Thus the campaign of 1632 opened under the most favourable auspices.
The Green Brigade marched on the 5th of March to Aschaffenburg,
a distance of more than thirty miles, a fact which speaks volumes
for the physique and endurance of the troops, for this would in
the present day be considered an extremely long march for troops,
and the weight of the helmet and armour, musket and accoutrements,
of the troops of those days was fully double that now carried by
European soldiers. Here they were reviewed by the king.
By the 10th the whole army, 23,000 strong, were collected at Weinsheim
and advanced towards Bavaria, driving before them the Imperialists
under the Count de Bucquio. The Chancellor Oxenstiern had been left
by the king with a strong force to guard his conquests on the Rhine.
No sooner had the king marched than the Spaniards again crossed
the Moselle. The chancellor and the Duke of Weimar advanced against
them. The Dutch troops, who formed the first line of the chancellor's
army, were unable to stand the charge of the Spanish and fled in
utter confusion; but the Scottish regiment of Sir Roderick Leslie,
who had succeeded Sir John Hamilton on his resignation, and the
battalion of Sir John Ruthven, charged the Spaniards with levelled
pikes so furiously that these in turn were broken and driven off
the field.
On the 26th of March Gustavus arrived before the important town and
fortress of Donauworth, being joined on the same day by the Laird
of Foulis with his two regiments of horse and foot.
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