Of Peace and Other Demons 189mounted about lack of progress with either peace or war in Silesia they
became more receptive to proposals for action elsewhere. In late July
the emperor agreed to the duke of Feria leading an army into Germany,
and Wallenstein had to accept Aldringer and his Imperialist detach-
ment being sent to assist him.^18 Although they made little progress
towards their main objectives the joint forces did achieve some limited
successes in south-west Germany, including relieving the Rhine fortress
of Breisach, 30 miles north of Basle, the long-running siege of which
had made it something of a cause célèbre. However that was not until
20 October, and the effect was offset by French seizure of the duchy of
Lorraine, although winter prevented the fuller involvement of France
which Wallenstein had feared.
The parallels between this new Spanish venture and the Mantua cam-
paign, in both of which Wallenstein’s objection and initial refusal to
send troops were overruled, were all too obvious, and they marked the
beginning of a similar decline in the court’s confidence in the generalis-
simo. On 12 August Count Heinrich Schlick, president of the Imperial
war council, was sent to visit Wallenstein’s headquarters in Silesia, with
official instructions to review the general’s negotiations with Arnim, to
encourage a more active approach to the war, and to press for further
help for the Spanish intervention force. He also had secret instructions
to make contact with Gallas, Piccolomini and other senior officers, and
to seek to ensure their loyalty ‘in the event that a change should ensue
concerning the duke of Friedland on account of his illness or otherwise’.
By the time Schlick arrived negotiations for a second truce were already
under way, and he himself attended one of the subsequent meetings.
On 22 August the accord was signed, providing for a four-week cessa-
tion of hostilities not only in Silesia but in Saxony, Brandenburg and
the surrounding areas, during which positions were not to be reinforced
while negotiations took place.^19
At this point it starts to emerge that two quite different concepts of the
objectives of these negotiations were circulating in parallel. The official
Imperialist view was summed up by Hermann Questenberg, brother of
the better-known Gerhard, who spent this period at Wallenstein’s camp,
waiting with Trauttmansdorff to represent the emperor should the
peace conference at Breslau ever take place. Writing to a third brother
on 22 September, he noted that religious affairs were to be restored to
their state under Emperor Matthias, and that the armies of Wallenstein
and the Protestant electors were to unite and to march into the Empire
against anyone who would not consent to the settlement. Piccolomini,
reflecting the view current among senior officers, wrote to a correspondent