232 Wallenstein
report: ‘You evil, perjured, rebellious old scoundrel.’ Wallenstein made
at most the one-word reply ‘Quarter’ and the accompanying gesture of
submission, the traditional soldier’s plea for mercy on the battlefield.
Then Devereux ran him through with a single decisive thrust below the
ribs and upwards into the chest, killing him almost instantly. As the
soldiers crowded into the room one picked up the body and made to
throw it out of the window, but that was too much even for Devereux.
Instead it was rolled up in a carpet and dragged down the stairs into the
street, and shortly afterwards it was taken in a cart to join the others in
the castle.
Aftermath
The Saxons did not come, and nor did the Swedes. Franz Albrecht had
reached Regensburg on Tuesday 21 February, where he received a cordial
reception but no sympathy for his mission from Bernhard of Weimar.
The latter was not prepared to move to help Wallenstein, and he was
inclined to regard the whole thing as not merely a deception but a trap.
The arrival of further letters from Ilow only served to convince him
that his suspicions were correct, and that he was about to be attacked
by Wallenstein from one direction in Bohemia, Gallas from another,
and in all probability by Maximilian’s army from Bavaria too. Instead
of sending cavalry to Eger he hastily mobilised his forces and prepared
his defences against this imaginary onslaught.^17 Disappointed but still
unaware of what had taken place, Franz Albrecht tried to return from
this fruitless mission, but he was captured by Butler’s dragoons en route
to Eger three days after Wallenstein’s death. Despite his protests that
he had safe conduct, as a representative of the elector of Saxony taking
part in negotiations authorised by the emperor himself, he was held
and sent to Vienna. There he spent some time in comfortable captivity,
giving his version of events to the enquiry into Wallenstein’s affairs,
before re-enlisting as an Imperialist officer and serving until his death
in battle in 1642.^18
For most of this time Arnim was still in Dresden, having arrived back
from Berlin on 12 February. Nearly a week passed before his instructions
to go to Pilsen were issued, together with somewhat wider latitude than
before as to what peace terms he could accept from Wallenstein, but
still he did not set out. On the 22nd he wrote to Franz Albrecht that he
had been ill, but by Friday 24th, the day that Wallenstein reached Eger,
Arnim was still delaying. Two days later he and Elector John George –
a notorious drunkard – were able to drink, drink and drink again to the