228 Wallenstein
his anger in threats against the House of Austria. He may well have
done so, and he had cause enough, but it also suited Leslie to claim that
he had.
It is not certain how much Butler, Gordon and Leslie knew about
Wallenstein’s dismissal, but during their first tentative private discus-
sion that night they established that they all had their suspicions. These
were confirmed by a harangue they received from Ilow on the following
morning. He, knowing the loyalty of the troops in and around the town
to be critical, set out to win over their commanders. He assured them
that the ingratitude of the House of Austria to its commander-in-chief
justified all concerned in renouncing their allegiance and switching
their service instead to Wallenstein as an independent prince, a step
which they would find to be not only right but also profitable. The
three officers demurred, so they later claimed, suggesting that perhaps
a little time would bring about a reconciliation of emperor and general.
Not so, replied Ilow, and moreover Swedish and Saxon troops were on
their way and would soon arrive in Eger. A decision and a new oath
of loyalty to Wallenstein were needed without delay. The three duly
complied, comforting themselves with the thought that an oath given
under duress could not bind them, and they then went off to discuss an
entirely different plan of action.
They were in a difficult personal situation. Butler had stayed with the
entourage on the march from Pilsen, although he could have left with
his men as Heinrich Julius’s cavalry had done, while Gordon and Leslie
had admitted Wallenstein to Eger against orders. Now Ilow had left
them in no doubt that the generalissimo had not only been dismissed
but had become a rebel. For them to do nothing would be taken as
siding with the defectors, and would invite drastic punishment from
the Imperialists, while to slip away from Eger at this stage would be
regarded as dereliction of duty, with the same consequences. On the
other hand to arrest Wallenstein, Ilow and Trcˇka would be difficult and
dangerous. The Irishmen among Butler’s troops might well be uncon-
cerned about wider issues and obedient to their officers, but they were
encamped outside the walls. The garrison inside the town and hold-
ing its gates and defences were mainly Germans, as were most of their
junior officers, and as far as they knew Wallenstein was the emperor’s
commander-in-chief and Ilow was his field marshal, added to which
Tr c ˇka was colonel and proprietor of their own regiment, Gordon being
only his deputy. They might well resist an attempted arrest by foreign
officers, and a failed attempt would probably bring about the immediate
execution of the perpetrators.