THE RINGSTETTEN SAGA VI: A NEW ADVERSARY

Previously on the Ringstetten Saga:
The old veteran has learned at Breitenfeld that he was meant to fall and to lose to a younger, more open-minded opponent. And that act of kindness provided by Gustavus makes him reflect on the Swedish ruler's character contrasted with his own. He tells the surgeon: "Your liege is truly a noble knight!"
Though Jean 't Serclaës de Tilly has lost self-confidence and he feels that the end is near, he keeps on advising Elector Maximilian: "Hold Regensburg, and if it should fall, flee abroad! Hold Regensburg!" Then, the old Walloon kisses his rosary, his hand drops holding it, he shuts his eyes and stops breathing, as his rapier, that hangs from the wall, falls to the ground. The clank of Spanish steel in utter darkness is the last impression he receives in seventy-three long years.
The Swedes do show their emotions at the funeral, as the Requiem and Dies irae are chanted, when the deceased generalissimo is to be conveyed to his favourite chapel of Altötting: the church on the Tillyan regiment's flag. Even Gustavus himself is shedding tears: "Alas! The honorable old Tilly is no more!"
The Protestant army then captures Regensburg, the Elector flees subsequently abroad, and soon the whole Electorate of Bavaria, its capital and all, is at the Swedes' feet, and Austria before them.
The Kaiser has no other choice than playing a wild card: a younger and more open-minded, but dangerously wealthy and clever commander. Guess his surname!
Well, if you have thought of "Wallenstein", as in "Albrecht Eusebius Wenzel von Wallenstein", you won't get any prize, in spite of the fact that you haven't got it wrong.
So the appearance of this perverted parvenu forces the Swedish army to return up north again in mid-summer. Cue Gustavus storming the Alte Feste on the 24th of August, to force the Imperialists to leave their headquarters and make a sortie! Cue Kunz, Gerhard's ensign, falling... among the many casualties of the first wave raid! Luckily, Gerhard and Alois escape the violent and bloody decimation. It could get worse. And worse is what it all gets. The Swedes lose the battle, dozens of flags and half their ranks.
The former Leaguesman, now raised to the rank of sergeant for saving Gerhard's life at the Lech, is wounded in the head and chest, while the lieutenant is taken prisoner and brought alive, with many other POWs of officer rank, to Wallenstein's headquarters. There, they have a first glimpse of the Kaiser's new generalissimo: a raven-haired, finely styled and all dressed up parvenu with an ominous death glare.
The highest-ranking prisoners (colonels and generals, including the daring Johan Banér and the more serious Lennart Torstensson) are carried in chains to Catholic dungeons, while the lower-ranking ones such as Gerhard are freed and allowed to return to the Swedish encampment to tell their liege of Wallenstein's plans. Then, the Catholics leave the stronghold, which they set on fire, for more northern lands, intending to recapture the Leipzig area and lure Gustavus into a trap, ensuring that the Swedes will counterattack in November (when, according to the stars, the Swedish king is due to fall in battle). As you might expect, the Swedes find the empty fort burning to the ground, and the released subaltern officers informing them of their new adversary's plans. Liselotte and Hedwig are overjoyed to see Gerhard free and among friends, but the now seventeeen-year-old lieutenant is puzzled: why would Wallenstein set him free? There is something about the seemingly kindly and cool generalissimo that gives him (Gerhard) a thrill!
As for Alois, he recovers from his wounds within a week and a half.
The late Kunz has been replaced as ensign by a born Swedish farm boy, the blond, freckled and blue-eyed Erik Klang, knighted von Hohenklang by royal decree.
A year and a day have elapsed since the Ringstetten siblings left Küstrin.
Gustavus wants the rematch, and thus, he sets off in pursuit of Wallenstein.
During their autumnal pursuit of the Duke of Friedland, our four young heroes learn a lot about him (since Alois had been at Wallenstein's service before the great general's disgrace): he was born into the Bohemian landed gentry (in the province he nowadays rules), with the surname Waldstein, known to be a troublemaker at 16 and expelled from Altdorf University, he has travelled to many petty courts, battlefields and seats of learning in Southern Europe... earned his fortune and a longer surname by marrying a childless dowager way past her prime, and then (after the death of his first wife) by marrying the Austrian Chancellor's daughter, his current spouse and mother of their two children... he is even wealthier and smarter than the Kaiser himself... this Wallenstein guy was once allied with Tilly, but that was rather short-lived... many courtiers have left Vienna for Friedland in search of more comfort and pleasure: "Compared to Friedland, the Hofburg is a nunnery! The Wallensteins keep dozens of pure-bred horses and of blue-blooded servants, they feast every evening from platinum tableware and sip the choicest Riesling or Champagne from the choicest Bohemian glass!" Then there's his fear of loud noises such as gunfire (the reason why Wallensteinian officers wear satin ribbons wrapped around their spurs while not on horseback, and why household servants at Friedland wear slippers), his brittle health, that forces him to strut around in a sedan chair instead of riding on horseback, his quick temper and the fact that he has anyone in his ranks or household who contradicts him executed... But, above all, his passion for science, especially for astrology: it is on the Ides of November that Gustavus will meet his fate according to the stars... The Noble House Wallenstein’s motto, Invita Invidia, is well-known throughout the Realm. And the Kaiser has given this mysterious upstart, said to be skilled in necromancy, carte blanche!
We get to know from the King why he has spared the lives of Catholic civilians, and even why he sent his own surgeon to tend to Count Tilly's wounds.
When he was a child, his father Charles IX, a stern and no-nonsense ruler who rarely smiled or cried or celebrated anything, took the young Gustavus to witness the beheadings of Catholic nobles (fortunately, only adult males were executed), and even Johan Banér's father was one of those executed, little Johan’s widowed mother having to raise her ten children alone, and the people of the estate, like those of many noble houses, still refusing to acknowledge Charles IX as their rightful king, called their liege still Duke of Värmland, a usurper, and a traitor.

