Full resolution (TIFF) - On this page / på denna sida - X. Reign of Christina, 1632–1654 - A. The Regency under Axel Oxenstiern, 1632–1644
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Reign of Christina 173
tne combined imperial and Saxon armies at Wittstock
in northern Brandenburg, 1636. By this victory he
restored the Swedish military fame.
Baner was often in serious danger. Once while lead-
ing his army along the right bank of the Oder he en-
countered an imperial force of twice his strength, at
the confluence of the Oder and the Warthe. He was
thus shut up in the angle between the two rivers. The
enemy boasted that they had bagged him. But Baner
feigned a march of his army into Poland, thus draw-
ing the enemy’s attention that way, while he .quietly
led his army safely across the Oder into Pomerania.
"They had me bagged," he is reported to have said
jocularly, "but forgot to tie the knot."
What unhappy Germany suffered from the march
of armies back and forth can not be described. Large
areas of the richest land in Germany were laid waste.
And of what use was it to cultivate afresh? Soon
wild hordes would come again and destroy it all. The
Swedish soldiers had become nearly as hardened and
savage as the others. With the passing of Gustavus
Adolphus the war had degenerated into a mere strug-
gle for conquest.
On the death of John Ban6r, the command of the
Swedish army fell to Lennart Torstensson. He had
distinguished himself in the battle of Breitenfeld, but
his services had for a season been interrupted when
he was captured in a hot fight in South Germany. Dur-
ing his captivity in a damp and cold prison, he had
contracted rheumatism so that at times he had to be
carried in a litter. He reverted to Gustavus Adolphus’
plan to transfer the scenes of war to the Emperor’s
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