"When they are trained and disciplined!"
"And where will you get trained soldiers?"
"From the Imperial garrisons! Then there are the Spaniards in the Rhenish Palatinate, the best infantry in the world."
"And if Richelieu launches the French soldiers at them?"
"It would be the devil!" Count Tilly became very thoughtful. "It is not to be expected that a Catholic power would give aid to the Swedes. Was it not Richelieu who turned the scales against Wallenstein at Ratisbon?"
"But," objected the princess, "what did that prove? Did it not result in the dispersal of Wallenstein's army, and the weakening of the Catholic power, of the Imperial power?"
"I am not politician, your Highness! I hate cardinals and politicians equally. I am a soldier. If I have a moderate measure of fortune, and Pappenheim does not make any more blunders, it is odds but we beat the Swede, Richelieu or no Richelieu."
The Archduchess showed by her manner that she thought otherwise.
"There is Saxony! There is Brandenburg! There is Weimar!"
"Confound them all!" growled Count Tilly, who had done nothing else but look at the astonishing problem he proposed to face, and he at present tied by the leg with a mere eight or ten battalions under his banner. "And," this was an after-thought born of sheer impatience, "your Highness, there is a lady who calls herself Ottilie von Thüringen, who takes a great interest in the Lutheran cause."