatigued by a very long marchon the previous day, and the exertion of dragging the cannon, for onlya few of these were horsed. Presently the day began to break, but notuntil it became light enough to see perfectly, did Hector give the orderto mount, and leaping into the saddle prepared to lead them.
The mounted men had been divided into four bands of twenty each. Paoloand the three troopers each took the command of a party. Hector'sorders were: "Keep together until the peasants are in full flight, thenseparate in pursuit. The movement must be put down or the whole provincewill be ruined, therefore give no quarter, and pursue until your horsesare tired, then return here. Now, MacIntosh, do you advance straightupon the guns; it is probable that they are all loaded, therefore carrythem with a rush. The moment we see you engaged we will charge."
The horsemen were in single line, extending from side to side of thevalley. Hector kept his eye upon MacIntosh's party. They were closeto the guns before any of the sleepers awoke. Then there was a suddenshout, and numbers of the men rushed to the cannon. MacIntosh was thereas soon as they were, and pouring in a volley rushed upon the guns. Atthe same moment Hector gave the word to charge, and with levelled spearsthe horsemen rode down into the midst of the crowd. Appalled by thissudden attack, which was wholly unexpected, the resistance was butslight. Many of the peasants at once threw away their arms and fled.Those who resisted were speared or overthrown by the horses. As thevalley widened the four troops separated a little, each cutting a wayfor itself through the peasants. It was no longer a fight; and a wildpanic seized upon the whole of the insurgents. Some rushed straight downthe valley, others ran up the opposite hillside; but the slope here wasgradual, and the horsemen were able to pursue.
"Paolo, take your troop up the hill. Let the others keep straightdown the valley." And, heading these, Hector galloped on, shouting toMacIntosh to harness what teams there were to some of the guns and takethem up to the top of the road, and then bring the horses back for somemore.
For two hours the pursuit continued. Occasionally a group of peasantsgathered together and tried to stem the tide, but these were speedilyovercome, the long spears bearing them down without their being able tostrike a blow at the riders, and at the end of that time the insurgentswere scattered over a wide extent of country, all flying for theirlives. Hector now ordered trumpets to sound; he was soon joined by theother troops, and at a leisurely pace they rode back to their startingpoint. Not more than half the guns had as yet been taken up, forMacIntosh had found it necessary to put double teams to them in order todrag them up the steep road. The mounted men had all brought ropes withthem, and, dismounting, eight yoked their horses to each gun, and inan hour the whole were brought up to the plateau, the drawbridge waslowered, the sacks of earth cleared away, and the portcullis raised, thegates thrown open, and the garrison filed into the courtyard, greeted bycries of welcome from the women.
"I think that we have crushed the insurrection in this part of Poitou,"Hector said to Madame de Blenfoix. "We have certainly killed six orseven hundred of them, and I am sure that the remainder will neverrally. We will rest today, and tomorrow morning we will set to workto complete the defences of the chateau, so that it may be held by acomparatively small number of men."
The joy of the women was extreme when they found that not a single manhad fallen, though a few had received gashes more or less severe. Thenext morning the whole of the men and boys set to work under Hector'sdirections. The intrenchment at the top of the road was greatlystrengthened, an opening through which a cart could pass being left inthe middle.
A gun was placed on each side of this, and twenty sacks of earth laiddown by the side of the opening, so that this in the course of a fewminutes could be closed, and a gun placed close by run into positionbetween the other two. The greater part of the men, however, wereemployed in raising a mound of stones and earth in front of the gateway,so as to cover this from the fire of any guns which, after the outwardintrenchment had been stormed, might be brought up on to the plateau.The women, and even the children, assisted in the work by carryingearth, while men, with the horses and carts, brought stones up from thevalley.
It took a fortnight's hard work before the outwork was completed. It wastwenty feet high, triangular in form, and solid in construction. Manyof the tenants were accustomed to stonework; and while the rest of thebastion was constructed of rough stones mixed with earth, a parapet fourfeet thick, of roughly dressed stones, was carried along on the crestof the two outward sides. Four guns were mounted here; the rest of thecannon were placed on the outer wall instead of the honeycombed gunsbefore in position, and the castle was thus prepared to stand a regularsiege.
Hector remained for a week after the work was completed, paid thetenants liberally for the services they had rendered, and dismissed themto their homes, for the terrible blow that had been inflicted upon themhad so cowed the peasants that order had been completely restored inthat part of Poitou. Then, after taking an affectionate adieu of Madamede Blenfoix and her daughter, he rode back to Paris, where he remainedfor two months.
