22114. Assassination Is the Quickest Way
(Molière)
In Pilsen they had still not detected the rumbles of distant thunder
which might have warned of the approaching storm. On 17 and
18 February Wallenstein was transacting normal army business and
writing to Questenberg about money. He was also arranging the trans-
fer of recently confiscated Bohemian émigré properties to some of his
colonels in settlement of Imperial exchequer debts, suggesting that as
yet he had no thoughts of changing sides and aligning himself with the
Swedes and their exile confederates.^1
The colonels and generals had gathered at headquarters, but this time
only about thirty of them. Gallas, having proposed the meeting, left
on 12 February and did not return. Piccolomini stayed a little longer
to distribute Gallas’s order to those deemed reliable, but thought better
of it and departed in his turn. On 17 February Colonel Giulio Diodati,
brother of Fabio and another of Piccolomini’s henchmen, quietly left
Pilsen with his entire regiment, although he had received no such
orders, and an equerry sent after him did not return. On 18 February
another colonel was sent to summon Gallas, but he likewise did not
return.^2 Some of the officers who came to Pilsen had already received
Gallas’s secret order, so that they were aware of at least part of what was
going on, while others probably guessed or had heard rumours. Camp
talk, Diodati’s disappearance and Gallas’s continued absence now made
Ilow, Trcˇka and Wallenstein himself realise that something dangerous
was happening.
Wallenstein’s first reaction was to seek to clarify his position with the
court. On 18 February he sent Max Waldstein with a letter of accredita-
tion and a verbal message to Eggenberg. Two days later, after his meeting
with senior officers referred to below, he sent Colonel Mohr Wald with
credentials to speak on his behalf to the emperor, Eggenberg, Gallas,