The town was captured, but the Swedish Colonel Dubatel, who
was really a Scotchman, by name M'Dougal, a gallant and brilliant
officer, threw himself with his dragoons into the castle, which
commanded the town, and defended it so resolutely against the
assaults of Wallenstein that Duke Bernhard had time to march to
within twenty miles of the place. Wallenstein then raised the siege,
marched east to Kronach, and then north to Weida, on the Elster.
Thence he pressed on direct to Leipzig, which he besieged at once;
and while the main body of his troops were engaged before the city,
others took possession of the surrounding towns and fortresses.
Leipzig held out for only two days, and after its capture
Wallenstein marched to Merseburg, where he was joined by the army
under Pappenheim. Thus reinforced he was in a position to capture
the whole of Saxony. The elector, timid and vacillating, was fully
conscious of his danger and the solicitations of Wallenstein to
break off from his alliance with the King of Sweden and to join
the Imperialists were strongly seconded by Marshal Von Arnheim,
his most trusted councillor, who was an intimate friend of the
Imperialist general.
It was indeed a hard decision which Gustavus was called upon
to make. On the one hand Vienna lay almost within his grasp, for
Wallenstein was now too far north to interpose between him and
the capital.
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