Amongst the prisoners was the Count of Lichtenstein and Lady Regina. The king ordered that they should both be treated with the greatest respect. He offered the young lady a safe conduct to go to the bishop, her uncle. Lady Regina rejected this on account of the insecurity of the times, and asked as a favour to be allowed to remain under the king's protection for the present. Gustaf Adolf agreed to this.
"I do this unwillingly," said the king, smiling, to the Margrave of Baden Durlach, who was riding by his side. "Young ladies are a luxury in the camp, and they turn the heads of my attendants; but she may come with me to Frankfurt, as a hostage; it will bind the hands of the bishop."
"Your Majesty knows how to attract everybody through your generosity," replied the Margrave with the politeness of a courtier.
"Lieutenant Bertel," said the king, turning to the officer close to him, who had the command of a troop of Finnish cavalry, "I give Lady Regina von Emmeritz into your charge. She has my permission to bring with her an elderly lady, a young girl, and her father confessor. See to it, that you are not smitten, lieutenant, and above all give close heed to the monk; that set is not to be relied upon."
Bertel saluted with his sword, and remained silent.
"One thing more," continued the king. "I have not forgotten that you were the first one who entered the sally-port. When you have brought the young lady to safety, you must appear on duty in my life-guards. Have you understood me?"
"Yes, your Majesty."
"Good." And the king then said to the Margrave with a smile, "Believe me, it would have been serious to leave this beautiful dark-eyed girl in the charge of one of my susceptible Swedes. This boy is a Finn; they are the most phlegmatic people I know of. They are poor gallants; they need a year to catch fire. A girl can drive twenty of them out of a ball-room; but if it comes to a battle with Pappenheim, then your grace knows what they can do."
Gustaf Adolf gained victory after victory in the late autumn. Tilly, who had come too late to save Würzburg, did not dare to attack him, and irritated by his bad luck and constant defeats, drew back to the Bavarian frontier. Gustaf Adolf marched down the Main, entered Aschaffenburg, and compelled the cautious Frankfurters to open their gates. On December the 6th the king forced a march over the Rhine near Oppenheim, and entered Mainz on the 9th, which the Spaniard de Sylva had so proudly thought that he could defend against three Swedish kings. The victorious Swedish army was now spread over the north and west part of Germany, and the conqueror had chosen his winter quarters in Frankfurt-on-the-Main. A splendid court here assembled around the hero; it was here that flattery had previously adorned his head with the crown of the German Empire. It was here that Maria Elenora came flying on longing wings to embrace her husband; in Henau, where he had come to meet her, she clasped him in her arms and said,
"At last the great Gustaf Adolf is captured."