The simple mountaineers
had hardly heard of the war and had nothing against their neighbors
over the mountain. They joined Sweden then and there at the request
of the preacher, and they stayed Swedes too, for in the final muster
they were forgotten with their valley. Very likely the treaty-makers
did not know that it existed.
King Christian died four years later, in 1648, past the three score
and ten allotted to man. He was not a great leader like Gustav
Adolf, and he was very human in some of his failings. But he was a
strong man, a just king, and a father of his people who still cling
to his memory with more than filial affection.
GUSTAV ADOLF, THE SNOW-KING
The city of Prague, the capital of Bohemia, went wild with
excitement one spring morning in the year 1618. The Protestant
Estates of Germany had met there to protest against the aggressions
of the Catholic League and the bad faith of the Emperor, who had
guaranteed freedom of worship in the land and had now sent two
envoys to defy the meeting and declare it illegal. In the old castle
they delivered their message and bade the convention disperse; and
the delegates, when they had heard, seized them and their clerk and
threw them out of the window "in good old Bohemian fashion.
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