Having come unto the fields, the army being drawn up and divided, Duke Barnard of Weimar was directed to march on Kitzingen on the Main, and the rest of the army on Windsheim, and his Majesty with a strong party marched back unto Nuremberg, to see the enemies' leaguer, and the unhappy castle on the old hill, where so many brave fellows were lost. From thence his Majesty returned on Outzbach, at which time on the march some new levied men, that were come from Switzerland, joined with the army at Windsheim, where we rested two days, I being cruelly tormented with a burning ague, contracted with neglecting of my wound received at Nuremberg.
Wallenstein his Field-marshal Holke at this time with his little army did domineer in Saxony, using barbarous cruelty in burning, scalding, and plundering of towns, flecks, and dorps; murdering and cutting down the inhabitants, that it was pity to hear of such barbarity in a civil land to be used by one of their own profession; making no conscience of religion, he showed less compassion than the Papists did: for their villany, whom he led, was so great, that after abusing the women, in satisfying their filthy lusts, they did burn them and their families, their hearts thus hardened, that it was evident, that the judgements of the Lord were not far from them, and those he commanded, having suffered such tyranny to have been used to Christians, before a month was passed, he died raging of the plague, and those who followed him were also rewarded of God for their cruelty.
The eighteenth of August, Holke took in Zwenkau (Zwickau?) by accord, promising unto the burghers the freedom of their religion and liberties, providing they would take in a garrison of two hundred Imperialists; then Gallas and Halke being joined, soon after Wallenstein himself, after the in-taking of Coburg, continued his march towards Leipzig; after spoiling the land of Coburg and Kulmbach, he marched through the Voigland towards Olsenburg; and from thence to Leipzig, which he got in on accord the twenty-second of October, and on the twenty-third he got in the castle of Pleisenburg, putting out the Duke's garrison, and putting in his own. And after he took in Weissenfels, Moosburg, Naumburg, and divers towns more in Saxony, spoiling and ruining all that side of the Elbe: Halle also he took in, but the castle of Moosburg, being well beset by the Swedens, by that time could not be brought to hear of any accord.
Pappenheim now retired from Maastricht, having in vain attempted then the relief of it; at his back-coming he relieved the city of Paderborn from the beleaguering, and skirmished with the Lieutenant General Bawtish, he also dissolved the blockquering of Wolfenbüttel, and did get some cornets and colours from the Brunswicker forces, and from thence he did come before Hildesheim; alleging, he had beaten the Duke of Lüneburg and Bawtish, by which stratagem he did get Hildesheim in his power, and beset it with a garrison, as the principal strength on the Weser stream, appointing the Grave Von Gronsfield to command there, and then he marched towards Eichsfeld, and took in Mülhausen, getting a great composition of money from them, he marched on Salz and plundered it out, wherein he did get much hidden riches, and his soldiers making rich booty, they did cast in the water, that which they could not carry; he proceeded also in the same manner with Hainstadt, from whence he carried with him the burgher-masters in pledge of their city's ransom, and finding by the way they were not able to pay, what they had promised, he caused to take all three and hang them up, till they were half dead, and then caused suddenly to cut them down: Krotzenburg also he used little better, from Erfurt he desired twenty thousand Dollars, and threatened if the moneys were not told down, he would not fail to do them all the mischief he could, whereupon with much ado they did get him two thousand Dollars, and hearing his Majesty of Sweden was drawing near, he stayed not on the rest; but marched to Moosburg at Halle.
The thirty-eighth Observation.
Memory and forgetfulness are both necessary in friendship. Shall I then forget here to speak of our separation, being so long companions of one danger together? No, this love of comrades to each other is most worthy remembrance, seeing we were divers times willing to give our lives for one another's safeties: shall we then be oblivious of this mutual love and dangers? No, though distance of place separate our bodies, we shall still be conjoined in mind, and power against our common enemy, that desireth the hurt of us all alike. Let us then though severed, maintain one another's credit in absence, ever honouring the worth and virtues of our dear comrades, for the kindness past, let us learn to be ever thankful to their friends alive, and after their death, let our love increase to their successors; for if there be any nectar in this life, it is in sorrows we endure for the goodness and love of our absent friends, especially of those that were our dearest comrades; for if we sorrow for them, amending our lives, knowing we must pass shortly through the same passage, they did pass before us, truly one day our sorrow shall turn to joy, and our tears shall turn to smiles, our weeping unto a stream of pleasures, and our labour unto eternal rest, that as we followed the Lion of the North, the invincible King of Sweden, in fighting the Lord's battles here, even so we shall follow the Lamb unto the heavenly Jerusalem hereafter.
The cruelty and tyranny used by the Imperial officers in Saxony, who neither spared man nor woman, is rather to be pitied by Christians, then any ways to be imitated, which cruelty did presage their ruin to come; for nothing vehement in that kind did ever remain long unpunished, and though for a time the Devil's rage, at last they are cast into perpetual darkness.
Pappenheim returning from Maastricht, we see was immoderate in his victories, and forbearing to show mercy at all, he domineered in his tyranny, running so long as he had feet, some he did hang by their purses, and some by their necks by halfs, for not paying the ransom of others. Such injustice the God of mercy and goodness did not suffer long unpunished: and it is to be pitied, that such exorbitant pride had been cohabitant in so valorous a captain, for it is certain, when a man of war groweth too proud of his victories, refusing mercy, then commonly approach punishment's woe, for a proud warrior as this was (viz.) error in counsel, and unhappy success in his best actions; for how soon a man beginneth to grow proud and to be secure, then cometh punishment; and as pride groweth, so virtue decayeth, and though the punishment of pride and cruelty sometimes comes late, yet sure it never comes light, and it is most certain, there is ever some fatality incident unto those, who are desirous of vain glory through pride. Our desire then should be, to be humble, that we be not rejected with disdain, as those proud cavaliers rejected the poor supplicants, who though begging mercy, were not heard: whose exorbitant wickedness should teach us, not to imitate their examples, but rather through grace, press to eschew their punishment both temporal and eternal.