This movement Duke Bernhard heard of just when he
arrived in sight of Passau, and he instantly recognized the extreme
danger of his position, and perceived with his usual quickness
of glance that to be caught before Passau by Wallenstein and John
of Werth would be absolute destruction. A moment's hesitation and
the Swedish army would have been lost. Without an hour's delay he
issued the necessary orders, and the army retraced its steps with
all speed to Ratisbon, and not stopping even there marched northward
into the Upper Palatinate, to defend that conquered country against
Wallenstein even at the cost of a battle.
But Wallenstein declined to fight a battle there. He had but one army,
and were that army destroyed, Duke Bernhard, with the prestige of
victory upon him, could resume his march upon Vienna, which would
then be open to him. Therefore, having secured the safety of the
capital, he fell back again into winter quarters in Bohemia. Thus
Ferdinand again owed his safety to Wallenstein, and should have
been the more grateful since Wallenstein had saved him in defiance
of his own orders.
At the time he fully admitted in his letters to Wallenstein that
the general had acted wisely and prudently, nevertheless he was
continually listening to the Spaniards, the Jesuits, and the many
envious of Wallenstein's great position, and hoping to benefit by
his disgrace, and, in spite of all the services his great general
had rendered him, was preparing to repeat the humiliation which he
had formerly laid upon him and again to deprive him of his command.
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