Page:History of the Thirty Years' War - Gindely - Volume 1.djvu/135

 more than the half of that number had appeared, and these were so poorly equipped and provisioned as to be rather a hindrance than a help. The government had not provided for the levy, the individual landowners and cities being responsible for the care and pay of the troops they raised; while these, on their part, felt their duty done when the troops had been sent into the field, and gave themselves no further concern about them. So the levy came in fearful disorder to the field. Financial embarrassment in general, of all kinds, was felt even in the first months of the war, and this continually increased, inflicting even more harm perhaps than did the enemy. Vain were the efforts of the Directors to procure the needed amounts by loans; these were everywhere refused ; the taxes were insufficient, and came in too irregularly, so that the most of their money was obtained only by taking possession of stocks belonging to the Estates of deceased persons, or in some other way, in liquidation, or confiscating these under the name of forced loans. Later they resorted to the debasement of the coin.

The Bohemian army pursued Count Buquoi as far as Budweis, and as his troops had suffered considerably from the casualties of war, Thurn must rest satisfied with merely placing a corps of observation under Hohenloe to watch him, and advance with the rest of the army into Austria in order to execute a plan, formed in Bohemia, for taking Vienna by surprise and deciding the contest at once. Count Henry Schlick passed the Austrian border on the 25th of November, and, as an advance-guard with 4,000 men, prepared the way for the main force to follow. For miles along the course of this invading army the panic spread; in Vienna itself the effects of many misfortunes were added to the peculiar dismay of the people. The