The people of Nuremberg were true to the side they had chosen,
and placed the whole of their resources at his disposal. Gustavus
at once set his army to work to form a position in which he could
confront the overwhelming forces of the enemy. Round the city, at
a distance of about thirteen hundred yards from it, he dug a ditch,
nowhere less than twelve feet wide and eight deep, but, where most
exposed to an attack, eighteen feet wide and twelve deep. Within the
circuit of this ditch he erected eight large forts and connected them
with a long and thick earthen parapet strengthened with bastions.
On the ramparts and forts three hundred cannon, for the most part
supplied by the city of Nuremberg, were placed in position. As the
camp between the ramparts and the town was traversed by the river
Pegnitz numerous bridges were thrown across it, so that the whole
force could concentrate on either side in case of attack. So
vigorously did the army, assisted by the citizens, labour at these
works, that they were completed in fourteen days after Gustavus
reached Nuremberg.
It was on the 19th of June that the Swedish army arrived there, and
on the 30th Wallenstein and Maximilian of Bavaria appeared before
it with the intention of making an immediate assault. The works,
however, although not yet quite completed, were so formidable that
Wallenstein saw at once that the success of an assault upon them
would be extremely doubtful, and, in spite of the earnest entreaties
of Maximilian to lead his army to the assault, he decided to
reduce the place by starvation.
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