Excerpt from History of the Life of Gustavus Adolphus II: The Hero-General of the Reformation In giving this sketch of the life of Gustavus Adolphus, no attempt has been made to present a complete life of the great king. It is a history difficult for young people to understand, and for that reason only the leading events of a most eventful life have been presented. It was first written for a lecture and entertainment, after the manner of my other entertainments on Church epochs, to be illustrated by stereopticon views, with three dramatic interludes - the first representing the joy of the Swedish people on Gustavus coming to the throne; the second showing Gustavus taking leave of his Parliament and friends as he is about to embark on the Thirty Years' War; the third, an act called "The Women who Loved Him." The evening was to open and close with church processionals in the native peasant costumes of Sweden and other Protestant countries of Europe. It has been deemed best to present the story in book form, which will differ somewhat from the original lecture and dramatic representations, for the reason that pictures do away with the necessity for many words. With the earnest prayer that this history may stir other heroic souls to stand for God in life's difficult places this sketch is submitted. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.