Of Peace and Other Demons 193Brandenburg. He also hurried to clear himself with the Swedes, writing
to both Oxenstierna and Thurn that he had rejected Wallenstein’s
demand that the Saxons should join in an attack upon them.^26 ‘That
would have been a fine piece of villainy, to show ourselves so ungrateful
to those who have shed their blood, even laid down their lives, to help
us.’ He would not have taken part in the negotiations, he said, ‘had not
our situation made it necessary’, adding that ‘I do not see what the duke
of Friedland has gained from the truce, but it has been useful to us in
that we have preserved our army’. Painfully aware of this, Wallenstein
felt equally deceived, writing to Trauttmansdorff: ‘I cannot conceive
that God’s justice will leave this falsehood unpunished. ... This decep-
tion is indeed not the first which I have experienced from them, but it
will certainly be the last.’^27
Even so he wasted little time on recriminations, promptly despatch-
ing Gallas into Saxony with an army, at the same time appointing him
as lieutenant-general and second-in-command of all Imperialist forces.
Arnim responded by withdrawing to Saxony, leaving Thurn with his
small Swedish army and the Brandenburg contingent to hold Silesia. In
early October Wallenstein caught them on the defensive at the town of
Steinau (S ́cinawa), on the River Oder ten miles east of Lubin. He had
a reported 30,000 men, Thurn around a quarter of this number. Not
surprisingly, although much to Arnim’s annoyance as Steinau was well
defended, Thurn surrendered immediately, and in exchange for his
own freedom and that of the other Bohemian exiles he ordered the sur-
render of all strongholds under his command. At a stroke Wallenstein
thus recovered the whole Imperial territory of Silesia, restoring for
the moment much of his waning credit in Vienna and delighting the
emperor in particular, even if there was some anger about him freeing
Thurn, one of the ringleaders of the Bohemian revolution.
Despite everything Wallenstein had still not given up hope of detach-
ing Saxony from the Swedish alliance, so that his tactics were to increase
the pressure rather than joining with Gallas to trap and destroy Arnim’s
army. His troops advanced threateningly towards Saxon territory, but at
Crossen (Krosno Odrzan ́skie), twenty miles east of the border, he halted,
and there on 20 October he met Franz Albrecht yet again. The outcome
was a short draft agreement drawn up and signed by Wallenstein,
the only time he committed himself in writing during these nego-
tiations, and hence probably the clearest indication of his underlying
aim throughout.^28 This treaty was to be made between the electors
of Saxony and Brandenburg of the one part, and Wallenstein in his
capacity as Imperial generalissimo of the other, ‘who seeing the present