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 were yielded up by the Swedes. He shook the throne of Ferdinand II. and protected the Lutherans in Germany, an attempt in which he was secretly assisted by the pope himself, who dreaded the power of the emperor much more than the prevalence of heresy. He it was who by his victories effectually contributed to humble the house of Austria; though the glory of that enterprise is usually ascribed to Cardinal de Richelieu, who well knew how to procure himself the reputation of those great actions, which Gustavus was contented with simply performing. He was just upon the point of extending the war beyond the Danube, and perhaps of dethroning the emperor, when he was killed, in the thirty-seventh year of his age, at the battle of Lutzen, which he gained over Wallenstein, carrying along with him to his grave the name of Great, the lamentations of the North, and the esteem of his enemies.

His daughter Christina, a lady of extraordinary genius, was much fonder of conversing with men of learning, than of reigning over a people whose knowledge was entirely confined to the art of war. She became as famous for quitting the throne as her ancestors had been for obtaining or securing it. The Protestants have loaded her memory with many injurious aspersions, as if it were impossible for a person to be possessed of great virtues without adhering to Luther; and the papists have piqued themselves too much on the conversion of a woman who had nothing to recommend her but her taste for philosophy. She retired to Rome, where she passed the rest of her days in the midst of those arts Vol. 20—2