Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 08.djvu/92

 tell Butler that if he desired the imperial favour and promotion, he must deliver up Wallenstein dead or alive. The message did not reach Butler till all was over; but Piccolomini is stated to have added that he would find some other way of letting Butler know his mind on the subject. If this account be correct, it results that Butler's presence at Eger was due to chance; that after first mistrusting him Wallenstein believed himself to have gained him over; and that Butler did not enter Eger, as he had certainly not left his quarters on the frontier, with any set purpose of assassinating the duke. Most assuredly he had received no orders to that effect from the emperor, by whom none were given; nor can we suppose any instructions to have reached him from Piccolomini. At the same time, as Ranke says, the idea of this particular solution was in the air and had previously suggested itself to various minds.

On the night of his arrival at Eger, Butler had an interview with Lieutenant-colonel Gordon and Major Leslie, two Scotch protestant officers in Terzka's infantry regiment, which formed the garrison of Eger. Finding them alarmed at the situation of affairs, he began to sound them as to what should be done. Gordon having proposed flight, which Butler rejected, Leslie was led to declare that they should kill the traitors. Hereupon Butler opened to them his design, to which at last Gordon signified his assent. Then followed the well-known incidents of 25 Feb. Several officers—including Devereux, Geraldine, and de Burgo, possibly a connection of Butler's—and about a hundred men of Butler's regiment, together with nearly the same number of German soldiers, were secretly introduced into the town. In the course of the day the rumour spread that the Swedes were approaching, and this no doubt helped to nerve the hands of the conspirators. In the evening a banquet was held in the castle, at which Butler's Irish dragoons cut down Ilow, Terzka, Kinsky, and Neumann, and then Devereux killed Wallenstein himself in his quarters at the burgomaster's house. Next morning Butler informed the town councillors of what had happened, and after making them swear fidelity to the emperor, imposed a similar oath upon the regiments encamped outside the town. He also took measures for the capture of Duke Francis Albert of Saxe-Lauenburg, who was expected from across the frontier with tidings from Duke Bernard of Weimar. Information was sent to Gallas, and a proclamation to the army was issued by Butler and Gordon, declaring the treason of Wallenstein, and stating what measures had been taken against him and his associates. All these proceedings were substantially successful.

The deed of Butler and his fellows may not have saved the house of Austria and the Roman catholic cause in the empire from any grave danger, for Wallenstein had been abandoned by the great body of his army before he quitted Pilsen for Eger, and beyond that frontier fortress hardly anything in Bohemia remained in his power. But the Irish dragoons had relieved the emperor, Spain, Bavaria, and the Roman catholic party in general from a grievous incubus; and Butler in especial had done his part of the work promptly and effectively, and, what was most acceptable of all, without waiting for definite orders on the subject. Nor was he left unrewarded. Besides receiving the personal thanks of the emperor, who presented him with a gold chain and a medal bearing the imperial portrait, he was made owner of the regiment of which he held the command, ennobled as a count, appointed chamberlain, and endowed with Friedberg, the most considerable of the late duke's domains next to Friedland itself. He afterwards took part in the battle of Nördlingen (7 Sept. 1634); but Carve's word must be taken for the statement that on this occasion Butler fought most valiantly under the eyes of the king of Hungary and the Cardinal-Infante without intermission for twenty-four hours, not giving way a single foot's breadth till the Spaniards and Croats came to his aid. After the victory Butler was sent with eight regiments to lay siege to Aurach and Schorndorf, in Würtemberg, both of which places he took. At Schorndorf he died, 25 Dec. 1634, ‘most placidly,’ after duly receiving the last sacraments of his church. Carve arrived in time to see his hero's coffin and to read his last will, in which he left 20,000 dollars to a convent of Franciscans at Prague, specially devoted to the interests of the faithful and the conversion of heretics in Ireland and Scotland, besides legacies to jesuits and other priests, and to his faithful lieutenant-colonel Walter Devereux, who succeeded to his regiment. Butler was sumptuously buried by his widow, but as he left no children his estate of Friedberg passed to a kinsman of the Poolestown house, whom the Emperor Leopold I confirmed in the possession of the title of count. The family afterwards migrated to Bavaria, where it still survives.

[The Itinerarium of Thomas Carve, who was chaplain first to Butler and then to Devereux, and afterwards called himself head-chaplain to the English, Scotch, and Irish serving in the imperial army, contains many more or less trustworthy