A Tale of the Times of Gustavus Adolphus, by G. A. Henty

PREFACE.


MY DEAR LADS,

You are nowadays called upon to acquire so great a mass of learning
and information in the period of life between the ages of twelve
and eighteen that it is not surprising that but little time can be
spared for the study of the history of foreign nations. Most lads
are, therefore, lamentably ignorant of the leading events of even
the most important epochs of Continental history, although, as many
of these events have exercised a marked influence upon the existing
state of affairs in Europe, a knowledge of them is far more
useful, and, it may be said, far more interesting than that of the
comparatively petty affairs of Athens, Sparta, Corinth, and Thebes.

Prominent among such epochs is the Thirty Years' War, which arose
from the determination of the Emperor of Austria to crush out
Protestantism throughout Germany. Since the invasion of the Huns
no struggle which has taken place in Europe has approached this
in the obstinacy of the fighting and the terrible sufferings which
the war inflicted upon the people at large. During these thirty
years the population of Germany decreased by nearly a third, and
in some of the states half the towns and two-thirds of the villages
absolutely disappeared.

The story of the Thirty Years' War is too long to be treated in
one volume. Fortunately it divides itself naturally into two parts.