"It is indeed, Malcolm, but I suppose that the king thinks that
Tilly is likely to try and retake these places, and so to threaten
his rear as he marches forward. He would never have placed as
strong a force of his best soldiers here if he had not thought the
position a very important one."

The troops were quartered in the larger buildings of New Brandenburg;
the officers were billeted upon the burghers. The position of the
country people and the inhabitants of the towns of Germany during
this long and desolating war was terrible; no matter which side
won, they suffered. There were in those days no commissariat wagons
bringing up stores from depots and magazines to the armies. The
troops lived entirely upon the country through which they marched.
In exceptional cases, when the military chest happened to be well
filled, the provisions acquired might be paid for, but as a rule
armies upon the march lived by foraging. The cavalry swept in the
flocks and herds from the country round. Flour, forage, and everything
else required was seized wherever found, and the unhappy peasants
and villagers thought themselves lucky if they escaped with the loss
of all they possessed, without violence, insult, and ill treatment.
The slightest resistance to the exactions of the lawless foragers
excited their fury, and indiscriminate slaughter took place. The
march of an army could be followed by burned villages, demolished
houses, crops destroyed, and general ruin, havoc, and desolation.

In the cases of towns these generally escaped indiscriminate
plunder by sending deputies forward to meet advancing armies, when
an offer would be made to the general to supply so much food and to
pay so much money on condition that private property was respected.
In these cases the main body of the troops was generally encamped