At the end of that time, being heartily tired of the frivolity andintrigues, and disgusted at the immorality of the court, he obtainedleave from Mazarin to rejoin his regiment, as the campaign might beexpected to open shortly again. The cardinal had warmly congratulatedhim upon the suppression of the insurrection in Poitou, of which he hadreceived full details from his agents long before Hector reached Paris.
"I have always exhorted the officers and the troops engaged in puttingdown these risings to spill no more blood than is absolutely necessary.But it needed a great lesson, such as you have given them. Otherwise, assoon as the troops were withdrawn the peasants would rise again."
Turenne had also been in Paris, and had strongly represented to Mazarinthe necessity for the armies of France and Sweden in Germany actingtogether, since while they were acting separately, and at greatdistances apart, the Austrians and Bavarians could unite and crush theone, while the other could offer it no assistance. It was owing tothis that the conquests made by the troop of France and Weimar had beenrepeatedly wrested from them. The cardinal listened to his advice,and determined to bring about a union between the two armies of theconfederation. In the meantime a conference was going on at Munsterbetween the representatives of the various conflicting powers, but eachput forward such exorbitant demands that no progress was made.
The Duke of Bavaria, indignant at the small support that Austria hadgiven him, was playing off France against the latter power. Mazarinwas persuaded that he was only waiting for an opportunity to desert theImperialist cause, and therefore ordered Turenne not to cross the Rhine,as the duke had promised that he would remain neutral unless the Frenchadvanced into Germany, when the feelings of his subjects might force himto take the field again on the side of Austria.
Turenne was therefore ordered to besiege Luxembourg. The marshal,however, had no belief in the Bavarian promises, and on arriving on theRhine early in April, and seeing that were he to march with his armyaway to Luxembourg the cause of France and Germany would be lost, hecontinued to make various excuses for not moving, until the Duke ofBavaria, having obtained many concessions from Austria, threw offthe mask, and marching with his army joined that of the emperor inFranconia. Thus the whole Imperial forces were posted between the Frenchand the Swedes.
Turenne saw that his only hope of success would be to effect a juncturewith the Swedes, and wrote to the
cardinal to that effect; then, withoutwaiting for an answer, he set his army in motion. A tremendous circuithad to be made. He forded the Moselle six leagues above Coblenz, thebridges over the Rhine being all in possession of the enemy, marched upinto Holland, and obtained permission from the king to cross at Wesel,which he reached after fourteen days' march. Crossing the Rhine on the15th of July he marched through the country of La Mark, and throughWestphalia, and on the 10th of August joined the Swedes under GeneralWrangel, who had received news of his coming, and had intrenched himselfso strongly that the enemy, who had arrived before him, did not ventureto attack him. The enemy now fell back at once and encamped nearFreiburg. Their army was superior in force to that of the allies, theyhaving fourteen thousand horse and ten thousand foot, while the allieshad but ten thousand horse and seven thousand foot. The allies had,however, sixty pieces of cannon against fifty of the Imperialists.The allies advanced to Freiburg and offered battle, but the ArchdukeLeopold, who commanded the Imperialists, declined to come out of thegreat intrenchments he had thrown up round his camp.
Turenne then marched towards the Maine, and, halting ten leagues fromMayence, sent for the infantry, of which he had left a portion there,to join him. The whole force of the allies was now united, and tookmany towns. As, however, they were still inferior in force to theImperialists, Turenne refused to weaken himself by placing garrisons inthese places, contenting himself with blowing up the fortifications ofsome and carrying off the principal inhabitants of others as hostages.The Imperialist army still remained inactive, and Turenne was abletherefore to turn his attention to Bavaria. Crossing the Rhine atDonauwurth he besieged Augsburg and Rain. The latter place was captured,but the former, being reinforced by fifteen hundred men, held outstoutly, and it was necessary to open trenches and proceed in regularform against it. The Duke of Bavaria, greatly alarmed at this invasionof his dominions, sent off message after message to the emperor,complaining of the manner in which the Imperial army remained inactive,leaving the allies to employ their whole force against him. Hethreatened that unless the army advanced at once to his assistance hewould make terms with France. Imperative orders were thereupon sent tothe archduke to move against the French. The allies fell back, as hisforce was greatly superior to theirs, and the archduke took up a strongposition, intending to force the allies to retire into Franconia as soonas the country round them was exhausted.
