UNDER MANY FLAGS 
 
 ^3 
 
Tlie Scotch .'♦oldiers scale the fortress. 
 
 Page 46. 
 
 IT I? r i M 'T T t; p 1 1 r P" 
 
UNDER MANY FLAGS 
 
 OR 
 
 Storica of Scotti^b abventurcrs 
 
 BY 
 
 W. H. DAVENPORT ADAMS 
 
 AUTHOR OF 
 "ENGLAND AT WAR," "ENGLAND ON THE SEA," "tHE SECRET OF SUCCESS,' 
 
 "memorable battles"; etc., etc. 
 
 ILLUSTRATED BY LANCELOT SPEED 
 
 LONDON: 
 FREDERICK WARNE AND CO. 
 
 AND NEW YORK. 
 1896. 
 
Richard Clay & Sons, Limited, 
 London & Bungay. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 jj/r^ 'T 
 
 /^3 
 
 CHAP. 
 
 I. SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE IN FRANCE 
 
 II. THE SCOTS GUARD ... 
 
 III. SIR JOHN HEPBURN 
 
 IV. SIR JOHN HEPBURN {continued) 
 
 V. AN OLD CAVALIER : SIR JAMES TURNER 
 
 VI. SIR JAMES TURNER {c07ltinued) 
 
 PAGE 
 I 
 
 20 
 
 39 
 
 59 
 80 
 
 96 
 
 VII. A SOLDIER OF FORTUNE : GENERAL PATRICK 
 
 GORDON ... ... ... ... ... 120 
 
 VIIL GENERAL PATRICK GORDON {continued) ... 1 38 
 
 IX. THE FOUNDER OF THE BANK OF ENGLAND 1 58 
 
 X. JOHN LAW ... ... ... ... ... 176 
 
 XI. TWO FAMOUS BROTHERS : GEORGE AND 
 
 JAMES KEITH ... ... ... ... I97 
 
 XII. FIELD-MARSHAL JAMES KEITH 
 
 207 
 
 |yj30^:0l9 
 
UNDER MANY FLAGS 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE IN FRANCE 
 
 Let us catch a few glimpses of the activity of 
 adventurous Scots in the French wars of the 
 fifteenth century. Nobles, knights, and men-at- 
 arms seem alike to have been possessed with an 
 errant spirit, which they could not control ; or 
 else they were seduced by the purple vineyards 
 and smiling fields of the South, which offered so 
 charming a contrast to their bleak and barren 
 northern landscapes. Further, it was on French 
 soil that they could revenge themselves best upon 
 the Anglo-Norman invaders, who had harried their 
 poor country so pitilessly with fire and sword, and 
 were at this time engaged in a long and desperate 
 struggle to maintain their hold upon some of the 
 finest provinces of France. 
 
 In 1407, we read, the Earl of Mar led a body 
 of troops, sent by the Duke of Burgundy, to the 
 help of William of Bavaria, Count of Holland 
 and Hainault, who thirsted to punish his refractory 
 
 B 
 
2 UNDER MANY FLAGS 
 
 city of Liege for revolting against its bishop. 
 Halting at Paris, Mar dazzled the curious Parisians, 
 as fond then as now of shows and spectacles, by 
 his chivalric courtesy. *' He set out," says Wyntoun, 
 " with a noble compan}^, well equipped and elegant, 
 knights and squires, very great lords, sixty and 
 more, men of counsel and valour, of his court and 
 his suite. At Paris he held a royal levee, at the sign 
 of Le Plat d'Etain. All the time he was there, 
 which exceeded twelve weeks, gates and grilles 
 were open, that everybody might see him ; that 
 everybody might freely enter, to eat and drink and 
 dance and sing ; and all people praised him highly 
 for his wit and valour and liberality." He and his 
 followers took part in the battle of Liege, on Sep- 
 tember 23, 1408, and behaved with a prowess to 
 which justice is done by a contemporary poet, who 
 does not fail to enumerate the splendid knights 
 whom Mar commanded. Among these, according 
 to Wyntoun, were " Schere James Scremgeoure of 
 Dundee," " Schire Elis of Kynnymond," " Lord of 
 the Nachtane Schire William," and " of Bothvile 
 Schire Johne." These good knights are dust — 
 their swords are rust — but one cannot help feel- 
 ing a touch of sympathetic interest when one finds 
 their names inscribed not only on the pages of 
 Wyntoun, but on those of an obscure foreign 
 record. 
 
 Lord Mar did not remain long in France. On 
 the 29th of the following December he obtained a 
 safe-conduct from the King of England to return 
 to Scotland with his company of thirty knights 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE IN FRANCE 3 
 
 and squires — just one-half the suite whom he had 
 taken with him. As Scotland had then no navy, 
 Scots who made for France had to travel through 
 England, unless some foreign power provided the 
 necessary transport. It is surprising that the 
 English Government so freely accorded permission 
 to its gallant enemies to carry their thews and 
 muscles, and their stout hearts, to the help of 
 France. 
 
 In 1419, King Charles VI. sent the Comte de 
 Vendome on an embassy to the Regent of Scot- 
 land, demanding assistance in the name of the 
 ancient alliance between the two kingdoms. The 
 Regent immediately convoked the Three Estates, 
 and it was resolved that a large force should 
 immediately be dispatched under the command 
 of John Stuart Earl of Buchan, Archibald Douglas 
 Earl of Wigton (son of the great Earl of Douglas), 
 and Sir John Stuart of Darnley, being the three 
 leaders specially designated by the King of France. 
 The ships to carry the Scottish auxiliaries were 
 furnished by France, and the King of Castile, 
 with the Infanta of Aragon — both in alliance with 
 Scotland — promised to equip at need a fleet of 
 forty ships. Henry V., who was then engaged in 
 his victorious campaigns, was alarmed at this 
 formidable diversion in favour of France, and sent 
 immediate instructions to his brother, John Duke 
 of Bedford, in whose hands he had placed the 
 reins of government during his absence at the 
 wars, to equip a fleet without delay to intercept the 
 
4 UNDER MANY FLAGS 
 
 French vessels. Either his order was neglected, 
 or it arrived too late, and an army of seven 
 thousand Scots, robust and experienced troops, 
 crossed the Channel unmolested, and disembarked 
 at La Rochclle. Marching towards the valley of 
 the Loire, they encamped at Chatillon, whence 
 they raided incessantly upon the English frontiers. 
 Bloody encounters, captured towns and castles, 
 piles of plunder — nothing was wanting to the 
 glory of these Scottish warriors, not even envy ; 
 for, failing to expel the enemy from the kingdom, 
 they were denounced to the King by the voice of 
 jealousy as "wine-bags and mutton-eaters" {sacs 
 a vin et mangeurs de inotctoiis). Charles listened 
 patiently to the slanderers, and made no reply to 
 them until after the victory at Baugy, when he 
 sarcastically inquired, " What think you now of 
 these Scottish mutton-eaters and wine-swillers } " 
 And there was no reply. 
 
 Baugy is one of those battle-fields where the 
 English leopard " lay low." The Scots, with some 
 few French, under the command of the Earl of 
 Buchan, approached the town of Baugy (or Baug6) 
 on one side of the rushing Couanar, while an 
 English army, under the Duke of Clarence, was 
 encamped on the other. The two sides were 
 connected by a narrow bridge. Buchan had sent 
 Sir John Stuart of Darnley forward to reconnoitre ; 
 and he, coming suddenly and unexpectedly on the 
 English, fell back in time to warn his friends of 
 their approach. Meanwhile, the passage of the 
 bridge was stoutly disputed by Stewart of Ralston 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE IN FRANCE 5 
 
 and Sir Hugh Kennedy, whose partisans withstood 
 with unshaken front the impetuous charge of 
 Clarence and his chivahy. The Duke, conspicuous 
 by the circle of gold on his helm, and the rich- 
 ness of his armour, was charged by John Kirk- 
 michael (who broke his spear against him), then 
 wounded in the face by Sir William of Swinton, 
 and finally borne to the ground and killed by 
 a blow from the Earl of Buchan's mace. The 
 flower of his knights and men-at-arms perished 
 with him. The main body of the English, in their 
 rage at this disaster and their anxiety to avenge 
 it, pressed into the narrow defile of the bridge in 
 such numbers as to lose all cohesion, and, struggling 
 onward in dense disorder, were cut up or taken 
 prisoners by the victorious Scots. Thus the 
 English defeat was complete, and they left from 
 one thousand six hundred to two thousand dead 
 upon the field. It is pretended that the Scots lost 
 only twelve men and the French only two, but this 
 is incredible ; nor are the mediaeval chroniclers at 
 any time to be trusted in the matter of figures, 
 which they employ with the most astonishing 
 licence. 
 
 King Charles rewarded the Earl of Buchan for 
 this brilliant service with the baton of Constable of 
 France, while Sir John Stuart of Darnley received 
 a fief in Berry. 
 
 This same Sir John received another gift of 
 lands in March 1423, and in the royal letter con- 
 veying it I find the most flattering testimony 
 adduced to " the great zeal and diligence with 
 
6 UNDER MANY FLAGS 
 
 which he and all of his company had, for the 
 space of three years or thereabouts, laboured for 
 the weal of ourselves, our kingdom, and our lord- 
 ships, sustaining very great pain, hardships, and 
 peril, and danger of person " ; and special reference 
 is made to the aforesaid battle of Baugy, where he 
 had shown himself "a valiant and courageous 
 chevalier, and had served us largely, freely, and of 
 his good-will." He is promised " an income in our 
 said kingdom of the yearly value of two thousand 
 livres tournois," to assist him in maintaining his 
 state honourably, and that " he may be the more 
 inclined to remain in our service, for which he has 
 left his wife and children, and abandoned his rents, 
 revenues, and possessions, whereon he had lived 
 liberally and nobly." More fortunate than some 
 of his companions-in-arms, Sir John actually 
 received the money. 
 
 At the time that Charles VI. was thus freely 
 rewarding his faithful auxiliaries, he had not long 
 to live ; but he was preceded to the grave by two 
 great antagonists. Having seized upon Meaux, 
 and finding his supplies were running short, he 
 sent out foraging detachments to sweep clean the 
 country-side ; but provisions still failing, he 
 ordered the soldiers to disregard the immunity of 
 St. Fiacre — son of an ancient Scottish king — which 
 no one, according to the faith of the time, had ever 
 done with impunity. All that he found in the 
 way of cat^-le and grain he carried off. Almost 
 immediately, says the continuator of Fordun, he 
 was seized with a malady which the common 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE IN FRANCE 7 
 
 people call le mal de Saint Fiacre, and became 
 hypochondriacal. Finding himself seriously ill, he 
 asked his physicians the cause of this affection, 
 and was informed that it proceeded from his 
 violation of the immunity of the Scottish Saint 
 Fiacre. Whereupon the King exclaimed gloomily, 
 " I can go nowhere without finding before my 
 beard those Scotchmen, living or dead." 
 
 Sir John Stuart of Darnley was taken prisoner 
 by the English at the battle of Crevant. He was 
 severely wounded in the fight, and lost an eye. 
 He was afterwards exchanged, and returned to 
 France again to combat under the French standard. 
 
 A brilliant soldier of fortune appeared in France 
 in the latter end of 1422, in the person of Archi- 
 bald, second Earl of Douglas, who disembarked at 
 Rochelle with an army of ten thousand knights, 
 men-at-arms, and archers (between four and five 
 thousand, according to one of the French his- 
 torians). He joined the French Court at Chatillon- 
 sur-Indre, and accompanied it to Bourges, where 
 the King declared the Earl lieutenant-general of 
 his armies, and conferred on him the Duchy of 
 Touraine, to enjoy for himself and hfs male heirs 
 in perpetuity, reserving, however, the rights of the 
 Crown. He added the town and chateau of 
 Chinon with all their dependencies. The Earl 
 did homage accordingly. The French Chambre 
 des Comptes refused at first to ratify the King's 
 letters patent, protesting that it was its duty 
 to prevent any alienation of the Crown domains. 
 
8 UNDER MANY FLAGS 
 
 Nor did the citizens of Tours and the peasants 
 of Touraine take kindly at first to their trans- 
 ference to a Scottish lord. When, however, they 
 were assured that they would suffer neither in 
 person nor in property, they accepted the inevitable, 
 and did their best to propitiate their new master; 
 sending him a present of tw^elve casks of wine, six 
 loads of hay, fifty sheep, four fat oxen, and one 
 hundred pounds of wax tapers, and mounting on 
 horseback to meet and escort him when he came 
 to take possession of his own (May 7). Tiie streets 
 of Tours were hung with tapestry and strewn with 
 flowers, as the new Duke rode on his way, with a 
 gallant attendance of knights and nobles, men-at- 
 arms and archers — all in their bravest — with 
 much waving of pennons and blare of trumpets, 
 to the cathedral, at the great door of which he 
 was received by the archbishop and all the canons 
 in full robes. The dean presented him with a 
 sceptre, an au masse, and a breviary. Having gone 
 through the usual formalities, the Duke was re- 
 ceived as a canon and installed in the choir, in the 
 presence of Louis de Bourbon Count of Vendome, 
 great chamberlain of France, John de Bourbon, his 
 brother, Prince of Carency ; and many other great 
 lords. 
 
 With this glimpse of old world ceremonies I 
 must be content. 
 
 The Scottish Duke of Touraine enjoyed his 
 honours for a few weeks only. He was killed in 
 the sanguinary battle of Verneuil in 1424, in which 
 his countrymen suffered so severely. For having 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE IN FRANCE 9 
 
 sent a message to the Duke of Bedford that they 
 would neither give nor take quarter, they so kindled 
 the fury of the English that the latter fell upon 
 them with a force which would not be denied, and 
 slew them in their thousands. A contemporary 
 writer says it was a frightful sight to see the heaps 
 of corpses piled up on the battle-field, especially 
 where the English had closed with the Scots, for 
 not one of them had been taken into mercy. The 
 Earl of Buchan was among the slain in this bloody 
 battle, which was long remembered in the annals 
 of mediaeval warfare. 
 
 Sir John Stuart of Darnley remained in the 
 French service, and for his gallant deeds of arms 
 received numerous liberal gifts from Charles VII. 
 If the Scottish adventurers who lent their swords 
 to France were loyal, it must be owned that the 
 French kings were generous. Perhaps the brilliant 
 Stuart valued as much as his lands and moneys 
 the permission he received to quarter his arms with 
 those of France. 
 
