Every Swedish regiment was now made up to its full complement. Thirty men-of-war, two hundred transports and fifteen thousand men were now ready to take their share in one of the most dangerous campaigns of the great war. It was a small army, but it was composed of veterans. Every individual had been seasoned in previous wars, and was perfect in discipline, courage and in devotion to his commander and king. The army was composed mostly of Swedes, but had several regiments of Scots and several more regiments of Germans. The king had a small but well-equipped corps of artillery. He was also well provided with shovels, spades and picks, with which to construct earthworks.
Oxenstiern, at the time of the king's embarkation, was also sent, with ten thousand more men, to guard the frontier of Poland, and almost as many as Gustavus took with him were left to guard against sudden and unexpected invasion at home.
He set every part of his kingdom in order, as one who goes forth to meet the doubtful issues of a great war. The law-making power of Sweden was vested in the four Estates: Nobility, Clergy, Burghers and Peasants. The consent of at least three of these was necessary to the king for every forward movement.
So now, on May 19th, 1630, he called the Estates together, to rehearse before them the causes and conditions which forced the Swedish nation into the war. He was accompanied by the queen, also by the Council of State, in whose hands he was to leave the government. He carried in his arms his little daughter, Christina, then only four years of age. He presented her to the Estates as his successor in case of his death, and secured their renewed allegiance to her should he not return. He read the ordinances for the government in his absence, or during the minority of his daughter.
The assembly was in tears, and the king had to wait a few moments to overcome his own emotion before giving his farewell address:
"Not lightly nor wantonly," said he, "am I about to involve myself and you in this new and dangerous war. God is my witness that I do not fight to gratify my own ambition, but the Emperor has wronged me most grievously in the persons of my ambassadors; he has supported my enemies, persecuted my friends and brethren; he has trampled my religion in the dust, and even stretches his arm against my crown. The oppressed States of Germany call loudly for aid, which by God's help we will give them.
"I am fully sensible of the dangers to which my life will be exposed. I have never shrunk from dangers, nor is it likely I shall escape them all. Hitherto Providence has wonderfully protected me, but I shall at last fall in defence of my country. I commend you and all my absent subjects to the protection of heaven, and hope that we shall meet in eternity.
"To you, my Councillors of State, I first address myself. May God enlighten you, and fill you with wisdom to promote the welfare of my people. You, too, my brave Noblemen, I commend to the divine protection. Continue to prove yourselves the worthy successors of those brave Goths whose bravery humbled to the dust the pride of ancient Rome. To you, Ministers of Religion, I recommend peaceableness and piety; be yourselves examples of the virtues which you preach, and abuse not your influence over the minds of my people. On you, the Burghers and Peasants, I entreat the blessing of heaven; may your industry be rewarded by a prosperous harvest, your stores be plenteously filled, and may you be crowned abundantly with all the blessings of this life. For the prosperity of all my subjects, absent and present, I offer my warmest prayers to heaven. I bid you all a sincere—it may be an eternal farewell."
The whole assembly was in tears, the king himself was weeping, but after a few moments he said, in a natural voice, the words of the Psalm which he was accustomed to say aloud before entering on any new undertaking. We give only the closing part, upon which he seemed to lay most emphasis:
"Oh, satisfy us early with Thy mercy, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. Make us glad according to the days wherein Thou hast afflicted us, and the years wherein we have seen evil. Let Thy work appear unto Thy servants, and Thy glory unto their children, and let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us; and establish Thou the work of our hands upon us, yea, the work of our hands establish Thou it."