Assassination Is the Quickest Way 231overtaken and struck down, while Ilow managed to wound Leslie in the
hand before he too fell. Trcˇka, a large, powerful man protected by a thick
leather jerkin of the kind often worn in battle, took advantage of the
confusion to break out of the room and escape into the castle courtyard,
but at the gate he was halted and killed by the Irish sentries. The plan
had achieved its full objectives so far. Leslie hurried to the town gates
to admit more Irish dragoons to patrol the streets and to ensure that no
disturbances followed. Then he assembled the guard, told them briefly
what had happened and that it was at the emperor’s command, and
ordered them to stay quietly at their posts. Gordon was left in charge of
the castle and its dead while Butler prepared for the next step.
With the dangerous Ilow and Trcˇka dead and the town in loyalist
hands there was little justification for killing Wallenstein himself, as
he could easily have been arrested. However Kinsky and Niemann had
already been murdered with no justification whatsoever, not to men-
tion the two servants, as they were not covered by the proscription or
by the emperor’s secret sentence, and ruthless men who had gone so
far were not prepared to risk leaving the principal alive. Ilow’s claim
that the Swedes and Saxons were approaching still provided the fig-leaf,
particularly as he had allegedly boasted over dinner that Wallenstein
would shortly have a larger army than ever before. Time was passing,
though, and despite the precautions news had reached the town, prob-
ably through one of the surviving servants, so that Kinsky’s and Trcˇka’s
wives were already aware of their husbands’ deaths. It was after ten on
a stormy night when Butler, Geraldine, Devereux and their soldiers
reached the market square. A dozen men were posted at the back of
Wallenstein’s lodgings, another dozen at the front, and then Devereux
and his six tried and trusted stalwarts entered the house. Butler pre-
ferred to wait outside.
As they rushed up the stairs to Wallenstein’s first-floor chambers
they swept one servant aside with passing blows, and at the top they
answered the protests of another by stabbing him to death. Devereux
was in the lead, armed with a partisan, the short pike with a fearsomely
sharp broad blade used in battle by infantry officers. His men kicked
the bedroom door open, and he found himself standing face to face
with Wallenstein, who had been roused by the storm and noise and
had got himself out of bed, perhaps to look out of the window. What
each said, if anything, in the brief moment of hesitation is unknown,
although contemporary accounts carried many fanciful versions. The
most credible is that Devereux uttered a short phrase of abuse as he
worked himself up to strike the blow, shouting, according to Gordon’s