 Late in 1427, or early in the succeeding year, 
 he was sent, accompanied by the Archbishop of 
 Rheims and the Chancellor of Bayeux, to negotiate 
 the marriage of the Dauphin with the Princess 
 Margaret, the eldest daughter of James. I. The 
 negotiation was successful, though, owing to 
 the tender years of the high contracting parties, 
 the marriage did not take place until 1436. The 
 old alliance between France and Scotland being 
 thus renewed and strengthened, King Charles 
 gratefully conferred on his Scottish aimy the 
 
10 UNDER MANY FLAGS 
 
 county of Saintonge, with the castle and castle- 
 demesne of Rochefort-sur-Charente, to possess in 
 perpetuity, under reserve of the rights of the 
 Crown. 
 
 The great turning-point in the Hundred Years' 
 War between England and France was the siege 
 of Orleans. Both sides recognized its importance, 
 for its capture would have given England command 
 of all the country south of the Loire. The forces 
 mustered for the attack were therefore chosen from 
 the best English soldiery, and placed under the 
 command of some of our ablest captains. On the 
 other hand, the besiegers were encouraged by the 
 knowledge that King Charles and his council 
 would leave nothing unattempted for their relief. 
 The fighting men of Auvergne were summoned 
 from its mountains to a rendezvous at Blois, to 
 co-operate under the Comte de Clermont with 
 the Orl^anese in a general assault upon the English 
 army on the right bank of the Loire. In the early 
 days of 1429, two hundred lances led by the 
 Admiral of France and Lafayette, its second 
 marshal, rode into the beleaguered city, the ap- 
 proaches of which were not fully guarded, to arrange 
 with Dunois, the governor, the details of the pro- 
 jected enterprise. Thither did his love of adventure 
 turn Sir John Stuart, who had been on a pilgrimage 
 to the Holy Land with his brother William, and 
 four hundred gallant Scots. The end of the 
 Carnival of 1429 was close at hand, and it became 
 known that an important convoy of salted provisions 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE IN FRANCE ii 
 
 had been dispatched from Paris for the use of the 
 EngUsh army during Lent. The cutting off of this 
 convoy would greatly cripple the besiegers, and 
 the French captain resolved upon this operation 
 before they made any more serious movement. 
 
 They drew together at Yeuville, on February 
 II, five hundred lances from Orleans, under La 
 Hire, Xaintrailles, and Lafayette ; and upwards 
 of four thousand men-at-arms and archers from 
 Blois, under Clermont, Dunois, and Sir John Stuart. 
 On the 1 2th, the united force nearly five thousand 
 strong, moved forward by way of Etampes, and after 
 two hours' marching came in sight of the English 
 enemy, protected by one thousand five hundred 
 men-at-arms and bowmen (those terrible English 
 bowmen) under Sir John Fastolfe. 
 
 It was with anticipation of victory, and with 
 the benedictions that men and women bestow on 
 victors, that the city of Orleans had watched the 
 departure of La Hire and his comrades. For two 
 days the townsfolk waited in anxious suspense 
 the issue of the fight that would probably decide 
 their fortunes. Yet there seemed small cause for 
 anxiety. Their countrymen had the advantage 
 of numbers, in the proportion of two to one ; the 
 advantage of attacking the enemy when and where 
 they would ; theadvantageof fightinguncncumbered 
 with baggage ; and the advantage of having on 
 their side the sw^ords of Scottish veterans. They 
 knew that the English would be taken by surprise, 
 and that they were not only inferior in numbers, but 
 embarrassed by the train of waggons which it was 
 
12 UNDER MANY FLAGS 
 
 their duty to escort, and by the crowd of merchants 
 desirous under their safe-conduct of carrying their 
 wares for sale or barter into the EngHsh camp. 
 But they also knew that the yeomanry of England 
 were not easily beaten, and that the division now 
 approaching was led by Sir John Fastolfe, the 
 ablest champion of the age. 
 
 It was late in the night of February 12 that 
 the Orleanese were roused from their slumbers by 
 the tramp of horses and the tread of men, who 
 carried the news of their defeat. First came the 
 horsemen of Auvergne riding hard, and, though 
 with arms uninjured and equipment intact, crowned 
 with shame and discomfiture. Next galloped into 
 the city the vans laden with the dead and wounded, 
 and after them straggled the scattered remains of 
 the French army, with only a handful of the Scots. 
 The chivalry of France had once more been pitted 
 against the yeomanry of England, and had once 
 more lost. 
 
 This was the method of the battle. Of the two 
 French divisions, that under La Hire and Sir John 
 Stuart was first upon the ground, so that it could 
 see at one and the same time the English convoy 
 slowly advancing fromx Angerville, and the troops 
 of Dunois and the Comte de Clermont moving, at 
 a league's distance, upon the village of Rouvrai- 
 Saint-Denis. In acknowledgment of the superior 
 rank of the Count, a prince of the blood, La Hire 
 sent to him for instructions, and received orders 
 to halt, but not to allow his horsemen to dismount. 
 Thus the French threw away their advantage of 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE IN FRANCE 13 
 
 taking the English by surprise, and gave Fastolfc 
 time to prepare for his defence. With his loaded 
 waggons he formed a rough circular entrenchment, 
 and within it drew up his sturdy Englishmen, 
 between a double row of those pointed stakes which 
 they always carried with them to oppose the 
 attacks of cavalry, digging them deep into the 
 soil, with their sharp tops turned towards the 
 enemy. 
 
 " While La Hire and his soldiers," says Quicherat, 
 "observed with fixed attention these preparations, 
 the Auvergnats, having drawn bridle at Rouvrai, 
 leisurely sacked the cellars of that village, and 
 when messengers were sent to quicken their 
 movements, the Comte de Clermont replied that 
 the Orleanese must have patience. At length La 
 Hire lost his temper; and, his cheeks burning 
 with shame at the ridiculous attitude to which he 
 had been condemned, he threw his troops upon 
 the English baggage-train, where Fastolfe had 
 stationed the waggons, merchants, and hucksters. 
 He supposed that the English would break out of 
 their temporary encampment and hasten to their 
 relief, but Fastolfe was too skilled a commander 
 to expose his small force in the open, and was 
 content to pour in deadly volleys of arrows upon 
 the enemy while engaged in their work of pillage. 
 For a time La Hire made no advance against the 
 English lines, afraid of impaling his horses upon 
 the chevaux-de-frise of pointed stakes ; but Sir John 
 Stuart and his brother, wearying of inaction, flung 
 themselves from their horses, and followed by the 
 
14 UNDER MANY FLAGS 
 
 Scots and Gascons, who imitated their example, 
 rushed headlong forward. The struggling crowd 
 was soon thrown into disorder by the cloth-yard 
 shafts which fell in repeated showers. At this 
 crisis Fastolfe let loose his men-at-arms ; and, as 
 the Comte de Clermont, indignant at the disobedience 
 of his orders, retreated hastily upon Orleans, they 
 soon slew or wounded every foeman whom they 
 found upon the field. All the courage and stead- 
 fastness of Sir John and his countrymen could not 
 turn back the tide of battle, and they fell, fighting 
 bravely to the last." 
 
 The Parisians, as epigrammatic in the fifteenth 
 as in the nineteenth century, satirically termed the 
 rout of Rouvrai la Journee des Harengs^ because 
 the French cannon, instead of sweeping away the 
 English ranks, shattered the barrels which contained 
 the herrinscs and salt fish intended for the Lenten 
 supply of the besiegers of Orleans. 
 
 The two Stuarts were buried in the cathedral of 
 Orleans, in the chapel of Our White Lady, behind 
 the choir, where also was interred Elizabeth, Sir 
 John's wife. She and her husband had founded a 
 daily high mass to be chanted in the chapel by a 
 canon and the children of the choir, and this trust 
 was fulfilled down to the time of the Revolution. 
 As Constable of the Scottish army, Sir John was 
 succeeded by his eldest son, Sir Alan, who arrived 
 in France after the battle of Vcrncuil. The faith- 
 ful service of the Stuarts brought them more 
 honour than wealth ; and in spite of grants made 
 by Charles VII. — which could not be realized, 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE IN FRANCE 15 
 
 owing to the disturbed state of tlie country — Sir 
 John's sons were compelled to apply for protection 
 from their creditors. 
 
 A Sir Hugh Kennedy may here be intro- 
 duced as an excellent type of a certain class of 
 valiant Scottish adventurers. According to Pit- 
 cairn, he was a son of the laird of Balgany, and 
 destined in his early years for the monastic con- 
 dition ; but he had the soldier's temper and the 
 adventurer's restlessness, and, casting his frock 
 aside, crossed with the laird of Blaquham into 
 France, and offered his sword to Charles VII. 
 "Brother Hugh," as he was nicknamed, rapidly 
 rose in the King's favour, distinguishing him- 
 self by his prowess at the battle of Baugy, at the 
 battle of the Herrings, and in the deliverance 
 of Orleans. Afterwards he accompanied Charles 
 to the Holy Land, and clothed himself in the odour 
 of sanctity. On his return he received intelligence 
 of the death of his brother, the laird of Balgany. 
 Thereupon he took leave of his royal friend and 
 patron, who paid him for his services in gold and 
 silver, and granted to him, as he had granted to 
 Stuart of Darnley, permission to quarter with his 
 arms the fleurs-de-lis of France. 
 
 On his arrival in Scotland, he purchased the 
 lands of Arstensar (valued at ten livres yearly), 
 and several other estates, with the French King's 
 gifts ; whence he acquired the significant nickname 
 of Come with the Penny. He waxed fat, acquired 
 an extensive property, and became progenitor of 
 
I6 UNDER MANY FLAGS 
 
 several great houses. But his title to be remembered 
 by posterity lies in the fact that he fought under 
 the sacred banner of Jeanne d'Arc, the virgin- 
 champion of France. Otherwise, there is reason 
 to fear that he was a good deal of a freebooter, 
 and that " the pence " he carried back with him to 
 Scotland were not all obtained from so pure a 
 source as the liberal hand of a grateful king. 
 
 It is pleasant to recollect that many gallant 
 Scots fought by the side of the noble Maid of 
 Orl(fans. At that grand pageant in the cathedral 
 of Rheims, the coronation of Charles VI I. (July 
 17, 1429), a distinguished company of Scottish 
 "seigneurs, chefs et capitans de guerre," gathered 
 round the Maid and the King. There were 
 Patrick Ogilvy Earl of Angus, Christian Chambers, 
 Gilbert Hay, John Lockhart, Peter Graham,^ all 
 of them knights ; John Watt, John Lawes, Peter 
 Law, Peter Arnot, Robert Houston, Michael Nor- 
 ville, Walter " Fautier," and another Gilbert Hay — 
 possibly son of the former — who were probably 
 men-at-arms. 
 
 Here is a grim story, which reveals the seamy 
 side of war. 
 
 A Scottish adventurer, of the name of Michael 
 Hamilton, relates that, in the Holy Week of the 
 year 1429, he and several of his comrades were 
 lodged in a village named Vallet, near the town 
 of Clisson, where they were menaced by the 
 Bretons, who swarmed about the neighbouring 
 
 1 I render the French perversions into what, I hope, are 
 good Scottish names. 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE IN FRANCE 17 
 
 country-side. A spy, who had been sent to ascer- 
 tain the position of the Scots, fell into their hands ; 
 he was made to disclose his errand, and was then 
 hung ; after which they took to flight, but not 
 without leaving some of their company in the 
 hands of the peasants. Among these unfortunates 
 was Hamilton himself, whom the weight of his 
 armour had embarrassed ; he was carried off to 
 Clisson, and hung by the spy's son, who burned to 
 avenge the death of his father. At the moment 
 of his capture he had invoked the life of St 
 Catherine, and made a vow to thank her in her 
 chapel of Fierbois — where Jeanne d'Arc had dis- 
 covered her sword — if she preserved him from 
 death. A lucky vow ! For, on the following 
 night, while he was still dangling from the gibbet, 
 the cure of Clisson heard a voice which bade him 
 make haste and cut down the Scotchman. At 
 first he paid little attention ; but the order being 
 repeated, he sent one of his parishioners to see if the 
 unfortunate man were dead or not. After turning 
 and re-turning the suspended body, his messenger, 
 to make sure, took the boot off the right foot of 
 Hamilton, and pierced his little toe in such wise 
 that the blood flowed; Hamilton, feeling himself 
 wounded, drew back his leg, and stirred. 
 
 Panic-stricken, the messenger took to his heels, 
 and never stopped until he reached the house of 
 the cure, to whom he related all that had passed. 
 Perceiving in this strange affair an intervention 
 from on high, the cure repeated the facts to his 
 people ; and he and his fellow-clerg}', assuming 
 
l8 UNDER MANY FLAGS 
 
 their sacerdotal habits, went in procession to the 
 gibbet, and cut down Hamilton. This was done 
 in the presence of the man who had acted as his 
 executioner ; and he, in a storm of wrath at the 
 escape of his victim — though he was himself to 
 blame for having hung him so clumsily that death 
 had not supervened ! — gave him with his sword a 
 slash on the ear. The crov/d, however, interfered ; 
 Hamilton was set upon horseback, and conveyed 
 to a house to be taken care of ; but the wonderful 
 story reaching the ears of the Abbess of la Re- 
 grippiere, she sent for its hero to her convent, and 
 undertook his charge. Hamilton was reciting the 
 narrative of his adventures, v;hen a voice reminded 
 him that he had a vow to fulfil. In a fortnight, 
 when he was in a condition to move, he proceeded 
 toward Fierbois, where, we will hope that, like an 
 honest Scotchman, he discharged his obligation to 
 St. Catherine. 
 
 In the year rendered memorable by the battle of 
 Verneuil, one Robert Pittillock, of Dundee, with a 
 company of adventurers, made his appearance in 
 the French wars. He did such excellent service 
 to Charles VII., principally in the south of France, 
 and was held in such esteem, that he received and 
 long bore the sham title of" Little King of Gascony." 
 In the letters of naturalization which were given 
 to him by Charles, he is designated " squire of the 
 royal stable " {ecuyer de Vecurie die Roi) ; a circum- 
 stance which lends probability to the statement of 
 Hector Boece, that he began in the lowest grade 
 of the Scots Guard, and by his courage and fidelity 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE IN FRANCE 19 
 
 raised himself to the command. It is interesting 
 to remember that in this position he had under 
 his orders a Scotchman named Poquelin, whose 
 descendants afterwards settled at Paris, and gave 
 to France one of its greatest literary glories in the 
 person of Jean Poquelin, better known by his 
 assumed name of Moliere. 
 
 It is said — I don't know on what authority — that 
 after Pittillock's death, a statue was erected to his 
 honour in the hall of the King's palace. 
 
