heard so much of the conversable temper of the king, and his particular sweetness of humour with the meanest soldier, that I made no more difficulty, but having paid my respect to Colonel Hepburn, thanked him for the honour he had done me, and offered to rise and wait upon him. Nay, says the colonel, we will eat first, for I find Gourdon (which was the captain's name), has got something for supper, and the king's order is at seven o'clock. So we went to supper, and Sir John becoming very friendly, must know my name; which, when I had told him, and of what place and family, he rose from his seat, and embracing me, told me he knew my father very well, and had been intimately acquainted with him; and told me several passages wherein my father had particularly obliged him. After this we went to supper, and the king's health being drank round, the colonel moved the sooner because he had a mind to talk with me. When we were going to the king, he inquired of me where I had been, and what occasion brought me to the army. I told him the short his.tory of my travels, and that I came hither from Vienna on purpose to see the King of Sweden and his army; he asked me if there was any service he could do me, by which he meant, whether I desired an employment. I pretended not to take him so, but told him the protection his acquaintance would afford me was more than I could have asked, since I might thereby have opportunity to satisfy my curiosity, which was the chief end of my coming abroad. He perceiving by this that I had no mind to be a soldier, told me very kindly I should command him in anything; that his tent and equipage, horses and servants, should always have orders to be at my service; but that, as a piece of friendship, he would advise me to retire to some place distant from the army, for that the army would march to-morrow, and the king was resolved to fight General Tilly, and he would not have me hazard myself; that if I thought fit to take his advice, he would have me take that interval to see the court at Berlin, whither he would send one of his servants to wait on me. His discourse was too kind not to extort the tenderest acknowledgment from me that I was capable of; I told him his care of me was so obliging, that I knew not what return to make him, but if he pleased to leave me to my choice, I desired no greater favour than to trail a pike under his command in the ensuing battle. I can never answer it to your

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father, says he, to suffer you to expose yourself so far. I told him my father would certainly acknowledge his friendship in the proposal made me; but I believed he knew him better than to think he would be well pleased with me if I should accept of it; that I was sure my father would have rode post five hundred miles to have been at such a battle under such a general, and it should never be told him that his son had rode fifty miles to be out of it. He seemed to be something concerned at the resolution I had taken, and replied very quickly upon me, that he approved very well of my courage; but, says he, no man gets any credit by running upon needless adventures, nor loses any by shunning hazards which he has no order for. It is enough, says he, for a gentleman to behave well when he is commanded upon any service; I have had fighting enough, says he, upon these points of honour, and I never got anything but reproof for it from the king himself. Well, sir, said I, however, if a man expects to rise by his valour, he must show it somewhere; and if I were to have any command of an army, I would first try whether I could deserve it; I have never yet seen any service, and must have my induction some time or other. I shall never have a better schoolmaster than yourself, nor a better school than such an army. Well, says Sir John, but you may have the same school and the same teaching after this battle is over; for I must tell you beforehand, this will be a bloody touch. Tilly has a great army of old lads that are used to boxing, fellows with iron faces, and it is a little too much to engage so hotly the first entrance into the wars. You may see our discipline this winter, and make your campaign with us next summer, when you need not fear but we shall have fighting enough, and you will be better acquainted with things. We do never put our common soldiers upon pitched battles the first campaign, but place our new men in garrisons, and try them in parties first. Sir, said I, with a little more freedom, I believe I shall not make a trade of the war, and therefore need not serve an apprenticeship to it. It is a hard battle where none escapes; if I come off, I hope I shall not disgrace you, and if not, it will be some satisfaction to my father to hear his son died fighting under the command of Sir John Hepburn, in the army of the King of Sweden, and I desire no better epitaph upon my tomb. Well, says Sir John; and by this time we were just come to

