Surely such a situation had never before been known.
What had preceded this event? A few words will tell. Ferdinand the
emperor had, with the aid of Tilly and Wallenstein, laid all Germany
prostrate at his feet. Ferdinand the zealot had, by this effort to
impose Catholicism on the Protestant states, speedily undone the work of
his generals, and set the war on foot again. Gustavus Adolphus, the hero
of Sweden, had come to the aid of the oppressed Protestants of Germany,
borne down all before him, and quickly won back northern Germany from
the oppressor's hands.
And now the cruelty of that savage war reached its culminating point.
When Germany submitted to the emperor, one city did not submit.
Magdeburg still held out. All efforts to subdue it proved fruitless, and
it continued free and defiant when all the remainder of Germany lay
under the emperor's control.
It was to pay dearly for the courage of its citizens. When the war broke
out again, Magdeburg was besieged by Tilly with his whole force. After a
most valiant defence it was taken by storm, and a scene of massacre and
ruin followed without a parallel in modern wars.
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