1632

"Here," he said, pointing. He cocked his head at Gallas, under whom the Croat light cavalry served. "Make sure the Croats understand. The main blow is to fall here."

Gallas studied the place indicated on the map. It was a very good, very detailed map of the town-small city, now-called Grantville. Dozens of spy reports had gone into its making, over the past few weeks.

Gallas' face was creased with a slight frown. "Not the town itself?"

Wallenstein shook his head. "No. Oh, certainly-make sure a sizeable force of cavalry ravages the town, as best they can." He chuckled harshly. "If they can butcher a few Jews, so much the better. But the main blow must come here."

He leaned back and, once again, stood erect. "Cardinal Richelieu can prate about money and bankers and Jewish financial wizards all he wants. That place is the heart of the United States. I have studied all the reports and come to that conclusion. That is where this new serpent lairs, and that is where it hatches its offspring."

Again, he stooped; and, again, pointed with a devil's finger.

"There. Raze it to the ground. Kill everyone. Even the dogs, if they find any."

His own laugh, when it came, was as coarse as that of any of his officers. "Who knows? Might be a Jew in disguise."

Chapter 50

"I don't like this," growled Gustav Adolf softly. He gave the letter in his hand a little flick of the fingers. "Not in the least."

He raised his eyes and peered at Torstensson. "Lennart, can you think of any good reason Bernard would be engaging in such maneuvers? That far to the south?"

The young artillery general started to make some sarcastic remark-wanted to admire his reflection in Lake Geneva-but restrained himself. He could sense that the king was genuinely concerned. He nodded toward the letter in Gustav's hand.

"Axel has no suggestions?"

Gustav shook his head. "No. But he's worried, I can tell."

Standing on the walls of the redoubt which the Swedes had built where the river Rednitz entered Nьrnberg, Torstensson turned and stared to the northwest. The king copied the movement. Both men were groping in their minds, trying to visualize the terrain in the Rhineland. What could Bernard of Saxe-Weimar be thinking? There was no logical reason for him to have moved his troops as far south as Cologne.

***

Their eyes passed over, but ignored, the huge complex of fortifications which surrounded the city. Most of those fortifications were crude earthworks, and most of them were new. Like the redoubt itself, they had been erected hastily over the past month.

As soon as he entered the city on July 3, Gustav had used the labor of Nьrnberg's inhabitants to build those fieldworks. The citizens had not complained-not in the least. Nьrnberg had allied itself to the king of Sweden, and they were well-nigh ecstatic to see him make good on his promise: Nьrnberg will not be another Magdeburg.

Gustav Adolf had arrived not a moment too soon. The huge army which Wallenstein had assembled in Bohemia was marching on the city. Sixty thousand strong, that army was-the largest force ever put into the field in the course of the long and brutal war. Tilly's Bavarian troops, now under the direct command of the Elector Maximillian, were marching to join him-perhaps another twenty thousand men. And Pappenheim, whose Black Cuirassiers had spent the spring and early summer in Westphalia, was reported to be coming as well. Pappenheim's route was unclear, but the Swedes assumed he would take advantage of Gustav's withdrawal to Nьrnberg to march through Franconia. If so, Nьrnberg was threatened from three sides: Wallenstein from the northeast, Maximillian from the south, Pappenheim from the west. An army of one hundred thousand men was about to threaten Nьrnberg with the fate suffered by Magdeburg.

While the inhabitants of the city frantically erected their fortifications, under the direction of the Swedish engineer Hans Olaf, Gustav had led his army back into the field. For days, the Swedes had maneuvered against the oncoming enemy forces, slowing their advance and buying time for Nьrnberg. But on July 10, at Neumarkt, the Bavarian and imperial armies had finally merged.

Although he was outnumbered four to one, Gustav had continued to challenge Wallenstein to meet him in the open field. Wallenstein had declined. The Bohemian military contractor preferred the surer, if slower, methods of siege warfare. Steadily, surely, inexorably, his enormous army had moved into positions threatening the city. But, by then, the feverish program of fortifications had erected a new wall around Nьrnberg, replacing the inner walls of the city. Gustav's line of defense, hastily erected but well designed, was too large for even Wallenstein to surround.