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 the Saxon envoy could arrive there. On February 1, King Louis XIII of France instructed Feuquières, his minister at Dresden, to inform Waldstein that if he definitely broke with the Emperor, France would grant him an annual subsidy of a million livres and support his claim to the Bohemian throne. Before De la Boderie, Feuquières' secretary, who was entrusted with this message, could reach Bohemia, Waldstein was dead.

The Duke of Friedland had undoubtedly intended to march on Prague as soon as the complete rupture with the Emperor had taken place. A born Bohemian, he knew the veneration which all Bohemians felt for the capital of their country, and—no doubt rightly—believed that his prestige would be greatly increased by the occupation of Prague. He had recently shown himself more favourable to the national cause and had entered into negotiations with the very numerous Bohemian exiles, who up to the end of the Thirty Years' War hoped once more to return to their native land. The successive desertions of most of his troops obliged Waldstein to change his plans. He sent a message to Duke Bernhard of Weimar, begging him to send a small force to Cheb which he would join with all the troops that were still true to him. Waldstein himself proceeded to that town on February 23, accompanied only by ten squadrons of cavalry and 300 musqueteers. The departure from Plzeň appeared to the contemporary writers rather as a flight than as the march of an organized army. At the decisive moment of his life, when only full bodily and mental power rendered possible the success of Waldstein's perilous adventure, he was prostrated by a violent attack of gout. On his arrival at Cheb he was unable to come to a decision with regard to his future plans. An Imperial decree had meanwhile set a price on the head of Waldstein, and a conspiracy was immediately formed among the—mostly Scotch and Irish—officers of the garrison of Cheb. These men, of whom Butler, Gordon, Leslie and Devereux were the leaders, determined to invite the principal officers still faithful to Waldstein—Kinský, Trčka and Illo—to a banquet at the castle. When they arrived there the castle was immediately surrounded in every direction by the Irish dragoons, and Waldstein's officers were attacked and murdered after a short but valiant defence. Waldstein, who was still suffering from gout, had not taken part in the banquet,