Turenne and Wrangel divined his purpose, and although it was now thebeginning of November and snow was on the ground, they marchedagainst him. On arriving near his camp they found that it was stronglyfortified, and could be attacked only by passing behind great marshesand defiles. Changing their intentions, they left two thousand horse infront of his camp, making believe that they intended to attack him, thenmarched with all haste to the Lech and advanced against Landsberg, whichthey took by assault. In the city were the principal magazines of theImperialist army, and the allies, finding sufficient provisions there tolast for six months, encamped round the city and decided to winter thereunless attacked, in the meantime sending out bodies of cavalry, whichlevied contributions up to the very gates of Munich. Leopold, thusdeprived of his magazines, retired with the Austrian contingent, and theBavarians returned home.
The Duke of Bavaria, finding that his whole dominions would be capturedunless he made terms, therefore opened negotiations, and on the 14th ofMarch, 1646, peace was signed, the terms being that he should separatehimself entirely from the empire and deliver five of his fortresses tothe allies, who would thus, should he again break his word, have meansof access into his dominions. The allied forces were now in a conditionto march upon Vienna. They had during the winter plundered a largeportion of Bavaria; they and their horses had recovered from theirfatigue, and their force now amounted to fourteen thousand foot andtwenty thousand horse. At this moment, when the Imperialists believedthat all was lost, for without the assistance of Bavaria they could putno army in the field that could hope to make head against the allies,Mazarin interposed and saved Austria from destruction.
The Catholic powers had long been privately urging upon him the dangerthat would arise should Austria be crushed. The Swedes would acquirevery large accessions of territory, the Protestant German princes, theirallies, would similarly benefit, and Protestantism would become thedominant religion in Germany. Such would, indeed, have undoubtedly beenthe case had the allies marched to Vienna and dictated terms of peacethere. An order was therefore sent to Turenne to march with his army toFlanders, where the Spaniards were gaining great advantages, as Enghien,now become Prince of Conde by the death of his father, had been sentinto Catalonia with the greater portion of his army. Turenne, foreseeingthat his German regiments would refuse to march to Flanders, leavingtheir own country open to invasion and plunder by the Imperialists,warmly opposed the plan, and sent messenger after messenger to thecardinal urging him to countermand the order. The friends of Bavaria andthe Catholic princes urged strongly upon the queen that the continuanceof the war would utterly destroy the Catholic religion in Germany, andthat the Swedes alone would reap advantage from the fall of the houseof Austria. Moved by their arguments and those of Mazarin to the sameeffect, she supported the latter, and peremptory orders were sent toTurenne to march to Flanders, where matters were going from bad toworse. Turenne obeyed them, captured on his march towards the Rhineseveral towns and fortresses, destroying their fortifications so thatthey would not be able to oppose him if he returned to Germany. Buton arriving on the Rhine his anticipations of trouble were fulfilled.General Rosen, whose blunder had been the cause of the disaster atMarienthal, and who had since his return from captivity persistentlyworked in opposition to Turenne, fomented discontent among the troops ofWeimar, and directly they crossed the Rhine they absolutely refusedto advance. They had just cause for complaint; they had fought withdistinguished valour, and they alone had saved the French army fromsuffering crushing defeat at Nordlingen; their pay was six months inarrear, and the proposal now that they should leave their own countryand fight in Flanders was naturally most repugnant to them. They atonce marched away towards Strasburg. Turenne followed them with threethousand infantry, four French regiments of horse, and the only one ofthe Weimar cavalry that had remained faithful to him, and came up justas they were about to recross the Rhine.
Partly by entreaties, partly by showing his confidence in them, byputting himself wholly in their power, the marshal induced a portion ofthe Weimar cavalry to return to their duty. General Rosen, who was to alarge extent responsible for the mutiny, was arrested and imprisonedat Philippsburg, the rest of the mutineers rode away with the loss of aportion of their number, and joined the Swedes. After this the order forTurenne to march to Flanders was countermanded.
The war languished for a few months, the Imperialists were defeatedafter a hard fought cavalry battle by Turenne and the Swedes, and thecountry was overrun by the latter, whose horsemen raided almost up toInnsbruck. But all parties were growing weary of the conflict, which hadnow lasted thirty years. It had inflicted incredible suffering uponall who were concerned in it, and had produced no important resultswhatever, except that it had prevented the entire crushing out ofProtestantism in Germany, and the peace conference for the first timebegan to work in earnest.
At last, after Bavaria had been wasted from end to end, and the dukedriven into exile, peace was concluded, the emperor yielding everypoint demanded by France, as he saw plainly enough that unless he didso Turenne's army would be at the gates of Vienna at the commencementof the next campaign, and in October, 1648, hostilities ceased. Turennewent to Munster and acted as the French negotiator in arranging thepeace, to which his genius, steadfast determination, and the expenditureof his own means, by which he had kept the army on foot, had so largelycontributed.