Leuchtmar spoke: “In fact, great things must have happened, when you introduce them in this way.”
“They have happened,” replied Burgsdorf. “Now listen: First explosion—Wallenstein has been dismissed. Second explosion—Gustavus Adolphus has landed in Pomerania. Ah! I see that the news excites you even more than if two powder-houses had exploded at your very door.”
“Herr Colonel, you are a reliable man, otherwise I should think—”
“Two such pieces of news at once! This is too much; one is all we can stand.”
Thus spoke Leuchtmar and Müller. The latter added: “And what about Tilly?”
“He is still at large,” replied Burgsdorf; “my information concerns Wallenstein only. And do you know who brought about his retirement? The Catholic princes, his companions in the League. The rascal’s colossal audacity was too much for them. They could not endure that he should dispossess the Dukes of Mecklenburg (though they cared nothing for them personally, as they are Protestants) and strut about as an imperial prince.”
“Aha! So he has got himself into trouble!”
“Surely! Ferdinand went with high hopes to the assembly of the Electors at Regensburg. He intended to crush out the rights of the Protestants completely, besides arranging for the choice of his son as his successor. It turned out differently from what he expected. There was a storm of complaints on all sides, and in the midst of the excitement Maximilian of Bavaria appeared upon the scene. He satirically charged that Wallenstein was only the leader of the imperial halberdiers whom he had collected in Germany at an exorbitant price. Was it not most atrocious, he said, that the Electors, the pillars of the empire, should be made subordinate to the imperial army commanders, especially in Brandenburg, where this had been the case for years?”
“This much I know,” said the Preceptor, “his expenses are not to be reckoned by thousands or hundreds of thousands, but by millions.”
“Twenty million gulden,” said Burgsdorf, “and perhaps more. Everything combined to force Ferdinand to displace Wallenstein. Many teeth chattered at the thought, ‘Will the mighty Wallenstein give up his sword without resistance?’ He has done it. They say that the stars told him he must obey the Emperor’s behest.”