No military movements of importance had taken place subsequent
to the battle of Lutzen. Oxenstiern had laboured night and day to
repair as far as possible the effects of the death of Gustavus. He
had been left by the will of the king regent of Sweden until the
king's daughter, now a child of six years old, came of age, and he
at once assumed the supreme direction of affairs. It was essential
to revive the drooping courage of the weaker states, to meet the
secret machinations of the enemy, to allay the jealousy of the more
powerful allies, to arouse the friendly powers, France in particular,
to active assistance, and above all to repair the ruined edifice
of the German alliance and to reunite the scattered strength of
the party by a close and permanent bond of union.
Had the emperor at this moment acted wisely Oxenstiern's efforts
would have been in vain. Wallenstein, farseeing and broad minded,
saw the proper course to pursue, and strongly urged upon the emperor
the advisability of declaring a universal amnesty, and of offering
favourable conditions to the Protestant princes, who, dismayed at
the loss of their great champion, would gladly accept any proposals
which would ensure the religious liberty for which they had fought;
but the emperor, blinded by this unexpected turn of fortune and
infatuated by Spanish counsels, now looked to a complete triumph
and to enforce his absolute will upon the whole of Germany.
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