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1632.]
Occupation of
Stettin. GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS. GERMAN WAR. Cruelties of the
lmpe^iali^ts.
2C3
by their valour he had compelled the Poles to a six
years’ truce ;
he hoped also, if
they held with him
honestly, to win peace and security for themselves
an(i* their country, for religion and their fellow-
believers in Germany ; they were old soldiers, who
knew not war only from yesterday, but who had
shared with him many changes of fortune, and who
would not lose spirit if they had not everything to
their mind at once ;
he would lead tliem against
an enemy who was enriching himself at the cost..of
this whole exhausted country ;
with the enemy
alone was money, abundance, and all that they
could wish to find ^. Leslie in Stralsund, who liad
been reinforced for this purpose fi’om Sweden, had
already in the middle of April cleai-ed the isle of
Rugen from the enemy. He now joined the king,
who drove the imperialists also from the islands
of Usedom and Wollin. Wolgast having sur-
rendered after six days’ siege (the garrison for the
most part entering the Swedish service), and the
towns of Wollin and Camin likewise passing over
to him, he became master of the mouths of the Oder.
But the real key to the Oder was Stettin, the only
town in Pomerania which had no imperial garri-
son. Two hours’ sail carried the king over the
firth. The aged Bogislaus of Pomerania, who had
already souglit by an embassage to Stockholm to
avert the arrival of Gustavus Adolphus, now saw
him unexpectedly before the walls of his capital
with an army ready to do battle *. A brief nego-
tiation followed, in which the stranger gave the
law. The Swedes marched into the town along
with the duke returning from his conference with
the king. Immediately the northern strangers
were seen according to the custom of tiieir un-
wearied leader busily at work on the improvement
of the defences of the town ;
and m the convention
to which the duke was obliged to accede, the king
already stipulated for the possession of Pomerania
after the death of its present childless sovereign,
until he should be reimbursed for the expenses of
the war. Fourteen days had now elapsed since the
king’s landing. Stettin surrendered on the 10th
July. This was, after Stralsund, the second step
in Germany.
During all this, "yorquato Conti, the imperialist
commander in Pomerania, although superior in
force, offered little resistance. He seems less to
have contemplated the hindrance of the invasion,
than the prevention of the king’s further progress ;
whence he collected his force in Anklam on the
Peene and in Gartz on the Oder, while by the em-
peror’s orders he garrisoned Landsberg on the
Warta, and cut off the new enemy from the road to
Silesia and the hereditary dominions of the imperial
house. He had sought in vain to surprise Stettin
3 Chemnitz.
<• " We were apprehensive that while we were occupied
ill taking some little places, the Imperialists should either
themselves gain possession of Stettin, orhinder us therefrom.
We therefore resolved some days ago, after God had given
into our hands Ysedom and Wollin, to try whether we, with
our infantry, could get this town into our power. Yesterday
morning we s died with a good wind from Ysedom, came
hither shortly after midday, and took some positions without
the town. Then came the duke, after some interchange of
messages, to us on the spot, and agreed to receive a garrison.
And although, on account of the enemy, who now lies in the
neighbourhood, we were obliged to yield to the duke in all
things, and take the burden on ourselves, yet vfe expect in
before it was given up to Gustavus Adolphus. By
the most cruel proceedings in the country this
Italian had brought his name into even greater
detestation than any of Wallenstein’s leaders, and
this abhorrence was no longer as formerly accom-
panied by equal fear, since the emperor was obliged
at the diet of Ratisbou to sacrifice to Germany,
united at least in its complaints, the man by whom
he had subdued it to his yoke. At the moment
when Gustavus Adolphus landed, Wallenstein lost
the command in chief. This was to dissolve a
bond which held together a hundred thousand men,
of whom not a few afterwards passed over to the
enemy’s ranks. In general the king appeared at
the moment most pi’opitious for him. The bow,
too highly strained, was broken in Wallenstein’s
hand. Thereafter ensued a condition of languor
and dissolution, a general opposition to the imperial
power, and the appearance of those middle parties
which so often betoken a transition from one ex-
treme to another, but were of ordinary occurrence
in a constitution like the German, where under
endless forms men could be partially or wholly
hostile to the lawful sovereign. We find Bavaria
and Saxony, each on its own side, at the head of such
parties, labouring, under the fair-sounding names of
freedom of the empire and constitution, for the
same self-interests, to which warlike adventurers
paid more undisguised devotion. In what Gusta-
vus Adolphus smned against the constitutional
spirit of this time, and against a polity like that of
the holy Roman empire, as German patriots hold,
we cannot perceive. It was a system overlaid
with complex contrivance, and falling asunder of
itself, the religious conflict injected into which had
risen to be the concernment of Europe and of man-
kind. Hence the necessity of a foreign influence ;
hence also in the relaxation of social order the
natural right of individual heroic energy. Here
was a pathway marked for Gustavus Adolphus,
trusting
" in God and his conquering sword *."
To the capture of Stettin succeeded that of Damm
and Stargard, by a secret understanding with the
burghers, who received the Swedes as liberators.
The rigorous discipline of the soldiery awakened
no less astonishment than the personal attributes of
their king’’. It was the perfect counterpart of the
licentiousness of the Imperialists, which towards
the unfortimate inhabitants of the country over-
passed the measure of huitian cruelty; especially
since the convention that had been framed between
Gustavus Adolphus and the duke of Pomerania.
It was Wallenstein’s army, without the strong
hand that kept the wild beast in check, which now
revelled at pleasure in vice and crime. Two
time so to arrange it, that we shall take no detriment thereby.
The fortifications are very bad, so that if we had known this
previously, and not had regard to the ruin of the innocent
burghers, we might have easily occupied the place by force."
The king to the chancellor. Field-camp by Stettin, July 11,
1630. Reg.
5 Cum Deo et victricibus armis—the king’s device.
6 "As to the king personally, there was seen in his actions
nothing else than an inexorable severity toward the least
excesses of his men, an extj-aordinary gentleness toward the
people, and exact justice on all occasions." (Quant a la per-
sotine de ce roi, on ne voyait en ses actions qu’une severite
inexorable envers les moindres exces de siens, une douceur
extraordinaire envers les peuples et une justice exacte en
toutes occasions.) Memoires de Richelieu, vi. 419
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