the king's quarters, and the guards calling to us interrupted his reply; so we went into the court yard where the king was lodged, which was in an indifferent house of one of the burghers of Debien, and Sir John stepping up, met the king coming down some steps into a large room which looked over the town wall into a field where part of the artillery was drawn up. Sir John Hepburn sent his man presently to me to come up, which I did; and Sir John, without any ceremony, carries me directly up to the king, who was leaning on his elbow, in the window. The king turning about; This is the English gentleman, says Sir John, who I told your majesty had been in the imperial army. How then did he get hither, says the king, without being taken by the scouts? At which question Sir John said nothing. By a pass, and please your majesty, from the English ambassador's secretary at Vienna, said I, making a profound reverence. Have you then been at Vienna? says the king. Yes, and please your majesty, said I; upon which the king folding up a letter he had in his hand, seemed much more earnest to talk about Vienna, than about Tilly. And pray what news had you at Vienna? Nothing, sir, said I, but daily accounts, one in the neck of another, of their own misfortunes, and your majesty's conquests, which makes a very melancholy court there. But pray, said the king, what is the common opinion there about these affairs? The common people are terrified to the last degree, said I; and when your majesty took Frankfort upon Oder, if your army had marched but twenty miles into Silesia, half the people would have run out of Vienna, and I left them fortifying the city. They need not, replied the king, smiling, I have no design to trouble them, it is the Protestant countries I must be for. Upon this the Duke of Saxony entered the room, and finding the king engaged, offered to retire; but the king, beckoning with his hand, called to him in French. Cousin, says the king, this gentleman has been travelling, and comes from Vienna, and so made me repeat what I had said before; at which the king went on with me, and Sir John Hepburn informing his majesty that I spoke high Dutch, he changed his language, and asked me in Dutch where it was I saw General Tilly's army; I told his majesty at the siege of Magdeburgh. At Magdeburgh! said the king, shaking his head; Tilly must answer to me one day for that city, and, if

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not to me, to a greater king than I. Can you guess what army he had with him? said the king. He had two armies with him, said I, but one I suppose will do your majesty no harm. Two armies! said the king. Yes, sir, he has one army of about twenty-six thousand men, said I, and another of above fifteen thousand whores and their attendants; at which the king laughed heartily. Ay, ay, says the king, those fifteen thousand do us as much harm as the twenty-six thousand; for they eat up the country, and devour the poor protestants more than the men. Well, says the king, do they talk of fighting us? They talk big enough, sir, said I, but your majesty has not been so often fought with, as beaten in their discourse. I know not for the men, says the king, but the old man is as likely to do it as talk of it, and I hope to try them in a day or two. The king inquired after that, several matters of me about the Low Countries, the prince of Orange, and of the court and affairs in England; and Sir John Hepburn informing his majesty that I was the son of an English gentleman of his acquaintance, the king had the goodness to ask him what care he had taken of me against the day of battle. Upon which Sir John repeated to him the discourse we had together by the way; the king, seeming particularly pleased with it, began to take me to task himself. You English gentlemen, says he, are too forward in the wars, which makes you leave them too soon again. Your majesty, replied I, makes war in so pleasant a manner, as makes all the world fond of fighting under your conduct. Not so pleasant neither, says the king; here's a man can tell you that sometimes it is not very pleasant. I know not much of the warrior, sir, said I, nor of the world, but, if always to conquer be the pleasure of the war, your majesty's soldiers have all that can be desired. Well, says the king, but however, considering all things, I think you would do well to take the advice Sir John Hepburn has given you. Your majesty may command me to anything, but where your majesty and so many gallant gentlemen hazard their lives, mine is not worth mentioning; and I should not dare to tell my father, at my return into England, that I was in your majesty's army, and made so mean a figure, that your majesty would not permit me to fight under that royal standard. Nay, replied the king, I lay no commands upon you, but you are young. I

can never die, sir, said I, with more honour than in your majesty's service. I spake this with so much freedom, and his majesty was so pleased with it, that he asked me how I would choose to serve, on horseback or on foot. I told his majesty I should be glad to receive any of his majesty's commands, but, if I had not that honour, I had purposed to trail a pike under Sir John Hepburn, who had done me so much honour as to introduce me into his majesty's presence. Do so, then, replied the king, and, turning to Sir John Hepburn, said, And pray do you take care of him; at which, overcome with the goodness of his discourse, I could not answer a word, but made him a profound reverence, and retired.

The next day but one, being the 7th of September, before day the army marched from Dieben to a large field about a mile from Leipsic, where we found Tilly's army in full battalia in admirable order, which made a show both glorious and terrible. Tilly, like a fair gamester, had taken up but one side of the plain, and left the other free, and all the avenues open for the king's army; nor did he stir to the charge till the king's army was completely drawn up and advanced towards him. He had in his army forty-four thousand old soldiers, every way answerable to what I have said of them before; and I shall only add, a better army, I believe, never was so soundly beaten.

The king was not much inferior in force, being joined with the Saxons, who were reckoned twenty-two thousand men, and who drew up on the left, making a main battle and two wings, as the king did on the right.

The king placed himself at the right wing of his own horse: Gustavus Horn had the main battle of the Swedes, the Duke of Saxony had the main battle of his own troops, and General Arnheim the right wing of his horse.

The second line of the Swedes consisted of the two Scotch brigades, and three Swedish, with the Finland horse in the wings.

In the beginning of the fight, Tilly's right wing charged with such irresistible fury upon the left of the king's army, where the Saxons were posted, that nothing could withstand them; the Saxons fled amain, and some of them carried the news over the country that all was lost, and the king's army overthrown; and indeed it passed for an oversight with