200 Wallenstein
against Bernhard. On 16 November he set out towards the Danube, but
too late, as Regensburg had already fallen. Wallenstein had assumed that
Bernhard would not waste time so late in the year on a lengthy siege of
the city, just as Horn had been deterred by its formidable defences the
previous year. The mainly Protestant citizenry, however, sympathised
with the Swedes, while after ten days the Bavarian garrison decided that
honour had been satisfied and quietly surrendered. It was a consider-
able blow to Wallenstein’s standing at court, seen at best as a major
error of judgement and at worst as a deliberate abandonment of his
known enemy Maximilian. In military terms it was of no significance.
Wallenstein quickly reinforced Passau, thus blocking the route into
Austria as he had in the previous year, while Bernhard had time only to
advance slightly further east before winter caught up with him.
Wallenstein himself continued southwards, reaching Pilsen on
26 November. There he met Trauttmansdorff, who found him angry
over letters he had received from Vienna. People at court, including
leading ministers, were denigrating his efforts, he said; his successes
were being attributed to mere luck while setbacks were blamed on his
negligence; orders had been sent from the court directly to Aldringer
and other officers; never in his life had he been more offended, to
the extent that he no longer wished to retain his command. Tactfully
Trauttmansdorff allowed the storm to blow itself out, and afterwards
Wallenstein went on to talk about the emperor’s situation, which he
summed up forcefully: ‘If there is no peace, then all is lost.’^2
The approach of winter meant that no major campaign could be con-
templated, and a siege to recover Regensburg was out of the question.
Moreover Arnim was in Saxony with three times as many men as Gallas,
who had been left to guard the Bohemian border. Hence Wallenstein
left most of his infantry and artillery at Pilsen to be on hand to rein-
force him if necessary, while he continued towards the Danube with
the cavalry in order to harass Bernhard. It soon became evident that
this was too little to be of much value, and too late in the year to be
prudently undertaken. By the beginning of December Wallenstein’s
force was in hilly, heavily wooded country with no forage for the horses,
little shelter for the men, and the weather, already cold, threatening to
deteriorate further. He held a council of war, but although a majority of
his senior officers were prepared to press on he overruled them. He had
always regarded winter campaigning as unwise and impractical, and
like a year earlier after Lützen he preferred to withdraw rather than to
risk a disaster.^3 On 4 December his force set off back to Pilsen, arriving
a week later.