224 Wallenstein
with the rest of the headquarters on the following day. At this point they
were still expecting to be able to act independently rather than having
to rely on help from the enemy, which would have prescribed a move
in the opposite direction, towards the Saxon border or Regensburg.
Tr c ˇka duly set out, but he had only gone a short distance when he met
a messenger coming in the opposite direction, and his news sent him
post-haste back to Pilsen.^8 The proscription proclamation had not yet
reached Prague, but Gallas’s order that Wallenstein was no longer to
be obeyed and the occupation of the city by loyalist troops told their
own story. This sudden revelation of the extent to which their situa-
tion had deteriorated came as a bolt from the blue to Wallenstein, Ilow,
Tr c ˇka and Kinsky. There was no time for debate; immediate action was
required as an attack on Pilsen might be imminent. They would have
to leave as soon as possible, and with opposing forces in Prague to the
north-east and in Horazdowitz to the south-east they had to head west,
where there was also a better chance that key places had not yet been
secured by the loyalists. Their chosen destination was Eger, 50 miles
away, the western-most town in Bohemia and only a couple of miles
from Saxony in one direction and from the Upper Palatinate and the
route to Swedish-occupied Regensburg in the other.
Wallenstein himself issued some of the orders. Anticipating Ferdi-
nand’s confiscation he wrote to his Friedland chancellery that all ready
cash was to be moved out at once, an instruction which arrived just
in time. He also ordered the Irish Colonel Walter Butler, stationed
twenty miles west of Pilsen, to stand by and wait for him on the road
to Eger with his regiment of dragoons (mounted infantrymen), while
Lieutenant-Colonel John Gordon, a Scot commanding the Eger garri-
son, was instructed to hold the town for him and to ignore any orders
coming from elsewhere. Ilow wrote to Franz Albrecht, appraising him of
the situation and asking him to persuade Bernhard of Weimar to move
his cavalry up towards Eger, while Kinsky sent a letter to Arnim, telling
him that Wallenstein was going to Eger, and urging him to make his
long-delayed journey to meet him there.^9
Meanwhile the immediately available troops were mustered to act as
an escort, and patrols were sent out to guard against a surprise attack.
According to Maximilian’s representative in Pilsen, Trcˇka and Ilow set to
plundering the city in order to take with them whatever could be found,
realising that their own possessions would be confiscated and to help
finance subsequent military action. Baggage was gathered, transport was
assembled, and Wallenstein’s household made ready, from high officials
of his Friedland court down to the humblest servants, some 40 in all,