And now the marshaled forces of the emperor began to crowd
the Protestants on all sides. The army became bewildered, and instead of
keeping together, separated to repel the attack at different points.
This caused the ruin of the Protestant army. The dissevered fragments
were speedily dispersed. The emperor triumphantly entered the Protestant
cities of Ulm and Augsburg, Strasbourg and Frankfort, compelled them to
accept humiliating conditions, to surrender their artillery and military
stores, and to pay enormous fines. The Archbishop of Cologne was deposed
from his dignities. The emperor had thrown his foes upon the ground and
bound them.
All the Protestant princes but two were vanquished, the Elector of
Saxony and the Landgrave of Hesse. It was evident that they must soon
yield to the overwhelming force of the emperor. It was a day of
disaster, in which no gleam of light seemed to dawn upon the Protestant
cause. But in that gloomy hour we see again the illustration of that
sentiment, that "the race is not always to the swift nor the battle to
the strong." Unthinking infidelity says sarcastically, "Providence
always helps the heavy battalions." But Providence often brings to the
discomfited, in their despair, reinforcements all unlooked for.
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