196 Wallenstein
Arnim was equally sincere in seeking peace, but in his case the con-
tacts were worthwhile in their own right, because the longer the truces
lasted the further the day of military reckoning for Saxony and his army
was postponed. Thus it probably suited him to interpret Wallenstein’s
words and manner in a way which allowed him to convey to the elec-
tors a more flexible interpretation of where the generalissimo stood. In
this there may have been an element of self-deception and an effort to
play the honest broker, hoping by maintaining the contacts to encour-
age the sides to move closer to a mutually agreeable conclusion. Arnim’s
problem was the Swedes, mistrustful from the outset and increasingly
suspicious of him as matters progressed, to the extent that they were
inclined to believe that he had deliberately abandoned their force under
Thurn to enable Wallenstein to capture it at Steinau.^32
Arnim had to tell the Swedes something about the contacts, but
he could hardly tell them the truth, that he was trying to bring the
Protestant electors and Wallenstein together into a German third party,
which they would inevitably have seen as detrimental to their inter-
ests and probably as actively hostile to them. Hence the claim that
Wallenstein was willing to turn against the emperor in a spectacular
act of revenge, a story which may have been credible to those who
knew him only from the rumours and legends in popular circulation,
although Arnim, who knew him well, was forced to admit under pres-
sure from Oxenstierna that he himself had his doubts. As well he might.
Hard enough to believe that Wallenstein, having fought for the emperor
through 1632, including placing his own life at serious risk at Lützen,
should in 1633 be so resentful as to be prepared to change sides in what
would universally have been seen as an unprecedented and dishonour-
able betrayal. Harder still to believe that such a step would be condoned
and imitated by his senior officers, most of whom were noblemen and
had a strong if limited sense of their personal honour. Hardest of all
to credit that in months of negotiations a plan to move across to the
Protestant Swedes would not have come to the ears of, and been actively
opposed by, loyal Imperialists such as Gallas and Piccolomini, who not
only had no grounds for hostility towards the emperor, but were Italians
rather than Germans, and good Catholics into the bargain.
Nevertheless it is difficult to imagine that Arnim simply invented
the story, although equally difficult to imagine that its source was
Wallenstein himself. Nothing can be proved, but the best guess is that
somewhere in the middle of this thicket Trcˇka was lurking. Trcˇka, who
according to the later testimony of a senior officer was at this time with
Wallenstein almost every evening from seven to eleven.^33 Trcˇka, who