It  is  highly  probable2  that  he  exercised  a  personal  influence  on  many  of
the  peasant  chiefs,  his  old  comrades  and  followers.  Contemporary  writers
positively  affirm  that  he  bought  over  Walter  Bach,  who  treacherously
persuaded  the  peasants  to  abandon  their  strong  position.  Perhaps,  how-
ever, their  stores  failed  ;  at  all  events  they  separated,  and  retreated
towards  the  mountains.  Truchsess  hastened  in  pursuit  of  them,  and  began
to  burn  their  farms  and  villages.  This  was  in  direct  violation  of  the  orders
of  the  League,  at  which  he  only  laughed  ;  he,  he  said,  a  peasant  himself,
understood  his  business  better  ;  he  knew  that  this  was  the  way  to  make
every  man  think  of  his  own  home.  He  kept  his  troops  together  and  thus
easily  beat  the  separate  bands  of  peasants  whenever  he  met  with  them.  He
was  not,  however,  so  absolutely  master  as  at  Wurzburg.  George  Truchsess
was  at  last  obliged  to  enter  into  a  compact  with  the  large  body  of  rebels
who  held  together  on  the  Kolenberg,  by  which  redress  of  the  local  griev-
ances of  their  several  villages  was  promised  them.  Not  till  then  did  they
lay  down  their  arms  and  give  up  their  ringleaders.3

At  the  same  moment,  Count  Felix  of  Werdenberg  put  to  the  rout  the
peasants  of  the  Hegau,  Kletgau,  and  all  that  remained  in  the  Schwarzwald
• — for  many  were  gone  home  to  their  harvest — and  compelled  them  to  lay
down  their  arms.*

Thus  was  arrested  the  great  movement  which  threatened  the  total  sub-
version of  the  whole  existing  order  of  things  in  Germany  :  all  the  schemes
for  reconstituting  the  empire  from  the  groundwork  of  society  upwards,
or  still  more,  for  visionary  changes  in  the  order  of  the  world  under  the
guidance  of  a  fanatical  prophet,  were  now  for  ever  at  an  end.