 To enumerate all the gallant Scotchmen who 
 distinguished themselves on the battle-fields of 
 France would be a task beyond my purpose. 
 Some of these won wealth and rank, besides fam.e ; 
 founded families, and took their places in the ranks 
 of the French aristocracy ; thus ofTering a constant 
 incentive to the Scottish youth to transport their 
 intrepid and courageous spirits to a country which 
 welcomed them so cordially. During the fifteenth 
 century there was a constant immigration into 
 France of these adventurers — younger sons, pro- 
 bably, most of them, with a good deal more of 
 pedigree than purse. i 
 
 Now I pass on to speak of that famous fighting 
 company, the Scots Guards, with whom the genius 
 of Sir Walter Scott, In the stirring pages of 
 Qiientin Diirivard^ has made most of us familiar. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 THE SCOTS GUARD 
 
 There are not wanting authorities who pretend 
 that the Scots Guard was founded by no less a 
 personage than Charlemagne; but to the accept- 
 ance of this interesting statement the objections 
 are obvious. Though the origin of the Guard is 
 enveloped in a good deal of obscurity, the most 
 probable explanation seems to be that it was 
 first formed out of the few gallant Scots who 
 escaped from the crushing defeat at Verneuil, and 
 were willing to enrol themselves permanently as 
 the body-guard of Charles VII. At the death of 
 that generous master, in 1461, they showed their 
 grief by weeping aloud — in strange contrast to the 
 normal Scottish self-control. An old chronicler 
 thought the thing worth recording — 
 
 " Les gens et serviteurs pleuroient 
 A chaudes larmes fondamment, 
 Et les Escossoys hault crioient 
 Par forme de gemissement." 
 
 [His people and servants wept hot tears abundantly, 
 
 and the Scotch cried aloud in sob and groan.] 
 
 They had reason to lament a king who had 
 
 20 
 
rUE SCOTS GUARD 21 
 
 befriended them greatly and treated them with 
 special confidence. Not content with entrusting 
 to them the care of his person, he made their 
 captain, Nicholas Chambers, one of his familiar 
 friends, and poured liberal gifts into his hands. 
 
 Under Louis XL the Guard consisted of one 
 hundred men-at-arms and two hundred archers. 
 Its captain was a high officer of state, and ap- 
 pointed, at first, by the King of Scotland. Later 
 on in its history, when the influx of Scots into 
 France had ceased, and the Guard was Scotch 
 only in name, it became necessary to place so 
 important an office in native hands. ]\Ir. Hill 
 Burton thinks that, to avoid offending the pride of 
 their susceptible allies, the change was smoothed 
 over by the selection of a native Frenchman with 
 a Scotcii name, the Count of Montgomery ; but 
 this may simply have been a coincidence. His 
 son, who succeeded him in the captaincy, was the 
 unhappy P>Iontgomery whose spear killed King 
 Henry H. at the tournament held in honour of 
 his daughter Elizabeth's marriage to Philip H. of 
 Spain. The death of King Henry, by raising to 
 the throne his eldest son, her husband, as Francis 
 H., made Mary Stuart Queen of France. 
 
 The privileges of the Scots Guard point to the 
 fulness of trust reposed in its members. The 
 protection of the royal person was entrusted to 
 twenty-four of them, who took charge of the keys 
 of his sleeping-chamber, and of the oratory where 
 he offered up his prayers. When, in the course of 
 a royal progress, he entered a walled town, its keys 
 
22 UNDER MANY FLAGS 
 
 were placed in the hands of the Captain of the 
 Guard. They escorted his boat when he crossed 
 a ferry, and surrounded his litter when he was 
 carried. On ordinary occasions two of them stood 
 behind him ; but during great ceremonies, three 
 stood on either side of the throne. 
 
 As a special honour, they were allowed to 
 decorate their halberds with white silk fringe — ■ 
 white being the royal colour of France. 
 
 Mr. Hill Burton observes that " there is some- 
 thing melancholy beyond description in contem- 
 plating the condition of a country, the vital 
 treasures of which had to be confided to the 
 fidelity and bravery of hireling strangers." He 
 adds — " If there was a fault in the affair, however, 
 it was not with the Scots ; they were true to their 
 trust, and paid faith with faith. On their side of 
 the bargain, too, there is something touching in 
 the picture of a hardy, high-spirited race robbed 
 of their proper field of exertion at home, and 
 driven to a foreign land, there to bestow the enter- 
 prising energy that might have made their own 
 illustrious ; and serving a foreign master with the 
 single-minded fidelity that had been nourished 
 within them by the love of their own land and 
 kindred." 
 
 One of the most notable instances of this fidelity 
 is recorded by Philip de Comines. It was the 
 proven courage and loyalty of the Scots Guard 
 that delivered Louis XI. from imminent peril in his 
 ill-advised attack, in concert with the Duke of 
 Burgundy, upon the city of Liege. Louis, at the 
 
THE SCOTS GUARD 23 
 
 time, was plotting to crush the independence of 
 Burgundy and bring it under the rule of France, 
 while the Duke was intriguing to convert his 
 duchy into a kingdom, which should eventually 
 include France itself. Over-reaching himself by 
 the very subtlety of his plans, Louis got placed 
 within the Burgundian lines with no apparent 
 resource but his Scots Guard, and when the 
 Liegeois made a desperate sortie against the 
 Duke's camp, his danger was very real. 
 
 " I, and two gentlemen more of his bed- 
 chamber," says Philip de Comines, " lay that 
 night in the Duke of Burgundy's chamber (which 
 was very small), and above us were twelve archers 
 upon the guard, all of them in their clothes, and 
 playing at dice. His main guard was at a good 
 distance, and towards the gate of the town ; in 
 short, the master of the house where the Duke 
 was quartered, having drawn out a good party 
 of the Liegeois, came so suddenly upon the Duke, 
 we had scarcely time to put on his back and 
 breast-plate, and a steel morion on his head. As 
 soon as this was done, we ran down-stairs into the 
 street, but found our archers engaged with the 
 enemy, against whom they with difficulty defended 
 the doors and windows. In the street the noise 
 and uproar was terrible, some crying out, ' God 
 bless the King ! ' others, ' God bless the Duke of 
 Burgundy ! ' and others, * God bless the King ! ' and 
 ' Kill, kill, kill ! ' 
 
 " It was some time before our archers and our- 
 selves could beat the enemy from the doors, and 
 
24 UNDER MANY FLAGS 
 
 get out of the house. We knew not in what 
 condition the King was, nor whether he was for or 
 against us, which put us into a great consternation. 
 As soon as we were in the street, we discovered, 
 with the help of two or three torches, some few of 
 our men, and could perceive people fighting round 
 about us ; but the action there was soon over, the 
 soldiers from all parts crowding in to the Duke's 
 quarter. The Duke's landlord was the first man 
 of the enemy's side that was killed (who did not 
 die at once, for I heard him speak), and with him 
 his whole party — or, at least, most of them — were 
 cut in pieces. 
 
 " The King was attacked in the same manner 
 by Jiis landlord, who forced his way into his house, 
 but was slain by the Scots Guard. These Scotch 
 soldiers behaved themselves right gallantly, held 
 fast their ground, would not budge a step from 
 their master,^ and were very alert with their bows 
 and arrows, with which, it is said, they wounded 
 and killed more of the Burgundians than of the 
 enemy. Those who were appointed made their 
 sally at the gate, but found a strong guard to 
 oppose them, who gave them a warm reception, 
 and as they were not such good soldiers as the 
 rest, quickly beat them back. As soon as they 
 were repulsed, the King and the Duke met, and 
 held conference together. Seeing several dead 
 bodies around them, they feared their loss had 
 been greater than it really proved to have been ; 
 
 ^ " Se monstrerent bicn bonnes gens ; car ils ne bougerent 
 du pied de leur maistre." 
 
THE SCOTS GUARD 25 
 
 for upon examination they found that not many 
 had been killed, though not a few were wounded ; 
 and undoubtedly, if the enemy had not halted at 
 those two places, and especially at the barn, where 
 they met with more resistance, but had followed 
 their guides, they would have slain both King 
 Louis and the Duke, and in all probability would 
 have defeated the rest of the army. 
 
 "Each of these princes retired to his quarters 
 greatly astonished at the boldness of the attempt ; 
 and immediately a council of war was summoned 
 to decide what measures should be taken the next 
 morning in relation to the assault which had 
 previously been determined upon. The King was 
 in great perplexity, for he feared that if the Duke 
 did not take the city by storm, the inconvenience 
 would be his, and he would either be kept longer 
 under restraint, or made an absolute prisoner, for 
 the Duke could not think himself secure against 
 a war with France if he should suffer him to 
 depart. By this distrust of each other one may 
 clearly discover the miserable condition of these 
 two princes, who were wholly unable to confide in 
 one another, though they had made a firm peace not 
 a fortnight before, and solemnly sworn to preserve it." 
 
 In elucidation of the above episode it may be 
 stated that the object of Duke Charles of Burgundy 
 was to punish the Liegeois for having treated their 
 bishop with contumelious violence. Knowing that 
 the walls of the city had not been repaired since 
 he had battered them not long before, he advanced 
 with reckless confidence, so that his vanguard was 
 
26 UNDER MANY FLAGS 
 
 surprised, under cover of night, by a party of the 
 citizens, and lost eight hundred men. 
 
 When the Duke and King Louis XI. arrived, 
 they took up their quarters in two villas situated 
 near to the city walls. During the two or three days 
 which followed, Louis pressed the siege with great 
 regularity and prudence ; while the Duke showed 
 his characteristic recklessness, and watched his 
 ally much more closely than he watched the 
 movements of his rebellious citizens. 
 
 At length October 20, 1468, was fixed for a 
 general storm. The citizens, forewarned of the 
 intention, resolved to prevent its being carried out 
 by a desperate sortie through the breaches in 
 their walls. They fell upon the Duke of Bur- 
 gundy's quarters before his guards could put on 
 their armour ; and almost simultaneously attacked 
 the King's, but were foiled by the steadfastness 
 of the Scots Guard. When the men-at-arms, 
 Burgundian and French, recovered from their con- 
 fusion, they speedily compelled the citizens to fall 
 back within their walls ; and, weary and disap- 
 pointed, they made but an ineffective resistance 
 when the storm took place at daybreak. Liege 
 was taken ; and the usual scene of rapine, pillage, 
 and murder followed. 
 
 The incidents are introduced in Scott's Qnentin 
 Durwardy the novelist varying but little in the 
 main lines of his narrative from those of Comines. 
 
 The costume of a soldier of the Scots Guard, 
 as described by Scott in the person of Ludovic 
 Lesly, was very imposing. 
 
THE SCOTS GUARD 27 
 
 " His dress and arms were splendid. He wore 
 his national bonnet, crested with a tuft of feathers, 
 and with a Virgin Mary of massive silver for a 
 brooch. These brooches had been presented to 
 the Scottish Guard, in consequence of the King, in 
 one of his fits of superstitious piety, having devoted 
 the swords of his guard to the service of the Holy 
 Virgin, and, as some say, carried the matter so far 
 as to draw out a commission to Our Lady as their 
 Captain-general. The archer's gorget, arm-pieces, 
 and gauntlets were of the finest steel, curiously 
 inlaid with silver, and his hauberk, or shirt of mail, 
 was as clear and bright as the frost-work of a 
 winter morning upon fern or brier. He wore a 
 loose surcoat or cassock, of rich blue velvet, open 
 at the sides like that of a herald, with a large 
 white St. Andrew's cross of embroidered silver 
 bisecting it both before and behind ; his knees and 
 legs were protected by hose of mail and shoes of 
 steel ; a broad strong poniard (called the Mercy of 
 God) hung by his right side ; the baldrick for his 
 two-handed sword, richly embroidered, hung upon 
 his left shoulder ; but, for convenience, he at present 
 carried in his hand that unwieldy weapon, which 
 the rules of his service forbade him to lay aside." 
 
 Each archer of the Scots Guard was mounted as 
 sumptuously as he was armed and equipped ; and 
 each was entitled to allowance for a squire, a 
 valet, a page, and two yeomen, one of whom was 
 termed coutelier, from the large knife which he wore 
 to dispatch those whom in the melee his master 
 had thrown to the ground. ** With these followers 
 
^8 UNDER MANY FLAGS 
 
 and a corresponding equipage, an archer of the 
 Scots Guard was a person of quality and im- 
 portance ; and vacancies being generally filled up 
 by those who had been trained in the service as 
 pages or valets, the cadets of the best Scotch 
 families were often sent to serve under some friend 
 and relation in these capacities, until a chance of 
 preferment should occur." The cotitelier and his 
 fellow-yeoman, not being of noble birth, and 
 incapable of promotion to the grade of archers, 
 were recruited from an inferior social class ; but 
 their pay being liberal and their appointments 
 excellent, their masters had no difficulty in select- 
 ing from the stout Scots who sought their fortune, 
 almost any number of persons fitted to wait upon 
 them in these capacities. The general equipment 
 of the yeoman resembled his master's, but he wore 
 no armour on the limbs, and the body armour 
 was more coarsely wrought ; the cassock was made 
 of serge instead of velvet ; and the cap was with- 
 out a plume. 
 
 The Scots Guard rendered excellent service to 
 King Louis at Montlhery, where they twice de- 
 livered the Comte de Charolais from the attacks of 
 the enemy. They were also in close attendance on 
 the King, in April 1475, when he mustered his 
 forces at Porte-Sainte-Mayence against the Duke 
 of Burgundy. 
 
 Down to the middle of the fifteenth century, the 
 conduct of the archers of the Scots Guard appears 
 (says M. Michel) to have given rise to no serious 
 complaint ; a fact very much to the credit of a 
 
THE SCOTS GUARD 29 
 
 body of soldiers so privileged and caressed. In 
 1463, however, one was dismissed for having killed 
 a comrade — it is not said under what circumstances, 
 nor whether he suffered any other punishment ; 
 and in 1474 some of them were involved in an 
 affair which is thus recorded by an old chronicler, 
 Jean de Troyes. 
 
 The young son of a brigandinicr (that is, a 
 maker of coats-of-mail), who had been brought up 
 in part by a Paris fishmonger, and was thus aware 
 that during Lent he had amassed a large sum of 
 money by the sale of fish, was ungrateful enough 
 to plan his robbery. Concealing himself in the 
 fishmonger's house, he opened the door at mid- 
 night to three Scots, his accomplices, one of whom 
 was called Mortimer, alias FEaiyer^ and another 
 Thomas Clerk. The name of the third is not 
 given. The robbers carried off a sum of two 
 thousand five hundred livres tournois ; but their 
 crime was soon detected, and the utmost diligence 
 used in pursuing them. So that on the very same 
 day the young brigandinicr was hunted down at 
 the Carmelites, where he had taken refuge as in 
 an inviolable asylum ; but he was haled out of the 
 sacred precincts, loaded with irons, and conveyed 
 to the prison of the Chatelet. There he confessed 
 that his pawky confederates had taken all the 
 money. IMortimcr would soon have been an 
 inmate of the same prison, but a couple of the 
 Scots Guard seeing a fellow-countryman in danger, 
 fell upon the officers and enabled him to escape. 
 Another of the robbers, who was found in sanctuary 
 
30 UNDER MANY FLAGS 
 
 in the church of St. Catherine du Val des Ecoliers, 
 offered a stout resistance, wounding several of the 
 Provost's men. Covered with blood, he was dragged 
 to the Chatelet, where he confessed his crime, and 
 whence he emerged only to be hung and strangled 
 on the gallows of Paris. He alone seems to have 
 suffered punishment. 
 
