152 Wallenstein
providing the occasion for the first personal meeting between
Wallenstein and Maximilian. Khevenhüller gives a dramatic descrip-
tion of this scene in his Annales, and many histories have eagerly
repeated and embroidered it, but in fact there are no reliable contem-
porary accounts and even the exact place and date are unknown, so we
can only imagine what they said to each other.^16
At this point Gustavus recognised the danger he was in. Wallenstein,
approaching with his much larger army, threatened any move north
towards Saxony. Retreating to the south or west, where he had other
forces, would have been possible but would have taken him further
from his Baltic base, leaving Wallenstein blocking his emergency
escape route. This would also have enabled the Imperialists to recapture
much of the territory previously conquered by the Swedes, and from
which they were drawing the contributions to finance their campaign.
Moreover retreat would have been politically damaging, encouraging
wavering allies to defect, and it would have meant abandoning the
loyal Protestant city of Nuremberg, just as Gustavus had been forced to
abandon Magdeburg to its fate barely a year earlier. Hence he decided
to return to Nuremberg, dig in and stand his ground while sending for
reinforcements. He reached the city at the beginning of July 1632, just
in time to make his preparations, as Wallenstein arrived within strik-
ing distance only a few days later. Shortly afterwards the Saxons took
their opportunity and invaded Silesia, but if this was intended to assist
Gustavus by diverting Wallenstein the attempt failed, although it later
provoked him to despatch a force under Holk to carry out a retaliatory
invasion of Saxony itself. That remained in the future. For the moment
the stage was set for the confrontation outside Nuremberg between the
two greatest generals of the age, leading up to the final act, at least for
Gustavus, a few months later at Lützen.