Won by the Sword
A Story of the Thirty Years' War

G.A. Henty



PREFACE.


MY DEAR LADS,

In my preface to the Lion of the North I expressed a hope that
I might some day be able to continue the history of the Thirty
Years' War. The deaths of Gustavus and his great rival Wallenstein
and the crushing defeat of the Swedes and their allies at the
battle of Nordlingen brought the first period of that war to a
close. Hostilities, indeed, never ceased, but the Swedes no longer
played the leading part on the Protestant side that they had
hitherto occupied. Oxenstiern, the great chancellor of Sweden,
saw that the only hope of eventual success lay in engaging France
in the struggle, and he and the Duke of Weimar went to Paris and
pointed out to Richelieu that unless France intervened, Austria
must become the master of all Germany, and as the ally of Spain
would have it in her power to completely dominate France. Richelieu
perceived the opportunity, made a treaty with the Swedes and Weimar,
and engaged to grant large subsidies to the former, and to send
an army to cooperate with the latter. Then began the second period
of this long and terrible struggle, France now taking the place
that Sweden had hitherto occupied, and bearing the brunt of the