again to Waldstein. The latter had left Prague before the arrival of the Saxons in that city and retired to his estates, which the enemy did not occupy. Arnim, the Saxon commander, had formerly served under Waldstein's orders and had remained on terms of intimacy with him. Before retiring to his estates Waldstein had an interview with Arnim at the castle of Kounic, between Prague and Nymburk. Waldstein informed the Emperor of this interview, but we have no reliable account of the conversation between the two generals. Several letters addressed by Waldstein to Arnim at this time have indeed been preserved, but they have no great importance, and contain little except requests that palaces belonging to Waldstein should not be injured by the Saxon soldiers. From Prague Waldstein first proceeded to Jičin, the capital of his Bohemian territory, and then to Znoymo in Moravia. He here met Prince Eggenberg, one of the most trusted councillors of Ferdinand. Eggenberg, in the name of the Emperor, begged Waldstein to resume the command of the Imperial forces. A similar proposal had already been made to him in a less formal manner at the beginning of the Saxon invasion. Waldstein finally consented, but only after the Emperor had agreed to sign a document which enumerated and accepted all the conditions which the Duke of Friedland had made. The document was destroyed after the death of Waldstein, and this transaction, like so many other facts concerning the last years of the Duke of Friedland, is shrouded in impenetrable mystery. It is supposed that the Emperor granted Waldstein unlimited command over all the Imperial armies and the right of concluding peace with the enemies of the empire, and that he promised to grant the Duke of Friedland one of the lands in possession of the house of Habsburg, if he was not able to recover the duchies of Mecklenburg. The land referred to can only have been Bohemia, a considerable part of which was already in Waldstein's hands.
I do not belong to those writers who have recently attempted to defend Waldstein—some because they see in him a friend of German unity, others from the directly opposite reason that they believe him to have been at heart a Bohemian patriot. I can see no solid foundation for either conjecture. We have evidence to prove that Waldstein attempted to enter, through the mediation of Count Thurn, into negotiations with King Gustavus Adolphus of
