In a few minutes he heard heavy steps with the clanking of swords
and jingling of spurs, and knew that the council was beginning to
assemble. The hum of conversation rose louder and louder for a quarter
of an hour; then he heard the door of the apartment closed, and knew
that the council was about to commence. The buzz of conversation
ceased, and then a voice, which was that of Field Marshal Illo, one
of the three men in Wallenstein's confidence, rose in the silence.
He began by laying before the army the orders which the emperor
had sent for its dispersal to various parts of the country, and by
the turn he gave to these he found it easy to excite the indignation
of the assembly.
He then expatiated with much eloquence upon the merits of the army
and its generals, and upon the ingratitude with which the emperor
had treated them after their noble efforts in his behalf. The
court, he said, was governed by Spanish influence. The ministry
were in the pay of Spain. Wallenstein alone had hitherto opposed
this tyranny, and had thus drawn upon himself the deadly enmity
of the Spaniards. To remove him from the command, or to make away
with him entirely, had, he asserted, been long the end of their
desires, and until they could succeed they endeavoured to abridge
his power in the field. The supreme command was to be placed in the
hands of the King of Hungary solely to promote the Spanish power in
Germany, as this prince was merely the passive instrument of Spain.
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