 We read of the Scots Guard again in i486, when 
 Charles VIII. made a grand entry into Troyes, 
 preceded by these splendid warriors in all their 
 martial bravery. Every eye was attracted by the 
 standard of their captain. It was of three colours, 
 red, white, and green, and measured six feet in 
 length. Upon its silken folds were emblazoned a 
 golden sun and a figure of St. Michael; "the 
 protector of France." 
 
 Octavien de Saint-Gelais, a French poet of the 
 time, describing the visit of King Charles VI 11. to 
 Florence, introduces a really graphic sketch of our 
 gallant Scots, which the reader may like to see in 
 the original spelling — 
 
 "Apres vindront les archiers de la garde. 
 Grans, puissans, bien croisez, bien perduz, 
 Qui ne portoient picque ne halebarde, 
 Fors qui biens avez gorrierement tenduz. 
 Leurs bracelez aux pongnetz estendez 
 Bien atacliez k grans chaynes d'argent, 
 Autour du col le gorgerin bien gent, 
 De cramoisy le plantureux pourpoint 
 Assez propre, fusse pour un regent 
 Ou grant due, acoustre bien a point, 
 Dessus le chief la bien clue sallade 
 A cloux douz fourniz de pierreries, 
 Dessus le dos le liocqueton fort sade 
 
THE SCOTS GUARD 3 1 
 
 Tout sursem^ de fini orphavine, 
 La courte dague, I'espee bien fourtre, 
 Le gaye tronose k custode vermeille 
 Le pied en I'air, aux escoutes I'oreille." 
 
 Freely rendered, the passage quoted puts the 
 Scottish archers before us in a spirited fashion as 
 tall and strong, well-set-up, well-limbed, — carrying 
 neither pike nor halberd, but a bow of mighty 
 dimensions, — their bracelets fastened to great silver 
 chains ; around the neck a bright steel gorget ; the 
 cx^moxsy pourpoint or doublet fit for a regent or a 
 grand duke ; on the head a shining sallet or steel 
 cap, its gilded nails set with precious stones ; on 
 the back a hauberk, inlaid with the finest gold- 
 work ; a short dagger ; a well-polished sword ; 
 scarlet trews ; the foot in the air, and ears always 
 on the alert. It is easy, from this description, to 
 conjure up the picturesque figures of these sons of 
 Scotland, as, proud of their trust and themselves, 
 they marched airily along with a free proud 
 gait, but always on the watch for hidden or open 
 foe. 
 
 George Cavendish, in his Life of Cardinal 
 Wolsey, when recording the Cardinal's interview 
 with Francis I., in 1527, mentions that the King 
 had " about his person, both before him and behind 
 him, besides the wonderful number of noblemen 
 and gentlemen, three great guards diversely ap- 
 parelled." And he adds — " The third guard was 
 pour le corpSy which was of tall Scots, inuck more 
 coinelier persons tJian all the rest. The French 
 guard and the Scots had all one livery, which was 
 
32 UNDER MANY FLAGS 
 
 rich coats of fine white cloth, with a guard of silver 
 bullion embroidered an handful broad." 
 
 In 1488, the Duke of Orleans (afterwards Louis 
 XII.), having been taken prisoner at the battle of 
 Saint-Aubin (July 27), was detained in the great 
 Tower of Bourges until July 1489, in the custody 
 of a company of Scotch archers, commanded by 
 Captain Patrick Maclellan. They not only gar- 
 risoned the Tower, but also occupied some of the 
 neighbouring houses. 
 
 Yielding to the earnest entreaties of his sister, 
 Jeanne de France, Charles VIII. pardoned her 
 husband. One evening the King set out secretly 
 from the Castle of Plessis-les-Tours, under the pre- 
 tence that he was going hunting, and forbade his 
 suite to follow him. Attended by a small escort, 
 he rode to Montrichard, where he passed the night, 
 and on the day after followed the banks of the 
 Cher to the bridge of Barangeon, near the con- 
 fluence of the Cher and the Indre. There he 
 halted, and sent forward to Bourges a certain 
 Bernard Stuart, Lord of Aubigny, who afterwards 
 became Viceroy and Constable of Sicily and 
 Jerusalem. 
 
 The Lord of Aubigny was well known at Bourges. 
 He went straight to the great Tower, and in virtue 
 of the King's orders, released from custody the 
 Duke of Orleans, then mounted him on horseback, 
 and conducted him to the bridge of Barangeon. 
 On arriving in the presence of the King, who 
 awaited him with patience, the Duke hastily dis- 
 mounted and threw himself on his knees : Charles 
 
THE SCOTS GUARD 33 
 
 VI IT. raised him, embraced him, and both then 
 rode to Bourges. There they were seated at the 
 same table, and after dinner remained together un- 
 attended, conversing for a long time. The bursts 
 of laughter which were heard without sufficiently 
 attested to the thoroughness of the reconciliation 
 between the two princes ; of which a further proof 
 was given, after the fashion of the age, by their 
 occupying the same bed at night. 
 
 A few years later, another distinguished prisoner, 
 Ludovic Sforza, of Milan, was entrusted by Louis 
 VII. to the fidelity of some of the Scots Guard in 
 the Castle of Loches. The chronicler relates that 
 in the early days of his captivity he was shut up 
 in a subterranean chamber, of which the door and 
 roof were of iron ; but afterwards, in the custody 
 of "some Scotch soldiers," he was allowed more 
 liberty. 
 
 This paragraph is a digression. Let us return 
 to Charles VII I., and follow him on his celebrated 
 expedition into Italy in 1494. From the pages of 
 Paulus Jovino we learn that the gigantic and 
 brawny Scots of the royal guard were the observed 
 of all observers on the King's entrance into Rome ; 
 and that there, as elsewhere, they guarded not only 
 the entrance to the royal lodgings, but every door 
 which gave access to his private apartment. Their 
 prowess was the theme of universal admiration 
 throughout the campaign ; and at the battle of 
 Fornovo, where nine of them were slain, they 
 specially distinguished themselves. 
 
 In the Naples campaign, in 1495, the Scotch 
 
34 UNDER MANY FLAGS 
 
 archers, under Bernard Stuart, Lord of Aiibigny 
 (to whom I have ah'eady referred), displayed their 
 characteristic intrepidity. D'Aubigny, however, 
 found himself unable to resist the attacks of the 
 " Great Captain," Gonzalvo of Cordova, and fell 
 back into Calabria, the greater portion of which 
 was in the hands of the French. But the arms of 
 the Great Captain continued to be successful ; and, 
 after losing Manfredonia and Cosenza, finding 
 himself besieged in Groppoli without hope of as- 
 sistance, he abandoned the province, and obtained 
 permission to return to France by land. 
 
 On his return he was rewarded for his services 
 with the collar of the Order of Saint Michael. As 
 for his gallant Scotch archers, he would seem to 
 have lost twenty-two ; for when their equipment 
 was renewed, payment was made for the embroidery 
 of only eight-and-seventy hauberks (1500). 
 
 I pass briefly over these events because, even to 
 the Scots reader of to-day, unless he be a student 
 or an expert, they belong to ancient history, and 
 have no living interest or importance wherefore he 
 should give them any special attention ; yet, at the 
 same time, as his ancestors and countrymen were 
 concerned in them — the members of the famous 
 Scots Guard which so bravely upheld the good 
 repute of the Scottish arms — he cannot be supposed 
 to be wholly indifferent. 
 
 There is not much more to be said about them. 
 Henry II. held them in as much esteem as Charles 
 VIII. or Louis XI. had done, and was never loth 
 to grant them his special patronage. During his 
 
THE SCOTS GUARD 35 
 
 reign occurred a quaint little affair of which Sir 
 James Melville speaks in his Memoirs. Briefly told, 
 this is the sum of it. — Captain Ringan Cockburn of 
 the Scots Guard, after a visit to the home country, 
 had just returned to his post. Melville describes 
 him as a plunderer, who visited some of Melville's 
 friends. One day he asked Melville if he spoke 
 French well. No, he did not. He was always 
 talking — this captain — of the important things he 
 wanted to confide to the Constable, who then 
 governed France under the King; and he entreated 
 Melville to act as his interpreter, since he himself 
 could stammer out only a few French phrases. 
 But he refused to reveal what he wanted to say to 
 the Constable, except in his presence. At last, the 
 Constable agreed to give them an audience, and 
 they were ushered, one day, into his cabinet, when 
 he was alone with his secretary. Then the captain 
 began his declaration, and invited Melville to 
 translate it, but that shrewd Scot wished to know 
 more. Whereupon the captain recited a tremen- 
 dously prolix narrative about the Archbishop of St. 
 Andrews and his recent cure of an attack of 
 asthma by Cardano, an Italian magician. Pressed 
 to translate what the captain had been saying, 
 young Melville, reddening to the eyes, boldly replied 
 to the Constable with the advice not to waste his 
 time in listening to such a rigmarole — a plainness 
 of language and a common-sense which greatly 
 impressed the French statesman. He took down 
 the name of the young Scot, and his interest knew 
 no bounds when he saw him refuse the assistance 
 
36 UNDER AT ANY FLAGS 
 
 which the captain had offered through a fiction, 
 Melville afterwards entered the French service (in 
 
 July 1553). 
 
 The members of the Scots Guard were doughty 
 swordsmen, but, I suspect, indifferent penmen. 
 One of them, however, not only wrote a book but 
 printed it. This was Robert Norvill, man-at-arms, 
 who embraced the principles of the reformed 
 religion, and in consequence was sent to the Bastile. 
 To beguile the weary hours of his captivaty he 
 wrote a small volume entitled " The Mirroure of 
 the Christian, composed and drawn from the Holy 
 Scriptures by Robert Norvill, man-at-arms, during 
 the time of his captivitie at Paris in the Bastillie for 
 the testimonie of our saviour Jesus Christ," which 
 he dedicated to his comrades — " To all the Archers 
 of the Scottish Guard I wish health, honour, and 
 prosperity." Norvill's book was printed at Edin- 
 burgh in 1 561. Probably he had been dismissed 
 from the French service, and had returned to his 
 own country. 
 
 I shall conclude this chapter with the tragic 
 story of Robert Stuart, who, like Norvill, was a 
 Reformer, but met with a harsher f^itc. It throws 
 a vivid side-light on the stormy lives that were led 
 by these Scottish adventurers in the stirring times 
 of old. 
 
 One December evening, in 1559, Antoine Minard, 
 President of the Parliament of Paris, a zealous 
 partisan of the Guises, was killed with a pistol- 
 shot by some unknown hand as he was returning 
 from the palace. The voice of rumour was 
 
THE SCOTS GUARD 37 
 
 immediately busy as to the author of the crime, 
 and his motive. Motives were readily conjectured, 
 for the President's immorality was as notorious as 
 the general viciousness of his conduct ; besides, it 
 was known that he was exceedingly obnoxious to 
 the Lutherans, because he instigated the Guises to 
 persecute them, and did them many other wrongs, 
 though he had formerly professed their doctrine. 
 Suspicion, after hovering over many persons, 
 settled at last upon this Robert Stuart, who claimed 
 kinship wnth the Queen (Mary Stuart) ; and as he 
 was known to have paid several visits to his im- 
 prisoned co-religionists, he w^as arrested on an 
 accusation of having schemed to effect their deliver- 
 ance by setting fire to the city, and in the consequent 
 confusion breaking open the various prisons. 
 
 I suspect that the charge was not without found- 
 ation, for Stuart did not succeed in shaking the 
 evidence of those witnesses with whom he w^as con- 
 fronted ; but the Parliament refused to condemn 
 him. Of this laxity the King was far from approv- 
 ing ; and he sent instructions to the parliament to 
 put the unfortunate Scot to the torture, in order to 
 get at the bottom and source of the evil. Stuart 
 made an appeal to Mary Stuart ; but that princess, 
 desirous of pleasing her uncles, the Guises, dis- 
 avowed her alleged kinsman, and he was bound to 
 the rack. Nothing, however, was extorted from 
 him ; and eventually he was set free. 
 
 Not the less was he fated to come to a violent 
 end. The old Constable, Anne de Montmorency, 
 having been killed, like President Minard, by a 
 
38 UNDER MANY FLAGS 
 
 pistol-shot, his death also was attributed to Stuart, 
 who, it was alleged, made his bullets of such a 
 composition that no cuirass, however well tempered, 
 was proof against them. He called them 
 " Stuardio," says Brantome, and gave them to 
 his Huguenot friends. 
 
 This Stuart, says the gossiping old chronicler, 
 was taken prisoner at the battle of Jarnac, and 
 brought before the General, M. le Marquis de 
 Villars, who, as soon as he caught sight of him, 
 went up to him, and cried, " Wretch that thou art, 
 it is thou who didst wickedly kill my brother ; thou 
 shalt die." And turning to Monsieur le Prince, he 
 said — " Monsieur, I beg you, for the services which 
 I have done you, give me leave to kill this man now 
 in your presence." Monsieur at first refused; but the 
 Marquis pressing him with ceaseless importunity, 
 he reluctantly exclaimed, " Well, be it so." '* Oh, 
 Monsieur," cried Stuart, " you are so magnanimous 
 and generous a prince that you would not pollute 
 your eyes or your beautiful soul with so foul a 
 sight." But having been dragged to some distance 
 from Monsieur, though not so far but that he could 
 hear the poor wretch's prayers, he was disarmed 
 and killed in cold blood. 
 
 This cruel deed was the subject of much angry 
 discussion, and called forth a strong remonstrance 
 from the Prince of Navarre, afterwards Henry IV. 
 
 Thus did the bold Scottish adventurer literally 
 carry his life in his hands. He played for high 
 stakes, and if he lost — as lose he sometimes did — 
 it was with this he paid. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 SIR JOHN HEPBURN 
 
 Among the many gallant Scots who won dis- 
 tinction under "the Invincible Gnstavus Adolphus, 
 the Lion of the North, and Bulwark of the Protest- 
 ant Religion," the most eminent was, undoubtedly, 
 the renowned captain, Sir John Hepburn. We 
 may not all of us agree with his biographer that, 
 in the age of the Thirty Years' War — an age illus- 
 trated by the military genius of Tilly, Mansfeldt, 
 Duke Bernard of Saxe-Weimar, Pappenheim, and 
 Wallenstein — he, as a commander, ranked next to 
 Gustavus ; but we will not refuse the tribute of 
 admiration that is due to his courage and capacity. 
 He was of the stuff of which great generals are 
 made ; and under different conditions, and on a 
 wider field, might have risen to a foremost position. 
 
