The Holland Society of New York - Yearbook (New York, NY)

Page 119 text:

93 sailors and soldiers, on board his vessels. The Roman Catholics, Spaniards, and Imperialists were getting the better of the Swedes, because Baner, the great Swedish general, was in very bad health, and his troops were very much reduced in numbers and efficiency, while Torstenson, a still greater war chief, was absent-broken in health and obliged to return to Sweden. The latter was not able to get back to Germany until the spring of 1641. It must be remembered that in 16 39 Baner was harrying Bohemia, and in I64O had penetrated to the Danube, and that the Swedish possessions on the Baltic were almost denuded of troops. ' It can well be imagined what a fresh army, op erating against that Baltic coast and against Sweden, and especially the Swedish capital, might have ef- fected. Moreover, the French armies never cordially supported either Baner or Torstenson, and lay still when they should have actively assisted the Swedes, or left them in the lurch. They were too often Pharaoh's reeds, piercing the hand and arm they pretended to support. Baner, driven back towards his base, and given to dissipation, died on the Ioth of May, 1641, while his army was completely disor- ganized,-so much so that no one but the famous Torstenson could have restored it to efhciency. lt was almost in a state of fearful mutiny when the latter arrived, in june, 1641, to assume command as Generalissimus. Consequently, any one con- versant with the state of affairs in Middle Europe at that time, must grasp at once the danger of the situation to the Protestant cause. Then it was-when everything looked so dark for any decided success for the Evangelical triumph -that there was peril of what might have been