Page:History of the Thirty Years' War - Gindely - Volume 1.djvu/167

 not fight or suffer hardship, but sent deputation after deputation to Prague to demand the removal of the manifold causes of evil. The pay still due to the Bohemian troops from the Directory, after the payment of considerable instalments, amounted to 1,800,000 thalers. This great sum can be conceived only by knowing that the enlisted men had been offered higher wages than had been usual in Germany, and higher than had, for instance, been paid in Silesia. It should also be further considered that the men were very seldom mustered, to ascertain the deaths from wounds and sickness, and reduce the rolls of those for the payment of whose wages the captains were respectively bound. Had these two errors been avoided, the back pay due would have been scarcely half so much.

Buquoi now entered upon his march against the enemy, and advanced slowly but without interruption or resistance, until he reached Milc̃inMiličín [sic], a place situated six miles north of Tabor, although the Bohemian army had been reinforced by 2,000 Silesians and 1,000 musketeers enlisted in the Netherlands, and were numerically more than double his own. In August, Buquoi attacked Pisek, and, although intelligence of this had reached the enemy, they took no measures for the relief of the city, and let it fall into his hands, together with its very considerable treasures and stores of provisions. He then proceeded to Mirowitz, intending there to await the arrival of Mansfeld, who, in the meantime, had enlisted fresh troops, and was approaching from Pilsen to join the Bohemian army. But by a skilful manœuvre of Mansfeld, his plan was defeated. Hohenloe withdrew to Zaluz&#771;anZalužan [sic] to cover Prague, and left to Buquoi an unobstructed way to Pilsen, though he could not reach Prague without risking a battle. Had he made the attempt, such was the demoralized spirit of the Bohe-