 Sir John came of the Hepburns of Athelstane- 
 
 ford, in Haddingtonshire — the quiet secluded 
 
 village associated with the memory of Home, the 
 
 author of Douglas — where he was born in the year 
 
 1598 or 1600, in his father's house, which, I believe, 
 
 is still in existence. A tall, active, handsome, and 
 
 high-spirited young fellow, he seems from his earliest 
 
 39 
 
40 UNDER MANY FLAGS 
 
 years to have displayed a spirit of adventure — a 
 restless temper that nothing but action could 
 satisfy. He rode with skill, grace, and boldness, 
 was famous among his comrades as tin beait sabreiir^ 
 and in all athletic exercises easily gained distinc- 
 tion. His great friend and class-fellow was Robert 
 Monro, who afterwards shared with him in the 
 campaigns of Gustavus Adolphus ; and in the 
 latter months of 1618 the two travelled on the 
 Continent, visiting Paris and Poitiers, picking up 
 a colloquial knowledge of French and German, 
 and gaining some insight into Continental methods 
 of warfare. They heard, too, much talk of the 
 genius of the great King of Sweden, and the 
 reports of his achievements kindled in the breast of 
 young Hepburn " a spark of military ardour which 
 was never extinguished till his death." 
 
 The young gentlemen of Scotland were neces- 
 sarily attracted to the field of war in Bohemia ; 
 for the cause that struggled there against the House 
 of Austria was one that commended itself alike to 
 their religious, chivalrous, and loyal sympathies. 
 The Elector Frederick, who had been raised to the 
 throne of Bohemia,"^ represented the Calvinism of 
 Germany ; his wife was Elizabeth Stuart, the fair 
 and accomplished daughter of James VI., on behalf 
 of whose beauty and misfortunes a thousand swords 
 leaped from their scabbards. When the drums of 
 Sir Andrew Gray, a gallant soldier of fortune, beat 
 up for volunteers in East Lothian to serve under 
 
 ^ November 2, 1619. 
 
S/A' JOHN HEPBURN 4! 
 
 her standard, we need not wonder, therefore, that 
 one of the first to ride into his camp was youn^ 
 Hepburn of Athelstaneford. Having raised a 
 force of one thousand five hundred men. Sir 
 Andrew, in May 1620, embarked at Leith, and 
 crossed over to Holland, whence by way of Frank- 
 fort he proceeded to join the Bohemian army. 
 Young Hepburn was then promoted to the com- 
 mand of a company of pikes, which was selected 
 for the honour of guarding King Frederick's 
 person ; but the disastrous battle under the walls 
 of Prague, on November i, ruined the Protestant 
 cause in Bohemia. The defeated sovereis^n fled 
 from the field like a craven, seeking safety 
 first in Denmark, then in Holland, in England, 
 and finally in France. Thus suddenly deserted, 
 Sir Andrew's Scottish companies rallied to the 
 flag of the Count of Mansfeldt, and smelt the 
 smoke of battle in Germany and Alsace. In 1622, 
 they proved their constancy in the defence of 
 Bergen-op-Zoom against the Spanish army under 
 the famous Marquis de Spinola ; and side by side 
 fought " old Morgan with his English brigade," 
 Scotchmen and Englishmen being no longer 
 divided by the old national enmities. The garri- 
 son fired " two hundred thousand cannon-shot " on 
 the besiegers, who on the approach of Prince 
 Maurice with an army of relief, suddenly struck 
 their tents and retired, leaving twelve thousand 
 dead in their abandoned trenches. 
 
 The German princes making peace with the 
 Emperor, Mansfeldt and his fighting-men found 
 
42 UNDER MANY FLAGS 
 
 themselves without employment, and, what was 
 now more irksome, without pay. To keep his 
 followers in heart, Mansfeldt led them into Lorraine, 
 where they pillaged and burnt and ravaged with- 
 out stint, until the Dutch, who were hard pressed 
 by the Spaniards, agreed to hire their services, 
 whereupon, with blare of trumpets and roll of 
 drums, they marched, horse and foot, twelve thou- 
 sand veteran soldiers, into the fertile plains of the 
 Netherlands. Spinola dispatched a powerful force 
 to intercept them, and a desperate engagement took 
 place near Namur, on August 30, 1622. Mans- 
 feldt and the Bishop of Halberstadt charged at the 
 head of their condottieri with singular resolution, 
 and succeeded in breaking through the Spanish 
 steel-clad lines, although not without heavy loss. 
 '' Many gentlemen, both English and Scots," says 
 Wilson, "out of love to the Queen of Bohemia, 
 behaved themselves gallantly, and let the Spaniard 
 know it was more than an ordinary shock they 
 encountered ; among whom Sir Charles Rich, 
 brother to the Earl of Warwick, was a principal 
 person ; Sir James Hayes, Knevet, Hume, Hepburn, 
 and other commanders, all striving for co-rivalship 
 in bravery." 
 
 Entering Holland, Mansfeldt compelled Spinola 
 to raise for the second time the siege of Bergen- 
 op-Zoom ; and then cantoned his battle-weary 
 troops among the well-to-do towns and fat villages 
 of East Friesland as long as the Dutch would 
 provide them with free quarters. Then he harried 
 the valley of the Lower Rhine, until his army 
 
SIR JOHN HEPBURN 43 
 
 gradually disbanded itself in the summer of 1623 
 for want of a common cause and a good paymaster. 
 Thereupon Sir Andrew Gray returned to Scotland, 
 while the remains of the Scottish companies found 
 a new and more active leader in Captain Hepburn, 
 and under his command, offered their swords to 
 the great King of Sweden, Gustavus Adolphus, for 
 whose genius Hepburn had long cherished a fervent 
 admiration. Gustavus had a keen eye for capable 
 soldiers, and at once appointed Hepburn colonel 
 of a Scottish regiment, composed of his old Bohemian 
 comrades — of which regiment the First Foot, or 
 Loyal Scots Regiment of the British line, is now, 
 it is said, the direct representative. In this im- 
 portant command his high soldierly qualities were 
 brilliantly tested, and secured for him the esteem 
 and confidence of his royal master. Defoe, in his 
 Memoirs of a Cavalier (which, if partly fictitious, 
 would seem to have been based on an authentic 
 narrative), says — " He was a complete soldier 
 indeed, and so well-beloved by the gallant king 
 that he hardly knew how to go about any great 
 action without him." 
 
 Some of the best families of Scotland had their 
 representatives in the Swedish army : Hamiltons, 
 Seatons, Ruthvens, Mackays, Leslies, Monros, 
 Sinclairs, Drummonds, Campbells, Montgomeries, 
 Gordons, Duffs, Douglasses — we meet with all 
 these historic names. In the Atlas Gcographus 
 (London, 171 1) we read that in 1633, two Scottish 
 regiments were employed to guard the Swede 
 King's person, though at that time he had both 
 
44 UNDER MANY FLAGS 
 
 Swedes and Dutch in camp. In the conquered 
 provinces of Germany he gave the command 
 of sixty towns, castles, and forts to Scottish 
 soldiers. Another authority states that at one 
 time Gustavus had in his service no fewer than 
 four field-marshals, three generals, one lieutenant- 
 general, thirteen major-generals, throe brigadier- 
 generals, twenty-seven colonels, fifty-one lieutenant- 
 colonels, and fourteen majors, ''with an unknown 
 number of captains and subalterns ; besides seven 
 regiments of Scots that lay in Sweden and Livonia 
 (and six elsewhere). The Dutch in Gustavus's 
 service were many times glad to beat ' the old 
 Scots march,' when they designed to frighten or 
 alarm the enemy; and 'tis observed that Sir John 
 Hamilton abandoned the army, though earnestly 
 pressed by Gustavus to stay, only because the 
 Swedes and the Dutch were ordered to storm the 
 enemy's works before him at Wurtzburg, after he 
 and his men had boldly hewn out the way for 
 them." In such repute were these brave Scotch- 
 men held, and such was the proud temper in which 
 they did their service. 
 
 As a colonel of infantry, Hepburn's yearly pay 
 was ;^38o — which, of course, would now-a-days be 
 represented by a much larger sum. He was also 
 entitled to a coach as part of his equipage ; but 
 though he had one " for form's sake, or the con- 
 venience of a wounded comrade," he himself always 
 rode at the head of his Scottish musketeers. A 
 lieutenant-colonel received ^190 per annum ; a 
 captain, ^^128; a musketeer or pikeman, 6d. per 
 
SI/^ JOHN HETBURN 45 
 
 diem; and a cuirassier, \\d. Under Gustavus 
 Adolphus, a regiment consisted of eight conapanies, 
 and each company of seventy-two musketeers and 
 fifty-four pikemen, or a total of one thousand and 
 eight men, exchisive of officers. 
 
 In 1625, Hepburn served in the Swede King's 
 campaign against Sigismund, King of Poland, his 
 regiment forming part of the army which broke 
 into Courland and Livonia, captured the strong 
 places in both provinces, and totally defeated the 
 Polish generals, Sapieha and Gosieowski, at Wallhof, 
 on January 6, 1626. Hepburn specially distin- 
 guished himself at the relief of Mewe, a fortified 
 town, situated on the river Vistula, which King 
 Sigismund had blockaded with three thousand 
 Poles, entrenching them on a steep green hill, so 
 as to cut off communication between the town 
 and the surrounding country, and command all the 
 approaches. He strengthened the post with a 
 couple of heavy batteries ; while the whole line 
 of his entrenched infantry, with their bows and 
 matchlocks, swept the rugged slopes which lay 
 below their earthen parapets. 
 
 Gustavus Adolphus threw forward three Scottish 
 regiments of foot under Hepburn, and five hundred 
 horse under Count Thurn, with instructions to 
 force the passage of this fortified hill, and cut their 
 way into the town. It was dusk when Hepburn, 
 who had marched by a secret road, in perfect 
 silence, came in view of it. Finding that his 
 advance had not been discovered, he swept round 
 on the Polish flank, and climbed the steep acclivity, 
 
46 UNDER MANY FLAGS 
 
 through trees and bushes and rocks, with incredible 
 patience, the soldiers helping themselves upward 
 by clinging to the overhanging branches, like 
 sailors climbing the shrouds of a ship. The Poles 
 had never dreamed of an attack from this side, 
 which seemed accessible only to goats, and were 
 taken by surprise when the Scots, with a loud 
 shout, fell upon them. The trenches were stormed 
 at push of pike ; but then the Poles recovered them- 
 selves, and opened such a terrible fire of musketry, 
 mingled with showers of arrows, stones, and other 
 missiles, that the Scots were forced to fall back ; 
 whereupon squadrons of Cossacks and Heyducks, 
 clad in mail shirts and steel caps, dashed headlong 
 upon them, with levelled lances and waving scimi- 
 tars. Hepburn slowly and steadily withdrew his 
 men to an ascent that seemed defensible, beating 
 back the charges of these wild horsemen, who 
 yelled, " These curs shall feel the bite of the Polish 
 wolves ! " 
 
 On this rocky eminence the brave Scottish pike- 
 men stood shoulder to shoulder, "immovable as a 
 wall of brass," placing in their front the sharpened 
 stakes, or cJievmix-de-frise, which they always carried 
 with them — the "Swedish feathers" of Captain 
 Dalgetty.^ Here, for two whole days, Hepburn 
 
 ^ " The Swedish feathers, whilk your honour must conceive 
 to be double-pointed stakes, shod with iron at each end, and 
 planted before the squad of pikes to prevent an outfall of the 
 cavalry. The whilk Swedish feathers, although they look 
 gay to the eye, resembling the shrubs or lesser trees of ane 
 forest, as the puissant pikes, arranged in battalia behind 
 them, correspond to the tall pines thereof, yet, nevertheless, 
 
SIR JOHN HEPBURN 47 
 
 resisted the attack of the Poh'sh army, while Gus- 
 tavus succeeded in reheving the town by throwing 
 into it supplies of men and ammunition. Thus 
 baffled in their aim, the Poles slowly retreated, 
 leaving all the honours of war with Hepburn and 
 his gallant Scots. 
 
 I have not the space for a detailed narrative of 
 the campaigns in which Hepburn bore a part, nor 
 would such a narrative now-a-days tend to the 
 reader's entertainment. Most of the battle-fields 
 which witnessed his victorious charges are now for- 
 gotten ; their names suggest no associations of 
 interest to the minds of men. Let us pass on to 
 the stirring events which are still full of vitality, 
 because their issues affected the course of history, 
 and determined the fortunes of Europe even to our 
 own time — of the Thirty Years' War — a war which 
 saved Protestantism in Germany, and with it the 
 cause of religious tolerance and intellectual develop- 
 ment ; a war which by its far-reaching consequences 
 rendered German unity possible when the opportu- 
 nity came, as we have seen it come. 
 
 Supported by France for political reasons with 
 some cordiality, but witli more or less coldness by 
 the Protestant States of North Germany, and by 
 England and Holland, who ought to have been his 
 strongest allies, Gustavus Adolphus, in 1630, ap- 
 peared as the champion of Protestantism against 
 the great Catholic league, of which the Emperor 
 
 are not altogether so soft to encounter as the plumage of a 
 goose." — Legend of Montrose^ chap. ii. 
 
48 UNDER MANY FLAGS 
 
 Ferdinand II. was the head. I beh'eve that he 
 undertook the task in a nobly unselfish spirit — not, 
 perhaps, without some design to strengthen the 
 European position of his own kingdom, but mainly 
 in defence of the persecuted Gospel in which he 
 was a devout believer. " To extend the power of 
 Sweden, to support the princes of Germany against 
 the Emperor's encroachments, to give a firm and 
 unassailable standing-ground to German Protes- 
 tantism, were all to him," says Gardiner, ''parts of 
 one great work, scarcely ever in thought to be 
 separated from one another." 
 
 Gustavus had at this time in his service upwards 
 of a thousand officers and twelve thousand men — 
 all Scots — men inured to danger, experienced in 
 arms, and faithful to one another and their leaders. 
 They formed the heart and brain of his army ; and 
 upon these choice soldiers he devolved the most 
 serious duties and desperate enterprises, "Amongst 
 these forces," says the historian of the British Army, 
 " Colonel Hepburn's Scots regiment appears to 
 have held a distinguished character for gallantry 
 on all occasions ; and no troops appear to have 
 been found better qualified for this important enter- 
 prise than the Scots, who proved brave, hardy, 
 patient of fatigue and privation, frugal, obedient, 
 and sober soldiers." 
 
