The
service was one of great danger, and Hepburn had to cut his way
sword in hand through the Croats who intervened between him and his
comrades of the Green Brigade. He accomplished his task in safety,
and before daylight Munro's men and the regiments of Duke Bernhard
rejoined the army in the plain. But though repulsed Gustavus was
not defeated. He took up a new position just out of cannon shot of
the Altenburg, and then offered battle to Wallenstein, the latter,
however, well satisfied with his success, remained firm in his
policy of starving out the enemy, and resisted every device of the
king to turn him from his stronghold.
For fourteen days Gustavus remained in position. Then he could hold
out no longer. The supplies were entirely exhausted. The summer had
been unusually hot. The shrunken waters of the Pegnitz were putrid
and stinking, the carcasses of dead horses poisoned the air, and
fever and pestilence raged in the camp. Leaving, then, Kniphausen
with eight thousand men to aid the citizens of Nuremberg to defend
the city should Wallenstein besiege it, Gustavus marched on the 8th
of September by way of Neustadt to Windsheim, and there halted to
watch the further movements of the enemy.
Five days later Wallenstein quitted his camp and marched to Forsheim.
So far the advantage of the campaign lay with him. His patience
and iron resolution had given the first check to the victorious
career of the Lion of the North.
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