In person he was tall and thin, in countenance sallow
and lowering, his eyes small and piercing, his forehead high and
commanding, his hair short and bristling, his expression dark and
sinister. Fortune was his deity, ambition ruled him with the sway of a
tyrant; he was born with the conquering instinct, and in the end handed
over all Germany, bound and captive, to his imperial master, and retired
to brood new conquests.
Albert von Wallenstein was Bohemian by birth, Prague being his native
city. His parents were Lutherans, but they died, and he was educated as
a Catholic. He travelled with an astrologer, and was taught cabalistic
lore and the secrets of the stars, which he ever after believed to
control his destiny. His fortune began in his marriage to an aged but
very wealthy widow, who almost put an end to his career by
administering to him a love-potion. He had already served in the army,
fought against the Turks in Hungary, and with his wife's money raised a
regiment for the wars in Bohemia. A second marriage with a rich countess
added to his wealth; he purchased, at a fifth of their value, about
sixty estates of the exiled Bohemian nobility, and paid for them in
debased coin; the emperor, in recognition of his services, made him Duke
of Friedland, in which alone there were nine towns and fifty-seven
castles and villages; his wealth, through these marriages, purchases,
and gifts, steadily increased till he became enormously rich, and the
wealthiest man in Germany, next to the emperor.
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