However, the Count of Banér was beheaded not on religious, but rather on other grounds: for supporting the late king Johan III’s Polish Catholic widow and their fatherless child, whom Johan III’s brother Charles had sent back across the Baltic as he claimed the throne of Sweden.

One day, the royal family visited the Banér estate, to pay condolences to the countess dowager. That day, Charles IX had offered her second son Johan a place at court as a pageboy. Yet Countess Christina would, obviously, be forced to accept the offer, or else the Crown would claim the lands of House Banér.

It came as no surprise that little Johan (a rebellious lordling who would never pay attention to his lessons and rather do pranks, and who had jumped off a first-storey window and been preserved like Wallenstein), when he was offered to sit on the usurper’s knees, pulled his golden and already silver-streaked goatee, and refused to leave for the royal court, taunting Charles IX: “Why would I serve you? You killed my father! May devils take you away!”

Charles IX would gladly have knocked the child unconscious, if his own young hopeful hadn’t leapt in between. And thus, Gustavus Adolphus saved Banér for the first time.

The stern ruler was irascible, and troubled by pangs of conscience after having purged Sweden of Catholics and other enemies within the realm, but his unusually brave and clever eldest son's smiles had a soothing effect on his wrath and regrets, so he had great expectations of Gustavus and usually said "He shall do it" ("He shall do what I could not").

Charles IX died of a heart attack, after reading an offensive challenge letter from Christian IV of Denmark (a letter which said he was too old or too cautious to start a war), when Gustavus was in his late teens. 
During a deer hunt, the new king lured the young courtier, then an ensign, who was his liege lord's age, away from the rest of the party. There, by a shimmering lake, he told Johan to dismount and, drawing his own sword, gave it to the dark-haired youth.
"My father put yours to death," Gustavus told Johan, "if you wish to avenge him, I give you now the chance to take my life! Take my life, now or never! If not, let us be friends forever!" Banér was so affected by the young ruler's manners and tone of speech that he threw himself at Gustavus's feet, vowing to him a lifelong devotion.
For the Danish and Polish wars, the Vasa took young Banér to fight as a lieutenant in the Army. And thus, the ties that bound them became even stronger, reaching even the quality of love. The general is not even jealous of Queen Eleanor, ever since he accompanied his liege lord to her mother's court in Potsdam.

And thus, Gustavus was and is determined to spare as many lives as he could, and to clear the name of House Vasa, stained with the blood of feuding brothers.

By All Hallows (31-10/1-11), Leipzig, Halle, and the villages in the surrounding area have been taken back by the Imperialists. Eleanor is especially worried about the fate of her spouse, having seen his death on the battlefield in a prophetic dream. Gustavus has received and replied to a letter from his little daughter Christina at Stegeborg. Count Pappenheim, now Wallenstein's Man Friday, is commanding the garrison of Halle an der Saale and quelling an uprising in the local marketplace. Gerhard and Alois, especially our young lieutenant, are worried about the outcome of the upcoming confrontation. Liselotte and Hedwig are also worried, but about the ones they love. Liselotte wishes to marry Gerhard in Leipzig Cathedral on Christmas Eve, and he has even made her lace veil. And Albrecht von Wallenstein, together with his son and heir Berthold, leaves Schloss Lützen, where the Wallensteins are quartered, for a cold and foggy battlefield... on the eve of battle, the evening before the sixth of November 1632.