WOUNDED BEFORE CASTLE OF MARIENBURG.

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commanded out, but Sir James Ramsey led them on; but I observed that most of the Scotch officers in the other regiments prepared to serve as volunteers for the honour of their countrymen, and Sir John Hepburn led them on. I was resolved to see this piece of service, and therefore joined myself to the volunteers; we were armed with partisans, and each man two pistols at our belt. It was a piece of service that seemed perfectly desperate; the advantage of the hill, the precipice we were to mount, the height of the bastion, the resolute courage and number of the garrison, who from a complete covert made a terrible fire upon us, all joined to make the action hopeless. But the fury of the Scots musketeers was not to be abated by any difficulties; they mounted the hill, scaled the works like madmen, running upon the enemy's pikes; and after two hours' desperate fight, in the midst of fire and smoke, took it by storm, and put all the garrison to the sword. The volunteers did their part, and had their share of the loss too, for thirteen or fourreen were killed out of thirty-seven, besides the wounded, among whom I received a hurt more troublsome than dangerous, by a thrust of a halberd into my arm, which proved a very painful wound, and I was a great while before it was thoroughly recovered.

The king received us as we drew off at the foot of the hill, calling the soldiers his brave Scots, and commending the officers by name. The next morning the castle was also taken by storm, and the greatest booty that ever was found in any one conquest in the whole war; the soldiers got here so much money that they knew not what to do with it, and the plunder they got here and at the battle of Leipsic, made them so unruly, that had not the king been the best master of discipline in the world, they had never been kept in any reasonable bounds.

The king had taken notice of our small party of volunteers, and though I thought he had not seen me, yet he sent the next morning for Sir John Hepburn, and asked him if I were not come to the army. Yes, says Sir John, he has been here two or three days; and as he was forming an excuse for not having brought me to wait on his majesty, says the king, interrupting him, I wonder you would let him thrust himself into such a hot piece of service as storming the Port Graft; pray let him know I saw him, and have a very good account of his behaviour. Sir John returned with this account to mc,

and pressed me to pay my duty to his majesty the next morning; and accordingly, though I had but an ill night with the pain of my wound, I was with him at the levee in the castle.

I cannot but give some short account of the glory of the morning; the castle had been cleared of the dead bodies of the enemies, and what was not pillaged by the soldiers, was placed under a guard. There was first a magazine of very good arms for about eighteen or twenty thousand foot, and four thousand horse, a very good train of artillery, of about eighteen pieces of battery, thirty-two brass field pieces, and four mortars. The bishop's treasure, and other public monies not plundered by the soldiers, was telling out by the officers, and amounted to four hundred thousand florins in money; and the burghers of the town, in solemn procession, bareheaded, brought the king three ton of gold, as a composition to exempt the city from plunder. Here was also a stable of gallant horses, which the king had the curiosity to go and see.

When the ceremony of the burghers was over, the king came down into the castle court, walked on the parade, where the great train of artillery was placed on their carriages, and round the walls, and gave order for repairing the bastion that was stormed by the Scots; and as, at the entrance of the parade, Sir John Hepburn and I made our reverence to the king, Ho, Cavalier, said the king to me, I am glad to see you, and so passed forward; I made my bow very low, but his majesty said no more at that time.

When the view was over, the king went up into the lodgings, and Sir John and I walked in an antichamber for about a quarter of an hour, when one of the gentlemen of the bedchamber came out to Sir John, and told him the king asked for him; he stayed but a little with the king, and came out to me, and told me the king had ordered him to bring me to him.

His majesty, with a countenance full of honour and goodness, interrupted my compliment, and asked me how I did; at which, answering only with a bow, says the king, I am sorry to see you are hurt, I would have laid my commands on you not to have shown yourself in so sharp a piece of service, if I had known you had been in the camp. Your majesty does me too much honour, said I, in your care of a life that has yet done nothing to deserve your favour. His

HIS MAJESTY'S GENEROSITY TO ME.

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majesty was pleased to say something very kind to me, relating to my behaviour in the battle of Leipsic, which I have not vanity enough to write; at the conclusion whereof, when I replied very humbly, that I was not sensible that any service I had done, or could do, could possibly merit so much goodness, he told me he had ordered me a small testimony of his esteem, and withal gave me his hand to kiss. I was now conquered, and, with a sort of surprise, told his majesty I found myself so much engaged by his goodness, as well as my own inclination, that if his majesty would please to accept of my devoir, I was resolved to serve in his army, or wherever he pleased to command me. Serve me! says the king, why so you do; but I must not have you be a musketeer, a poor soldier at a dollar a week will do that. Pray Sir John, says the king, give him what commission he desires. No commis

sion, sir, says I, would please me better than leave to fight near your majesty's person, and to serve you at my own charge, till I am qualified by more experience to receive your commands. Why then it shall be so, said the king, and I charge you, Hepburn, says he, when anything offers that is either fit for him, or he desires, that you tell me of it; and giving me his hand again to kiss, I withdrew.

