166 Wallenstein
disease and desertion which affected all armies during a summer in
the field, but also by the number of units he had detached for service
elsewhere. Throughout 1632 Pappenheim had been operating on a
roving commission in north-western Germany, and even for a time
in the Netherlands, and he liked his independence. Where possible
he ignored higher orders which did not suit him, and where not
he returned evasive replies, leading Wallenstein to send off increas-
ingly peremptory instructions that he should come to join him.^21
Pappenheim eventually replied that he was heading for Thuringia, and
in early October Wallenstein marched north via Coburg in order to
meet him en route to Saxony. Maximilian, anxious that Gustavus was
still in the south and hence a threat to Bavaria, decided to depart for
home with his army, aggravating Wallenstein’s shortage of men, but
he at least agreed that Pappenheim – as and when he could be induced
to return – should come under Imperialist command. In exchange the
general lent him a strong force under Aldringer to counter Gustavus’s
activities in Bavaria.^22
Pappenheim did not arrive, but news of Wallenstein’s move north
reached the king by mid-month and set his alarm bells ringing.
Thuringia meant two things to him. Firstly the rough, hilly, heavily
wooded territory lay between him and the north German plain, with
its access to the Baltic. There were few feasible routes across it for an
army, and if Wallenstein held them his own principal line of retreat
would be blocked. Secondly, beyond Thuringia lay Saxony, reviving
Gustavus’s fears of earlier in the year that his most important ally might
be detached from him, whether by defection or defeat. Were Saxony to
desert him Brandenburg would follow, and then others. The prospect
at least resolved his uncertainty. From Nuremberg he embarked on a
forced march north, passing Maximilian’s army going south but with-
out making contact, and on 3 November he was joined at Arnstadt by
forces under Bernhard of Weimar. Pappenheim was ten miles further
north near Erfurt, but Wallenstein was already in Saxony, where Holk
had captured Leipzig two days earlier. Gustavus moved on to Erfurt,
but Pappenheim headed for Leipzig to join up at last with Wallenstein’s
army, and on 10 November the king advanced to Naumburg, 27 miles
south-west of Leipzig, where he rapidly built himself a defensive
encampment based on the town’s walls.
Wallenstein had anticipated that Gustavus would respond to his
thrust into Saxony, but the speed of his advance caused him some sur-
prise. The force he sent to take Naumburg arrived too late; the Swedes
were already there. The general reacted swiftly, moving his army up