 Hepburn, who by this time had been knighted for 
 his services, embarked (June 6, 1630) with the 
 Swedish main army at Elfsknaben, where he was 
 detained for nearly three weeks, until the wind 
 veered round and enabled the fleet to creep across 
 
SIR JOHN HEPBURN 49 
 
 the Baltic. On the evening of the 26th they dropped 
 anchor off the point of Usedom, on the coast of 
 Pomerania. The King, on stepping ashore, knelt 
 down and prayed aloud for a blessing on his arms ; 
 and then, before his troops, took in hand a spade 
 and began to work at the entrenchments of 
 the first camp on German soil. During the 
 night nearly all the troops were landed, and 
 mustering these in regular array, Gustavus ad- 
 dressed them, telling them that the eaemy were 
 largely the same men whom they had beaten 
 in Prussia ; that he would share with them all 
 their dangers and privations, and that they should 
 share with him all luxuries, comforts, and booty. 
 " For booty," said he, " you must not look to the 
 land or people. The enemy hold it all in their own 
 hands, and it is for you to take it from them." 
 The next day he began his march, and in less than 
 eight months overran Pomerania and Mecklenburg, 
 capturing as many as eighty strong places in those 
 two duchies. In March 1631, Colberg was block- 
 aded; and one of the first important services ren- 
 dered by Sir John Hepburn in this war, was in 
 preventing its relief by the Imperialists. The 
 garrison then surrendered. Shortly afterwards he 
 was promoted to the command of a brigade of four 
 chosen Scottish regiments — Mackay's Highlanders, 
 Sir James Lumsden's musketeers, Stargate's corps, 
 and his own, which came to be known as Hepbui-ns 
 Scots Brigade, or The Green Brigade, from the 
 colour of the doublets, scarves, plumes, and stand- 
 ards of its soldiers. 
 
 E 
 
50 UNDER MANY FLAGS 
 
 Into the mouth of Rittmaster Dugald Dalgetty, 
 Scott puts the words of an old soldier's lied — 
 
 " When cannons are roaring and colours are flying, 
 The lads that seek honour must never fear dying ; 
 Then, stout cavaliers, let us toil our brave trade in, 
 And fight for the Gospel and bold King of Sweden." 
 
 It was no doubt in the spirit of this admirable 
 song, even if they chanced not to know the 
 words, that Sir John's brigade — with carried pikes, 
 matches lighted, half-a-dozen standards displayed, 
 and drums and fifes beating and whistling "the 
 old Scots March " — led the van of the great 
 Protestant army, under the Lion of the North, 
 on its march for Frankfort-on-the-Oder. They 
 were thirsting to revenge six hundred of their 
 countrymen, who had been slain at New Branden- 
 burg by an overwhelming Imperialist force, all 
 mercy and quarter being denied them ; and there 
 was no action, however desperate, which they 
 were not prepared to undertake. In the storm of 
 Frankfort they bore the chief part of the peril 
 and won the chief part of the honour. Hepburn, 
 as at their head he pushed through a great sallying 
 port (the Guben gate), was hit in the knee, " which, 
 dazzling his senses with great pain, forced him to 
 retire, who said to me, 'bully Monro, I am shot,' 
 whereat I was wondrous sorry." His Major was 
 next shot dead, and the pikemen halted for a 
 moment. Then up came the impetuous Baner, 
 and urged them to go forward : " whereat Colonel 
 Lurasden and I," says Monro, " being both alike at 
 the head of our own colours, he having a partisan 
 
S/Ji JOHN HEPBURN 51 
 
 in his hand, and I a half-pike, with a head-piece 
 that covered my head, commanding our pikes to 
 advance, we led on shoulder to shoulder," and 
 carried the gate. The enemy fell back in great 
 confusion, never pausing to lower the portcullis ; 
 and after them, in hot pursuit, went the Scots, 
 entering the street at their heels, and making a 
 stand till their body of pikes were drawn up 
 orderly and flanked with musketeers ; then they 
 again advanced. " Quarter ! quarter ! " cried the 
 Imperialists. " New Brandenburg ! New Branden- 
 burg!" was the ominous reply. With such fury 
 did the Scots avenge their slaughtered countrymen, 
 that a pikeman with his own hand slew eighteen 
 of the enemy ; and Lumsden's regiment captured 
 no fewer than nine pairs of colours — so much to 
 the liking of Gustavus Adolphus that he bade this 
 brave Fifeshire cavalier ask whatever he wished 
 that a king could bestow, and he should have it. 
 Fort by fort the brigade won its way into the 
 town, pushing forward in close column of regi- 
 ments, shoulder to shoulder, with long pikes levelled 
 in front like a moving v/all of steel, and the 
 musketeers in the rear ranks firing over their heads. 
 Nobody could resist these stern, inflexible Scots — 
 not even Tilly's veterans. The Imperialist generals, 
 with a few cuirassiers, made for the bridge across 
 the Oder, and rode full speed to Glogau, leaving 
 four colonels, thirty-six junior officers, and three 
 thousand soldiers dead in the blood-red streets. 
 So headlong was their flight that their caissons 
 blocked up the approach to the bridge, which 
 
52 UNDER MANY FLAGS 
 
 wa.9> further obstructed by cannon, tumbrils, ammu- 
 nition-chests, battered coats of mail, and dead 
 bodies. Three hours were allowed by the King 
 for plunder ; but the troops got out of hand, and 
 when the time was up, he was compelled in person 
 to rush in among some of the companies, with 
 his drawn sword, before he could restore discipline. 
 Monro was greatly vexed at this scene of disorder — 
 " In some regiments," he says, " I am confident 
 there was not one man with the colours." 
 
 After this sharp experience, Landsberg quickly 
 surrendered, and Gustavus then marched upon 
 Berlin to compel the Elector of Brandenburg to 
 join the Protestant League. In July 163 1 he 
 moved in the direction of the Elbe, striking 
 southwards by Old Brandenburg, Barnow, and 
 Tangermiinde. Monro describes the march with 
 much particularity. He mentions that at Barnow 
 he found the beer remarkably good, but not so 
 good as that of Soest, — " a good Calvinist town, 
 which brews liquor best for the body and clearest 
 from all filth or barm, as their religion is best for 
 the soul," says the stout old Presbyterian, ''and 
 clearest from the dregs of superstition." At 
 Tangermiinde, Gustavus crossed the Elbe, and 
 advanced to Werben, where " he did resolve to set 
 down his leaguer ; and spying a parcel of ground, 
 the most commodious that could be had for 
 situation and air, having first the commodity of 
 transportation by water on the river of Haggle 
 (Havel), running into the Elbe at the leaguer, he 
 had also the whole country on the other side of 
 
S//i JOHN HEPBURN 53 
 
 the Elbe behind him as his friends." In his camp 
 at Werben he was reinforced by six thousand 
 Scots, under the Marquis of Hamilton ; whom he 
 then dispatched on service in Silesia. The arrival 
 of this body of auxiliaries encouraged the Elector 
 of Saxony and the Landgrave of Hesse to join 
 Gustavus, who, on August 23, broke up his camp, 
 and advanced towards Wittenberg, in order to 
 throw himself upon Tilly and the Imperialists, 
 wherever he should find them. 
 
 Crossing the Elbe at Wittenberg he marched 
 towards Leipzig, which had just been taken by the 
 Imperialists. " On September 6," says Gustavus, 
 "we went in early twilight through Diiben, and 
 towards evening reached the village of Wolkau, 
 wathin seven miles from Leipzig, where we rested 
 the night. On the 7th, as soon as the sky began 
 to turn grey, I gave the order for the trumpets 
 to blow for the advance, and, because between us 
 and Leipzig there was no wood, but only great 
 flat fields, I drew out my army in full battle array 
 and marched towards the city. The march lasted 
 a short hour and a half, when we came in sight 
 of the advanced guard of the enemy with his 
 artillery on a hill, and behind it the whole mass 
 of his army." 
 
 Thus were the two hosts brought within touch 
 of each other on the great plain in front of Leipzig, 
 which, about a hundred and eighty-one years later, 
 was to be the scene of another important battle, in 
 which Napoleon was defeated by the Allies. 
 
 The army of Gustavus was twenty-six thousand 
 
54 UNDER MANY FLAGS 
 
 strong; that of Tilly about forty thousand ; but 
 the Swedes were reinforced by the troops of the 
 Elector of Saxony, who, however, if they brought 
 numbers, brought nothing else. They had had no 
 experience of fighting, and were wholly unfit to 
 cope with Tilly's seasoned veterans. Gustavus 
 took up his position close to the village of Breiten- 
 feld, with the Saxons on his extreme left. His 
 own left was under Field-marshal Horn. Between 
 each division of cavalry in its first line was posted 
 a body of two hundred musketeers ; the second 
 line was composed wholly of cavalry. A similar 
 formation was observed on the right wing, where 
 Gustavus commanded in person. In the centre 
 was posted the Swedish foot ; four half battalions 
 in the first line, a cavalry regiment, and two 
 divisions of the Scots foot under Monro and 
 Ramsay in reserve between the lines; in the 
 second line, three brigades of infantry, namely, the 
 German, the Green, and Count Thurn's. There 
 was also a final reserve of infantry behind the 
 second line of the centre. The artillery, under 
 Torstenson, lay a little to the left of the centre, 
 with the exception of the light regimental pieces, 
 which were stationed in front of each regiment. 
 
 I give these details because they illustrate the 
 new system of tactics introduced by Gustavus; 
 yet I fear they will mean little or nothing to the 
 non-military intelligence. Nor would a minute 
 description of the battle mean much more. Not 
 even Kinglake or Napier succeeds in making the 
 various movements of a battle obvious to th^ 
 
SIR JOHN HEPBURN- 55 
 
 civilian reader, unless he keeps to the broadest 
 lines. And, therefore, about this famous victory 
 of Breitenfeld or Leipzig I shall be content to say 
 that it was won by Gustavus because he was a 
 greater general than Tilly, and because his Swedes 
 and Scots were better soldiers than the Imperialists 
 — better disciplined, more intelligent, and there- 
 fore steadier and more resolved. At first the 
 Imperialists were successful ; their heavy cavalry 
 smashed in upon the poor inexperienced Saxons 
 and sent them flying from the field. But when 
 they swept round to attack Gustavus, he swiftly 
 withdrew the Green and German brigades from 
 the centre, and formed a new front to the enemy, 
 who, assailed by these splendid soldiers in the 
 front and by the Swedish troopers in the rear, and 
 torn and shattered by Torstenson's powerful ar- 
 tillery, gave way and fled. All was soon over. 
 Leaving seven thousand dead on the field, and 
 probably as many prisoners in Gustavus's hands, 
 Tilly sullenly retreated, some six hundred of his 
 veterans forming round their aged chief in an iron 
 ring, and beating off the opposition. 
 
 It has been well said that this victory marks 
 both an epoch in war and an epoch in history ; 
 because in it was first displayed on a large scale 
 the superiority of disciplined intelligence over 
 traditional routine ; an epoch in history, because it 
 broke the force on which the revival of Catholicism 
 had relied for the extension of its empire over 
 Europe. It gave the Gospel and freedom to 
 Northern Germany. 
 
$6 UNDER MANY FLAGS 
 
 Having put down these generalities about the 
 battle, I must say something more particularly in 
 reference to Hepburn and his brigade's share in it. 
 
 When Gustavus prepared to check the onset of 
 Tilly's soldiers, after their defeat of the Saxons, 
 he called, as we have seen, upon the Green Brigade, 
 which, under Sir John Hepburn, immediately 
 advanced, and formed on the left flank. Sir John 
 was in full armour, with laurel on his helmet and 
 his drawn sword in his hand, a conspicuous figure 
 as he rode his richly-caparisoned horse, and led his 
 fighting-men against the Imperialists, amid volleys 
 of musketry, and the roar and rattle of calivers, 
 falcons, and culverins. It was then, says Harte, that 
 the Scots first practised firing in platoons, " which 
 amazed the Imperialists to such a degree, that 
 they hardly knew how to conduct themselves." 
 In dense columns, with their pikes in front, and 
 behind them three ranks of musketeers stooping 
 and three erect, so that six volleys crashed simul- 
 taneously from' the faces of their squares, and tore 
 great gaps in the masses before them, they marched 
 onward, until so close to the Imperialists that, as 
 Gustavus had advised them, they could see the 
 very colour of their eyes ; then Hepburn shouted, 
 in a voice that rose above all the din, " Forward, 
 pikes ! " The musketeers clubbed their muskets, 
 the pikemen levelled their weapons, and, with 
 that loud Scottish cheer which has rung out so 
 often over victorious battle-fields, the regiments of 
 Hepburn, Lumsden, and Lord Reay, each led by 
 its colonel, broke through the columns of Tilly, 
 
SIR JOHN HEPBURN 57 
 
 and drove them back pell-mell with terrible 
 carnage. 
 
 Lord Reay's Highlanders — a thousand strong, 
 and all of his own clan — formed the leadinGf 
 column, and had the honour of first charging the 
 enemy's ranks. The Imperialists regarded them 
 with terror, and named them " the invincible old 
 regiment." The right wing of the brigade was 
 under Monro ; it carried the breastworks of the 
 Walloons, captured their artillery, and turned it 
 against the Imperialists. Great as was the 
 slaughter, it would have been greater but for the 
 clouds of dust which a stroncr west wind blew off 
 the dry and newly-ploughed ground. " We were 
 as in a dark cloud," says Monro, " not seeing half 
 our actions, much less discerning either the way 
 of our enemies or the rest of our brigades ; where- 
 upon, having a drummer by me, I caused him 
 beat ' The Scots March ' ^ till it cleared up, which 
 re-collected our friends unto us." 
 
 For its services on this occasion the Green 
 Brigade was called to the front and publicly 
 thanked by Gustavus. As Monro quaintly says 
 — " The battle was happily won, his Majesty did 
 principally under God ascribe the glory of the 
 victory to the Swedes and Fynnes horsemen, who 
 were led by the valorous Field-marshal Gustavus 
 Horn; for though the Dutch horsemen did behave 
 themselves valorously divers times that day, yet 
 it was not their fortune to put the enemy to flight ; 
 
 ^ This old national air was first composed for the guard of 
 James V. when attacking Tantallon in 1527. 
 
