208 Wallenstein
Whether Wallenstein initiated or merely agreed to the meeting is
unknown, but Ilow organised and conducted it. His first aim was to
unite the officers in opposition to the policy towards the war and the
army emanating from Vienna. He drew their attention to the demands
for winter campaigns, one against Bernhard, another to secure winter
quarters, and a third to escort the Cardinal Infant across occupied
Germany to Brussels, all proposals which the assembled officers unani-
mously agreed to be impossible. Moreover, Ilow continued, the court
never provided the money which was due to the army, although it had
enough to spare for other purposes, while ingratitude, criticism and
slander rather than thanks were the generalissimo’s rewards for all his
efforts. Wallenstein, he said, intended to resign, unless they, his officers,
were able to persuade him to change his mind.
Virtually all of those present agreed with Ilow’s analysis of the atti-
tude of the court to the army, and most wished to see Wallenstein retain
the command, but one topic which united them completely, reflect-
ing the general’s remarks to Trauttmansdorff a few weeks earlier, was
anxiety over money. The officers had all made substantial investments
in their regiments, for which Wallenstein personally was the guaran-
tor, and without him they would be at considerable financial risk, as
the emperor’s perennial shortage of cash was well known. A five-man
delegation led by Ilow was duly appointed to call on Wallenstein, but
when he met them he remained firmly set on resignation. The del-
egation retired, deliberated, and returned, and at this second meeting
Wallenstein finally agreed that he would retain his position a little
longer, in order to secure the officers and the army their dues, and to
try once again to bring peace. Some people, both at the time and since,
have seen this as an elaborate charade, and so it may have been. On the
other hand it may have reflected Wallenstein’s own indecision, torn
between a wish to be free of the burden of command and a desire to do
his duty to his officers, and to seek peace as his final achievement.
This, however, was only a step on the way to Ilow’s real objective,
to secure a ringing declaration of loyalty to Wallenstein in order to
deter the court from any move to dismiss him. The generalissimo
had committed himself to them, he told the officers, and they should
therefore reciprocate by swearing an oath to support him. Dinner fol-
lowed, a veritable banquet given by Ilow in the Pilsen city hall, and a
thoroughly drunken affair which is magnificently presented in a key
scene in Schiller’s Wallenstein play. Among the carousing, horseplay and
occasional drawn swords, the document containing the oath was passed
around to the officers, some signing it readily, others more hesitantly,