Long ere the noonday sun had brightened the rippling water, and tinted with yellow the faint blue Scanian peaks, the towers of Kiöbenhafn, and the turrets of the old castle of Christianborg, faded away or sank into the gulf of Kjöge; the point of Falsterboro' in Sweden rose out of the water, and then we were breasting the short, foamy waves of the Baltic sea.
CHAPTER XXXVII.
STRALSUND.
Stralsund was now the largest and most wealthy city in the Duchy of Pomerania. Boasting of an origin that dated from Sünno II., king of the Franks, and deriving its name from the narrow Sund that lies between it and the isle of Rügen, it had gradually become a great commercial city, with vast trade and ample privileges, which its burghers had successfully defended against all princes who had endeavoured to subvert or subdue them; and once they had opposed with success and with victory the united arms of Sweden, Denmark, and ten other principalities. From thenceforward the stout burghers were considered unconquerable, and their city impregnable. Jaromar, prince of Rügen, increased the city in 1209, and his son first fortified it; after this its walls became gradually stronger, and there were no less than six gates and as many bridges facing the Sound, which extends one mile in breadth between it and Rügen. To the landward it was fenced round by regular bulwarks, and the lake of Franken, a falcon-shot in width; over this was a high causeway, with dams and bridges, every approach to which was barred by bastions and cavaliers, mounted by brass guns, and swept by numerous casemates.
Under the Count of Carlstein, a strong brigade of horse and foot lay intrenched before the gate that faced the causeway and lake of Franken. Major-general Arnheim assailed the right flank of the city, and Wallenstein in person pressed it on the left; but Stralsund, being open to the sea, was supplied with provisions from that quarter for a time, as all the shipping sent by Sigismund, king of Poland, to the assistance of the Emperor, had been sunk by the Scottish fleet in the Danish service—thus the Imperial generalissimo of the northern seas had not a single ship wherewith to blockade the harbour.
Colonel Heinrich Holka, whom Christian had appointed governor of Stralsund, with a mixed force of Scottish and Danish infantry, had considerably weakened his resources by neglect; and at the most desperate crisis of the siege, had found time to take unto himself a young and beautiful wife, celebrating his nuptials in a public manner, amid the dismayed and disheartened citizens, and immediately under the shot of the Imperial batteries. This act was deemed alike unwise, and at such a time improper. Poor Holka was displaced, and Field-marshal Sir Alexander Leslie of Balgonie (in Fifeshire), a cavalier who served the King of Sweden, and whose skill, as displayed in after years in Lower Saxony, and in the ever memorable wars of the National Covenant, must always mark him as a man of the highest military genius, was appointed to govern, defend, and rescue Stralsund.
Enraged by the affront, Colonel Holka changed banners, and joined the Emperor, who created him a count, and gave him a regiment of infantry. He, moreover, changed his religion no less than three times; but, being seized by the plague, died at last a Protestant, leaving behind him the usual reputation of the Imperialists—that of having been a wealthy, rapacious, dissolute, and ferocious soldier.
On the same evening that Christian, from the westward, sailed into the narrow strip of water between Rügen and Stralsund, a fleet, having the three crowns of Sweden flying at the mast-head of each ship, entered the east end of the Sound, having on board Sir Alexander Leslie, and five thousand of the gallant and well-appointed Scottish veterans of the glorious Gustavus—the star of the north! When anchoring close beside us, the Swedes opened their red ports and fired a royal salute on learning that King Christian was in the bay. Their sides were lined by men, and many a cry of welcome, of greeting, and recognition, were joyfully given and warmly responded to. The artillery of the town had no time to salute either of the fleets; for at that crisis the cannoniers of Wallenstein (who on the preceding night had returned from Gustraw) were redoubling their efforts, and his batteries were firing furiously on the city.
It was at that very time, when the united fleets of Christian IV. and Marshal Leslie anchored off the city, that Wallenstein, who from an eminence was watching us through his Galileo glass, swore so impiously—
"By the wounds of God! I will take Stralsund, even if He slung it in chains between the heavens and earth! I will make these Scottish wolves eat each other up, and teach them that Protestantism was buried on the day when I was born!"