With the rumor of this arrangement, the mere possibility of the alliance of an economically strong NUS with Gustavus caused Cardinal Richelieu to switch his support of the Swedish king in the spring of 1632 and generated a direct battle in Grantville in the fall of 1632 with Croatian cavalry forces sent by Catholic General Albrecht von Wallenstein towards the end of the first book to destroy Grantville and its knowledge base. Gustavus himself, leading a small cavalry scouting group, deduced the pending attack and enemy's plan and led his small force of 400 Laplanders and Finnish light cavalry in a "hell ride" pursuing the enemy cavalry arriving in time annihilating the remaining enemy forces at the town's high school. With the rescue, Stearns recognized the inevitable, the NUS needed a strong protector, and he and Gustav began negotiating an accommodation in the high school library with Rebecca Abrabanel as translator, even as wounded were being triaged and the bodies were being cleared from the hallways and grounds.