Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 08.djvu/91

 ment (Mackay's) was present at the siege on the Swedish side. He says that Butler's regiment bravely resisted the onslaught of the yellow and blue brigades, till most of the Irishmen fell to the ground; and Butler, ‘being shot in the arm, and pierced with a pike through the thigh, was taken prisoner’ (, His Expedition, London, 1637, ii. 34). Carve gives a list of the Irish officers who fell. He further relates, with many surprising details, that after the city had been taken Gustavus Adolphus ordered the wounded officer to be brought into his presence, when, after drawing his sword and ascertaining that it was the younger and not the elder Butler who was before him, he declared that had it been the elder he would have perished by the royal hand. In the same strain the chaplain goes on to tell how Walter Butler, having been accused on his own side of having caused the fall of Frankfort, received from the magnanimous king of Sweden a testimonial of valour, signed and sealed by all the Swedish generals, which he afterwards exhibited to the emperor at Vienna, while a broadsheet vindicating him was also published at Frankfort.

After remaining in captivity for six months Butler, from what resources does not appear, purchased his freedom for 1,000 dollars. He immediately joined the imperial army in Silesia under Tiefenbach, by whom he was most honourably received. He paid two visits to Poland for the purpose of levying troops, meeting with strange adventures on the way, and in January 1632 was about to settle down in remote winter quarters, when he was entrusted by Wallenstein, who had just reassumed the command, with the defence of his own duchy of Sagan. According to Carve, Butler more than justified the choice, and was rewarded for his deeds of valour against the Saxons by being assigned the Silesian county of Jägerndorf (on the Bohemian frontier) and its appurtenances as his winter quarters. This is possible, as Jägerndorf had been recently confiscated by the emperor, and bestowed by him upon a catholic magnate. Here Butler married a countess of Fondana. The brilliant victory of Eger, in which he and his cavalry captured twelve standards, may be identified with a brief stand made there by the Saxon Colonel von Starschettel before capitulating (cf., Briefe Wallenstein's, &c. ii. 218). Nothing more is heard of him till the fatal year 1634; nor was it till at a very late stage in the series of events which led to the death of Wallenstein that Butler intervened in the action.

From the narrative of Butler's regimental chaplain, Patrick Taaffe, which there seems no reason for distrusting, it appears that at the beginning of the year 1634 Butler was in winter quarters at Klatrup (Kladran) on the Bohemian frontier, his regiment, composed of about 1,000 excellent soldiers, being posted about the neighbourhood for the defence of the passes between Bohemia and the Upper Palatinate. Though he had received no recent favours from Wallenstein, and had his suspicions as to the general's ultimate designs, he seems to have known neither of the steps which Wallenstein had in vain taken for assuring himself of the fidelity of his superior officers, nor of the imperial rescript of Feb. 18 bidding those officers cease to yield obedience to the deposed commander-in-chief. When, therefore, about this time an order from Wallenstein suddenly reached Butler, bidding him collect his regiment and march at once to Prague, where it had been the general's original intention to assemble his forces before opening the decisive negotiations, Butler obeyed. But he told his chaplain and confessor that the order confirmed his suspicions of the general's loyalty, and that he expected that at Prague death awaited him as a faithful soldier. Clearly he expected a battle there; but in truth the Prague garrison had already declared for Gallas and the emperor, and Wallenstein, after a design of seizing his person at Pilsen had been frustrated, had no choice but to hold Eger and the adjoining frontier district with such troops as still adhered to him. When, therefore, on 22 Feb., Butler on his way to Prague reached Mies, near Pilsen, he was accidentally met by Wallenstein himself, proceeding from Pilsen to Eger with Ilow, Terzka, Kinsky, and a small body of troops. (The statement that these included two hundred of Butler's own dragoons is probably founded on a mistake.) Butler was told to spend the night at Mies away from his soldiery; and next morning had with his regiment, under certain precautions, to accompany the duke on his progress to Eger. On the 24th Wallenstein entered into confidential conversation with him, enlarging on his own and his army's grievances against the emperor, and plying his companion with compliments and promises. Butler in return assured the duke that he would serve him rather than any other mortal. On the same day Eger was reached, and Butler was assigned quarters in the town, while his regiment remained outside the gates. Meanwhile on the 23rd Butler had contrived to despatch his chaplain to Piccolomini, now at Pilsen, assuring him that he would be true to the emperor, and adding that perchance God's providence designed to force him to do some heroic deed. Piccolomini bade the chaplain