58 UNDER MANY FLAGS 
 
 and though there were brave brigades of Swedes 
 and Dutch in the field, yet it was the Scots 
 brigade's fortune to have gotten the praise for the 
 fort service, and not without cause, having behaved 
 themselves well, being led and conducted by an 
 expert cavalier and fortunate, the valiant Hepburn." 
 A few days later when, after the investment of 
 Leipzig and capture of Merseburg, Gustavus held 
 a general review of his troops on the plain of Halle, 
 the King rode up to his Scotch brigade, which was 
 posted on the right wing, with Sir John Hepburn 
 in command ; and, dismounting, made a long 
 address, fervently commending their gallant con- 
 duct, thanking them for their share in the victory 
 at Leipzig, and promising never to forget the debt 
 he owed to their valour and constancy. Hepburn, 
 Lumsden, Monro, and the other field-officers, 
 leaped from their horses and kissed his hand, 
 while the drums beat and the green standards were 
 lowered, and the soldiers cried again and again and 
 yet again, " Long live Gustavus ! We hope to do 
 your Majesty better service yet!'' (September ii.) 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 SIR JOHN HEPBURN (continued) 
 
 The march of Gustavus and his army, after the 
 victory of Breitenfeld, was "a triumphal progress." 
 On September 22nd he was at Erfurt, into which 
 he threw a garrison of Scots ; on October 3rd he 
 reached Wiirzburg; and proceeded to storm its 
 strong castle on the height beyond the Main. 
 Traversing Franconia with fire and sword, and 
 capturing every town of importance that lay in his 
 line of advance, he sat down before Oppenheim 
 and its castle in December. Oppenheim, with the 
 castle where the Emperor Rudolph had died about 
 twenty years previously, was situated on the 
 Imperialist bank of the Rhine ; on the other was a 
 strong fort or sconce, erected on an eminence, and 
 surrounded by a double ditch, which was held by 
 about a thousand veteran soldiers. The castle, 
 which occupied the summit of a high hill, swept 
 with its cannon the low plains on the other side of 
 the river, and greatly harmed Hepburn's men, 
 whom the King had ordered to reduce the sconce. 
 
 On the afternoon of Sunday, the 14th, Hepburn 
 with his brigade, and Colonel Winckel with the 
 
 59 
 
6o UNDER MANY FLAGS 
 
 Blue, began to entrench themselves before the 
 enemy's works ; while Gustavus on the other bank 
 invested the town. The night was bitterly cold ; 
 and the ground thickly covered with snow. The 
 Scots foraged about for food, and kindled huge 
 fires behind their breastworks; near one of which 
 Hepburn and Monro sat down to enjoy their supper, 
 with " a stone jar of Low Country wine," while 
 their horses stood picketed behind them. The 
 glow of the watch-fire, reflected on their armour, 
 drew the attention of the Spanish garrison of the 
 castle, and presently a 32-lb. shot came swinging 
 across the river, passed over the heads of the two 
 captains, and crashed into Hepburn's lumbering 
 old coach, which stood unused among the piled-up 
 baeeaee. The next shot killed one of Monro's 
 soldiers, who sat close by, refreshing himself v/ith 
 what proved to be his last can of flip and his last 
 pipe of tobacco. The canonnade then became 
 vigorous, and many a brave Scot was struck down 
 in the course of that gloomy night. Just before 
 midnight a gallant sortie was made by the garrison, 
 but Hepburn's pikemen drove them back with 
 great loss, and in the morning the commander 
 capitulated, being allowed to march out with all 
 the honours of war. Placing in the sconce a couple 
 of hundred musketeers, Hepburn prepared to carry 
 his brisade and the Blues across the river to assist 
 the King in his attack upon the castle — a fortalice 
 of great size and strength, held by a Spanish 
 garrison. The passage was successfully made ; 
 but as Hepburn advanced, great was his surprise to 
 
5//i' JOHN HEPBURN 6i 
 
 hear loud firing within the castle, and to see the 
 garrison throwing themselves over the ramparts, 
 and flying in all directions, piteously crying for 
 quarter as they fell into the hands of Hepburn's 
 men. 
 
 The circumstances which brought about this 
 extraordinary result are related in Defoe's Memoirs 
 of a Cavalier} 
 
 The town of Oppenheim, having surrendered, 
 was held by two hundred Scots of Sir James 
 Ramsay's regiment, with whom some thirty officers, 
 who had lost their men — dead, wounded, or 
 missing — served as " Reformadoes." The cavalier 
 tells us that these officers came to him, and declared 
 that if he would give them permission, they would 
 surprise the castle and carry it, sword in hand. 
 " I told them," he says, " that I durst not give these 
 orders, my commission being only to keep and 
 defend the town ; but they being very importunate, 
 I told them they were volunteers, and might do 
 what they pleased, that I would lend them fifty 
 men, and draw up the rest to second them, or bring 
 them off, as I saw occasion, so as I might not 
 hazard the town." Thereupon they sallied forth, 
 cut in pieces the guard, and burst open the gate. 
 The Spaniards were knocked down before they 
 knew what the matter was ; the King and Sir John 
 Hepburn, advancing to the assault, found that they 
 had been anticipated, and that the castle was 
 already theirs. 
 
 1 See also Schiller, Thi7'ty Years' War; The Sivedish 
 Intelligencer^ pt. ii. etc. 
 
62 UNDER MANY FLAGS 
 
 On entering, Gustavus was received by the 
 Reformadoes, who saluted him with their pikes. 
 The King, Hfting his hat, and turning towards them, 
 said, with his usual frank and sunny smile — 
 
 " Scots ! brave Scots ! you were too quick for 
 me. 
 
 The whole army now crossed the Rhine, and 
 marched upon Mainz, which offered but a nominal 
 resistance, and threw open its gates on the I2th of 
 December — ^just three days after the King's thirtieth 
 birthday. There he and his soldiers spent their 
 Christmas-tide ; not sorry to exchange head- 
 quarters and rude rations for the luxuries of a 
 wealthy city, and pledging each other in deep 
 draughts of Rhenish wine. 
 
 Hepburn's brigade garrisoned Mainz until the 
 following March ; but Gustavus opened the cam- 
 paign of 1632 in February by the capture of 
 Kreutznach. On March 21st he entered Nuremburg, 
 its Protestant citizens receiving him as their 
 champion and deliverer. Tears of joy streamed 
 down the bearded cheeks of the men ; the women 
 sighed and sobbed in hysterical enthusiasm ; it was 
 one of those scenes of passionate emotion which 
 occur only when the popular heart is deeply touched. 
 Soon the name of Gustavus was on every lip, and 
 his picture in every house. It was pleasant no 
 doubt to be the recipient of such homage ; but the 
 soldier-king could not stay long to enjoy it. On 
 April 3rd he was before Donauworth, which was 
 carried swiftly, in no small measure through the 
 desperate courage of Hepburn and his Scots — an 
 
SIR JOHN HEPBURN 63 
 
 important service for which Gustavus tendered 
 them his pubhc thanks. On the 4th he prepared 
 to cross the Lech and force his way into Bavaria. 
 On the opposite side of the river lay Count Tilly 
 in strong entrenchments, while each ford was com- 
 manded by a heavy battery. The task seemed 
 impossible ; but Gustavus was not to be denied. 
 First he swept the enemy's positions with a 
 tremendous fire, which almost silenced the Im- 
 perialist guns, and mowed down his serried ranks 
 by scores and hundreds ; then, concealing his 
 movements by thick clouds of vapour from burning 
 piles of damp wood and wet straw, he threw across 
 from bank to bank a portable bridge of ingenious 
 construction, and passed over it his infantry, the 
 Green Brigade as usual leading the van. Tilly had 
 been mortally v/ounded by a cannon-shot above 
 the knee, and had retired to Ingolstadt to die. 
 Deprived of their commander, and overwhelmed 
 by the furiousness of the Scots-Swedish attack, the 
 Imperialists retreated in hot haste, and left Bavaria 
 open to the conqueror, who captured Raine, and 
 Neuburg, and Augsburg in succession. 
 
 At Ingolstadt he met with a severe check. It 
 was defended by a strong garrison, while the Duke 
 of Bavaria was encamped on the other side of the 
 Danube. 
 
 Hepburn's brigade was ordered to invest it. 
 On Thursday evening, April 19, the King, expect- 
 ing a sally, instructed him to remove to some high 
 ground which offered a good defensive position. 
 Here the Scots remained under arms through a 
 
64 UNDER MANY FLAGS 
 
 bitterly cold night, while the glint of their lighted 
 matches enabled the garrison to harass them with 
 a destructive fire from sunset to sunrise ; so that 
 the night seemed " the longest in the year," says 
 Monro, "though in April ; for at one shot I lost 
 twelve men of my own company, not knowing 
 what became of them." So hot was the service, 
 that " he who was not that night afraid of cannon- 
 shot might next day, without harm, have been 
 brayed into gunpowder." 
 
 Three hundred men were killed on the ground, 
 but the morning sun saw the Scots stubbornly 
 maintaining their posts. Gustavus, however, was 
 unwilling to waste more time, and raising the 
 siege, continued his march into the interior of 
 Bavaria. On May 7 he entered the capital, the 
 fair and prosperous city of Munich, situated on the 
 historic stream of " Iser, rolling rapidly." The 
 three Scots regiments of the Green Brigade 
 headed the advance, their drums beating the " Old 
 Scots March," and the wild skirl of the pipes of 
 Lord Reay's Highlanders echoing far on the 
 morning air. To prevent plundering, he gave a 
 gratuity of five shillings to every soldier ; but 
 discovering that Duke Maximilian had buried a 
 large number of guns in the arsenal, he had them 
 disinterred by the Bavarian peasants, paying them 
 fairly for their labour. He also levied a heavy 
 contribution on the inhabitants. The Swedish 
 army encamped outside the city, the garrison of 
 which was composed exclusively of Scots, under 
 Hepburn, whom Gustavus appointed Governor. 
 
SIR JOHN HEPBURN 65 
 
 Hepburn, who had been at Munich when a 
 young subaltern in Sir Andrew Gray's battalion, 
 placed guards at the gates as a matter of course, 
 and occupied the great market-place where were 
 held the celebrated fairs of St. James and the 
 Three Kings of Cologne. Two Scots regiments 
 were quartered in the splendid Electoral Palace, 
 where they drank freely of the choicest wines, 
 lived on the best fare, and took their ease on 
 sumptuous couches — in agreeable contrast to the 
 " lodging on the cold ground " which was their 
 frequent lot. This was when they were off duty ; 
 but the duty seems to have been strict enough. 
 " We were ordained," says Monro, " to lie in the 
 great court of the fortress, night and day in our 
 arms ; to guard both the Kings' persons [Gustavus 
 and Frederick of Bohemia], and to set all the 
 guards, when I was commanded, with our whole 
 officers, not to stir from our watch " — their meals 
 being served up from the King's own table. The 
 special honour thus accorded to the Scots not 
 unnaturally provoked the jealous murmurs of the 
 Swedes and the Dutch. 
 
 Meanwhile, Tilly had been succeeded as the 
 Imperialist generalissimo by that extraordinary 
 man, Wallenstein, Duke of Friedland — the hero of 
 Schiller's famous trilogy of tragedies — v/hose craft 
 as statesman and capacity as military commander 
 are still estimated variously by historians, accord- 
 ing to their prejudices or partialities. Having 
 levied and equipped an army of sixty thousand 
 men, he suddenly broke into Bohemia, crushed the 
 
 F 
 
66 UNDER MANY FLAGS 
 
 Saxon garrison at Prague (May 4), recovered 
 several fortified towns, and in a few weeks restored 
 the province to the Empire. He then prepared to 
 swoop upon Saxony; but, at the earnest sohcitation 
 of the Emperor, who saw his hereditary dominions 
 threatened by the success of Gustavus, he changed 
 his plans, and uniting with Maximilian of Bavaria, 
 advanced into the Upper Palatinate to confront 
 the Swedish army. Gustavus, on hearing of his 
 march, fixed upon Nuremberg as his centre of 
 operations, and calling in all his scattered detach- 
 ments, converted it speedily into an impregnable 
 camp. Then, with about twenty thousand Swedes 
 and Scots, he prepared to resist his formidable 
 enemy. 
 
 On reconnoitring the Swedish position, Wallen- 
 stein felt its strength, and abandoning all hope of 
 carrying it by assault, prepared to reduce it by 
 famine. For this purpose he entrenched himself 
 near Fiirth — about five miles to the north of 
 Nuremberg — on a range of wooded hills, the base 
 of which was washed by the river Rednitz. Here 
 he could command the principal roads by which 
 Gustavus received his supplies ; while with his 
 light cavalry he harassed and cut off the Swedish 
 foraging parties. It was not long before the 
 success of his strategy was proved ; the population 
 of Nuremberg, which had been increased by 
 hundreds of the fugitive peasantry, as well as the 
 Swedish army, began to suffer from the scarcity of 
 provisions. In the track of famine always comes 
 pestilence ; so that death was soon reaping a rich 
 
Sn^ JOHN HEPBURN 67 
 
 harvest in the unhappy city. Meanwhile, Gustavus 
 was receiving reinforcements from the banks of 
 the Rhine, the Oder, and the Elbe ; the force 
 collected by Oxenstjerna, his great chancellor, 
 numbering thirty-six thousand experienced sol- 
 diers, with sixty pieces of cannon, who marched 
 into Nuremberg on August 12th. The King there- 
 upon resolved on an immediate attack of 
 Wallenstein's position, in the hope of raising the 
 blockade. 
 
 It was at this conjuncture that a quarrel broke 
 out between the King and his Scotch lieutenant. 
 The cause of it is not easy to discover. We are 
 told that Gustavus, after some high words had 
 passed between them, taunted Hepburn (he was a 
 Roman Catholic) with his religion, and also jested 
 at his love of fine armour and rich apparel. It is 
 further said that Hepburn was offended with 
 Gustavus for having, not long before, preferred a 
 younger soldier to some post of danger. But 
 neither of these reasons seems an adequate ex- 
 planation. Gustavus was not given to such light 
 talking as is here imputed to him ; nor was 
 Hepburn so thin of skin as to be provoked by it 
 into throwing up a high and honourable position. 
 The real motive must have been something graver 
 — something which touched a king's pride and a 
 veteran soldier's self-esteem. Whatever it was it 
 ended in a rupture, Hepburn exclaiming, " Sir, I 
 will never more unsheath my sword in the quarrels 
 of Sweden ! " 
 
 Gustavus then gave the command of the Green 
 
68 UNDER MANY FLAGS 
 
 Brigade to Hepburn's friend and comrade, 
 Lieutenant-Colonel Monro ; but as it was impos- 
 sible for Hepburn to quit the beleaguered city, he 
 remained as a spectator of the last tragic scenes 
 of the great contention. 
 
