the allies, finding sufficient provisions there to last for six
months, encamped round the city and decided to winter there unless
attacked, in the meantime sending out bodies of cavalry, which
levied contributions up to the very gates of Munich. Leopold, thus
deprived of his magazines, retired with the Austrian contingent,
and the Bavarians returned home.

The Duke of Bavaria, finding that his whole dominions would be
captured unless he made terms, therefore opened negotiations, and
on the 14th of March, 1646, peace was signed, the terms being that
he should separate himself entirely from the empire and deliver
five of his fortresses to the allies, who would thus, should he
again break his word, have means of access into his dominions. The
allied forces were now in a condition to march upon Vienna. They
had during the winter plundered a large portion of Bavaria; they
and their horses had recovered from their fatigue, and their force
now amounted to fourteen thousand foot and twenty thousand horse.
At this moment, when the Imperialists believed that all was lost,
for without the assistance of Bavaria they could put no army in
the field that could hope to make head against the allies, Mazarin
interposed and saved Austria from destruction.

The Catholic powers had long been privately urging upon him the
danger that would arise should Austria be crushed. The Swedes would
acquire very large accessions of territory, the Protestant German
princes, their allies, would similarly benefit, and Protestantism
would become the dominant religion in Germany. Such would, indeed,
have undoubtedly been the case had the allies marched to Vienna
and dictated terms of peace there. An order was therefore sent to
Turenne to march with his army to Flanders, where the Spaniards