I was followed, before I had passed the castle gate, by one of the king's pages, who brought me a warrant, directed to Sir John Hepburn, to go to the master of the horse, for an immediate delivery of things ordered by the king himself for my account; where being come, the querry produced me a very good coach with four horses, harness and equipage, and two very fine saddle-horses, out of the stable of the bishop's horses afore-mentioned; with these there was a list for three servants, and a warrant, to the steward of the king's baggage to defray me, my horses and servants, at the king's charge, till further order. I was very much at a loss how to manage myself in this so strange freedom of so great a prince; and consulting with Sir John Hepburn, I was proposing to him whether it was not proper to go immediately back to pay my duty to his majesty, and acknowledge his bounty in the best terms I could; but while we were resolving to do so, the guards stood to their arms, and we saw the king go out at the gate in his coach to pass into the city, so we were diverted from it for that time. I acknowledge the bounty of the king was very surprising, but I must say it was not so

very strange to me when I afterwards saw the course of his management. Bounty in him was his natural talent, but he never distributed his favours but where he thought himself both loved and faithfully served; and when he was so, even the single actions of his private soldiers he would take particular notice of himself, and publicly own, acknowledge, and reward them, of which I am obliged to give some instances.

A private musketeer, at the storming the castle of Wurtzburg, when all the detachment was beaten off, stood in the face of the enemy, and fired his piece; and, though he had a thousand shot made at him, stood unconcerned, and charged his piece again, and let fly at the enemy, continuing to do so three times; at the same time, beckoning with his hand to his fellows to come on again, which they did, animated by his example, and carried the place for the king.

When the town was taken, the king ordered the regiment to be drawn out, and calling for that soldier, thanked him before them all for taking the town for him, gave him a thousand dollars in money, and a commission with his own hand for a foot company, or leave to go home, which he would; the soldier took the commission on his knees, kissed it, and put it into his bosom, and told the king he would never leave his service as long as he lived.

This bounty of the king's, timed and suited by his judgment, was the reason that he was very well served, entirely beloved, and most punctually obeyed by his soldiers, who were sure to be cherished and encouraged, if they did well, having the king generally an eyewitness of their behaviour.

My indiscretion rather than valour had engaged me so far at the battle of Leipsic, that being in the van of Sir John Hepburn's brigade, almost three whole companies of us were separated from our line, and surrounded by the enemies' pikes. I cannot but say also, that we were disengaged, rather by a desperate charge Sir John made with the whole regiment to fetch us off, than by our own valour, though we were not wanting to ourselves neither; but this part of the action being talked of very much to the advantage of the young English volunteer, and possibly more than I deserved, was the occasion of all the distinction the king used me with ever after.

I had by this time letters from my father, in which, though with reluctance, he left me at liberty to enter into arms if I thought fit, always obliging me to be directed, and, as he said,

COMMAND A PARTY AT FORT OPPENHEIM.

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commanded by Sir John Hepburn. At the same time he wrote to Sir John Hepburn, commending his son's fortunes, as he called it, to his care; which letters Sir John showed the king, unknown to me.

I took care always to acquaint my father of every circumstance, and forgot not to mention his majesty's extraordinary favour, which so affected my father, that he obtained a very honourable mention of it in a letter from King Charles to the King of Sweden, written by his own hand.

I had waited on his majesty with Sir John Hepburn, to give him thanks for his magnificent present, and was received with his usual goodness, and after that I was every day among the gentlemen of his ordinary attendance; and if his majesty went out on a party, as he would often do, or to view the country, I always attended him among the volunteers, of whom a great many always followed him; and he would often call me out, talk with me, send me upon messages to towns, to princes, free cities, and the like, upon extraordinary occasions.

The first piece of service he put me upon had like to have embroiled me with one of his favourite colonels. The king was marching through the Bergstraet, a low country on the edge of the Rhine, and, as all men thought, was going to besiege Heidelberg, but, on a sudden, orders a party of his guards, with five companies of Scots, to be drawn out; while they were drawing out this detachment, the king calls me to him, Ho! cavalier, says he, that was his usual word, you shall command this party; and thereupon gives me orders to march back all night, and in the morning, by break of day to take post under the walls of the fort of Oppenheim, and immediately to intrench myself as well as I could. Grave Neels, the colonel of his guards, thought himself injured by this command, but the king took the matter upon himself; and Grave Neels told me very familiarly afterwards, We have such a master, says he, that no man can be affronted by. I thought myself wronged, says he, when you commanded my men over my head; and for my life, says he, I knew not which way to be angry.

I executed my commission so punctually, that by break of day I was set down within musket shot of the fort, under covert of a little mount, on which stood a windmill, and had indifferently fortified myself, and at the same time had posted some of my men on two other passes but at farther distance