 On August 22, Gustavus opened a heavy can- 
 nonade against the Imperialist lines, in the hope of 
 bringing on a general engagement. Maximilian of 
 Bavaria was eager to accept the challenge ; but 
 Wallenstein held firmly to his strong position. 
 Gustavus then crossed the Rednitz, and drew up 
 his army on the left flank of the enemy ; on the 
 morning of the 24th, under a tremendous storm 
 of cannon-shots, throwing forward a division 
 against the heights of the Alte Veste and the 
 Altenburg, the latter of which was crowned by a 
 ruined castle. Hepburn, though holding no com- 
 mand, could not absent himself from such a scene. 
 Arrayed in his costly suit of inlaid armour, a close 
 casque with gorget, breast and back pieces, 
 "pauldrons, vambraces, and gauntlets," with pistols 
 in his holsters, he mounted his charger, and rode 
 near the King. 
 
 From a military writer I borrow the following 
 description, though with some fear that it bears 
 marks of exaggeration — 
 
 " Posted on the steep and rocky heights of the 
 Alte Veste, and that crowned by the ruined 
 Altenburg, with the Bibert and the Rednitz flowing 
 at their base, the whole entrenched and palisaded 
 position of the Imperialists shone with long lines 
 of polished helmets, that glinted above the green 
 
S/J^ JOHN HEPBURN 69 
 
 breastworks and hastily-constructed barricades. 
 Tall pikes and polished arquebuses glittered inces- 
 santly in the sunshine, and the brass muzzles of 
 eighty pieces of cannon peered forth from under 
 the shade of rock, bush, and tree. Here and there, 
 in the foreground, a circle of crows or ravens 
 wheeling above the long grass, marked where lay 
 a dead horse or unburied soldier, shot in some 
 recent skirmish. 
 
 "As the dense battalions of the Swedes ap- 
 proached, a tremendous cannonade began. The 
 musketeers and arquebusiers volleyed from flank 
 to flank, and the roar seemed as if it would rend 
 heaven ; while the whole hills, from the river at 
 their base to the ruins on the Altenburg, were 
 sheeted with fire and enveloped in snow-white 
 smoke. 
 
 " Hepburn still continued to look on as a mere 
 spectator amid that terrible cannonade, which was 
 ploughing the earth under his horse's feet, and 
 mowing down the columns like grass around him, 
 even when a part of his old brigade advanced to 
 storm the ruined fortress, the highest point of those 
 hills from the summit of which Wallenstein, calmly 
 and securely, from his artillery shrouded in smoke, 
 poured fire and death upon the plain below." 
 
 The attack was made with great vigour by two 
 thousand chosen musketeers, mostly Scots, as an 
 old Nuremberg writer of the period informs us, 
 who, having their colours at the base of the heights, 
 advanced, supported by a column of pikes, in the 
 face of the enemy's eighty pieces of ordnance. 
 
70 UNDER MANY FLAGS 
 
 charging up-hill with desperate valour. But it 
 was useless, the immense strength of the works 
 defied their efforts, and though the assault was 
 five times repeated, the Imperialists remained 
 unshaken. 
 
 As Harte says, quaintly — " The King, though 
 ever fixed in one place, formed the disposition of 
 each attack and dispatched his orders accordingly, 
 and the v/hole combined operations proceeded 
 only upon one principle, which was to possess the 
 summit of the mountain — a task rendered difficult 
 by nature, and more so by the intervention of 
 art and the obstinate resistance of the Imperial 
 troops; for Wallenstein's army was a piece of 
 machinery, which he forced to act almost as he 
 pleased. On the contrary, Gustavus's men loved 
 and adored him on a principle of honour, and 
 sought death out of free choice and pure magna- 
 nimity. Yet the height of the mountain was 
 unattainable, though not a single Swede behaved 
 amiss." The reader may form some idea of its 
 strength from the following circumstance : word 
 was brought Wallenstein by an aide-de-camp that 
 the King had mounted the hill, to which he answered 
 hastily, with a mixture of profaneness and surprise — 
 " That he could not believe there was a Supreme 
 Being in heaven if that castle could possibly be 
 taken from him." 
 
 Gustavus in this unavailing struggle lost about 
 two thousand killed and wounded. Among the 
 former were many gallant Scotch adventurers 
 — Captain Patrick Jones, Lieutenant-Colonel 
 
SIR JOHN nEPBURN 71 
 
 Maclean, Captain Traill, and Hector Monro of 
 Katvall, and others. An old friend, Colonel Monro, 
 was sorely wounded in the left side by the " clicket " 
 of his rapier, which a bullet drove against his 
 coat-of-mail, battering it flat. 
 
 The night was cold and foggy, and great was 
 the suffering of the wounded as they lay on the 
 blood-red field. Some were half immersed in the 
 waters of the Rednitz ; others lay crushed under 
 fallen stockades and breastworks ; others were 
 almost stifled by the weight of dead bodies of men 
 and horses. At the first coming of dawn Gustavus 
 felt a deep anxiety for the safety of Sinclair and 
 Monro's Scotchmen, who were posted far in advance 
 among the rocks, immediately under the ruins of 
 the Altenburg. " Is any officer of the field at 
 hand .'' " he asked of one of his attendants. " No 
 one but the Colonel Hepburn," was the reply ; and 
 our hero, who had remained near the King, and 
 slept in his armour by the side of his charger, rode 
 up instantly. 
 
 " Sir John," said Gustavus, " I entreat you 
 to look in upon our poor soldiers in the Alten- 
 burg, and discern if there be any place where 
 cannon may be brought to bear against the old 
 castle." 
 
 Hepburn dashed off to the Scotch position, and 
 after reconnoitring, returned in safety to Gustavus. 
 " I found, sir," he reported, " the Scottish musketeers 
 almost buried in mud and water ; but I have dis- 
 covered a piece of ground from which, if the 
 earth were raised a little, four pieces of battering 
 
72 UNDER MANY FLAGS 
 
 artillery might be directed against the Altenburg, 
 at a distance of only forty paces." 
 
 " I had rather," replied the King, with some 
 emotion, " that you had found me a place at ten 
 times that distance, for I cannot bear the thought 
 of seeing my brave soldiers torn to pieces a second 
 time." 
 
 Gustavus soon afterwards gave orders for a 
 general retreat — previously going in person to 
 draw off the Scots on the Altenburg, and seeing 
 that Monro was so severely wounded as to be 
 scarcely able to walk, he took that officer's half- 
 pike, and desiring him to retire as fast as he could, 
 closed up the last file, marching on foot like the 
 merest subaltern. 
 
 Unable to maintain his position at Nuremberg, 
 Gustavus, leaving there a garrison of four thousand 
 men, broke up his camp on September 8, and 
 marched towards Neustadt. With bold defiance 
 he marched along the whole line of the enemy's 
 works, with drums beating and colours flying ; but 
 Wallenstein refused to be drawn into a general 
 action. 
 
 At Neustadt, Hepburn took leave of the King, 
 and in company with the Marquis of Hamilton, 
 Sir James Hamilton, and Sir James Ramsay, set 
 out on his journey to England by the way of 
 France ; while his old comrades of the Green 
 Brigade marched upon Rain, and thereafter stormed 
 Kaufbeuren and besieged Kempten, and once 
 more vindicated the renown of Scottish arms on 
 the fiercely contested field of Nordlingen (August 
 
SIR JOHN I IE rB URN 73 
 
 26, 1634), when, in the glory of victory, Monro's 
 regiment closed its career. 
 
 Late in the autumn of 1632, Hepburn and his 
 companions arrived in London, where both Sir 
 John and the Marquis of Hamilton were cordially 
 received by Charles I. It is sometimes asserted 
 that Hepburn was knighted by King Charles ; but 
 the evidence is convincing that he owed his spurs 
 to Gustavus Adolphus. He remained in London 
 for some months ; and then, wearying of inaction, 
 the restless adventurer crossed over to France, and 
 offered his services to Louis XHL, who at once 
 appointed him Colonel of a regiment formed of 
 the old Scottish companies so long held in high 
 esteem by the French sovereigns. His com- 
 mission as Colonel was dated January 26, 1633. 
 He was soon afterwards gratified with the rank 
 of Marichal-de-Camp, which was second only to 
 that of Lieutenant-General, and entitled its holder 
 to command the left wing in all engagements with 
 the enemy. While in Paris he was admitted to 
 the friendship of Cardinal Richelieu, who frequently 
 consulted him on military subjects, and in his 
 correspondence invariably alluded to him in terms 
 of respect and admiration. 
 
 The regiment of which he was Colonel was 
 about six thousand two hundred strong, and 
 numbered in its ranks representatives of such historic 
 names as Murray, Seaton, Erskine, Forbes, Home, 
 and Leslie. One of his pikemen was a John 
 Middleton, who greatly distinguished himself by 
 
74 UNDER MANY FLAGS 
 
 his ability and courage. In future years he rose 
 to be Earl of Middleton, Lieutenant-General of 
 Scottish cavalry, and Governor of Edinburgh Castle. 
 He was entrusted with the command of the English 
 and Scotch regiments at Tangier, and died in 1673. 
 Over his cups he would often boast that he had 
 carried a pike under the famous captain. Sir John 
 Hepburn, in Alsace and Lorraine. 
 
 In the spring of 1634, Hepburn's regiment 
 formed part of the army which, under the Marichal 
 de la Force, invaded the province of Lorraine, which 
 Richelieu desired to v/rest from the Empire. The 
 direction of the siege was entrusted to the Scottish 
 captain, together with the Marquis de Toneins and 
 the Vicomte de Turenne — afterwards so dis- 
 tinguished as a military commander. Between 
 these two young warriors a keen rivalry arose ; 
 each endeavoured to excel the other in feats of 
 arms. Turenne was the more successful, and 
 carried the bastion which the Marquis on the 
 previous day had vainly attempted. Having thus 
 gained 2. point d'appui, Hepburn pushed the siege 
 with such vigour that on July 21 the place sur- 
 rendered. It is only fair to say that from the 
 histories of the time it would seem that the be- 
 sieged, though defeated in the struggle, shared an 
 equal bravery with the besiegers. 
 
 After the fall of La Mothe, Hepburn received 
 orders to rejoin and co-operate with the Marichal de 
 la Force, who, with 25,000 infantry and 5000 
 cavalry, was on his march towards the German 
 frontier. At the head of seven regiments of pike- 
 
SIR JOHN HEPBURN 75 
 
 men and musketeers, seven squadrons of horse, 
 and a train of artillery, he crossed the Rhine, on 
 December 19, near Mannheim, and took up a 
 position which enabled the Marichal de la Force to 
 pass over the main army unopposed. Then our 
 gallant knight pushed on to the relief of Heidel- 
 berg, which from its rocky heights looks down upon 
 the blue waters of the Neckar ; and took possession 
 of it on the 23rd, compelling the Imperialist forces 
 to effect a rapid retreat, though not without several 
 hard-fought actions. It would appear to have been 
 at this time that Hepburn, in answer to some 
 intrusive advice from Cardinal Richelieu's favourite 
 captain, Father Joseph, let fall the pointed remark 
 which passed into a soldier's proverb — " Go not so 
 fast, Pere Joseph, for, believe me, towns are not 
 taken with a finger-end." 
 
 At Landau, early in the new year (1635), the 
 Marichal effected a junction with the Scotch and 
 Swedish veterans under that fine soldier, Duke 
 Bernhard of Saxe-Weim.ar, who, among the 
 military leaders of the Thirty Years' War, holds a 
 foremost place. His force was made up chiefly of 
 the seasoned old soldiers who had served in the 
 Scottish brigades of Gustavus Adolphus ; and 
 among them were the survivors of Hepburn's Green 
 Brigade. They welcomed their former commander 
 with martial enthusiasm, their drums beating the 
 Scots March as he approached, while a shout of 
 joy rang along their ranks, and the last piper of 
 Mackay's Highlanders skirled loud and long a 
 wonderful strain. As all desired to take service 
 
76 UNDER MANY FLAGS 
 
 under him in France, they were formed into one 
 corps, which the French designated Le Regiment 
 d'Hebron.i This corps was 8316 strong, inckiding 
 the Colonel, Lieutenant-Colonel Munro, and Major 
 Sir Patrick Monteith, 45 captains, I captain-lieu- 
 tenant, 45 lieutenants, 48 ensigns, 4 surgeons, 6 
 adjutants, 2 chaplains, i drum-major, i piper, 88 
 sergeants, 288 corporals, 288 lance-pesades, 96 
 drummers, and 48 companies, each consisting of 
 150 musketeers and pikemen. Thus Hepburn's 
 regiment was numerically equal to the force with 
 which Wellington won his earlier victories. 
 
 In 1635 the direction of the French army passed 
 into the hands of Cardinal de La Valette — a true 
 priest of the Church Militant, but by no means a 
 capable commander — who at Frische was saved 
 from defeat only by a bold and skilful movement 
 of Hepburn against the flank of the Imperiah'st 
 army. Retreat, however, was unavoidable, and the 
 French army recrossed the Rhine at Bingen, hotly 
 pursued by the enemy, who were kept at bay only 
 by the steadfast courage of Hepburn's Scots. 
 *' They fought for eight days consecutively almost 
 without intermission, leaving the roads by which 
 they fell back redder with their enemies' blood than 
 with their own." The result of the campaign was 
 that the Imperialists recovered Lorraine, which 
 Richelieu had made such great efforts to conquer, 
 and threatened France with invasion. 
 
 1 Pcre Daniel says — "On I'appelloit en France 'le 
 Chevalier d'Hebron.' son nom d'Hepburne etant difficile a 
 prononcer." 
 
SIR JOHN HEPBURN 77 
 
 In the spring of 1636 Hepburn and his soldiers 
 continued to serve under the Duke of Weimar in 
 Lorraine, and Hepburn rendered such eminent 
 services by his courage and conduct that Louis 
 Xni. created him a Marshal of France. Through 
 the immense energy of Richelieu the French army 
 had been greatly reinforced, and under La Valette 
 effected a junction with Duke Bernhard, who then 
 laid siege to the strongly-fortified town of Saverne. 
 This was in the merry month of May. As the 
 garrison expected to be relieved by the Imperialists 
 under Count Gallas, it offered a steadfast resistance, 
 and harassed the operations of the besiegers with 
 infinite activity. The heavy guns of the latter 
 succeeded, however, in breaking the town-wall ; 
 and on June 9 a general assault was attempted. 
 There was no want of daring on the part of the 
 attacking regiments, who were led by Hepburn and 
 Turenne ; but the besieged fought with a desperation 
 which completely foiled them. Not less disastrous 
 was a second, and even a third effort. The 
 besiegers then renewed the fire of their batteries 
 with increased vigour, and made every preparation 
 for a final and successful one. It was then that 
 Hepburn, in his eagerness to examine the extent of 
 the principal breach, approached too near, and got 
 within the range of the guns of the Imperialists. 
 A musket-ball struck him in the neck and passed 
 into the body, inflicting a mortal wound. His 
 soldiers carried him into shelter, the surgeons 
 examined the wound; but nothing could be done — 
 he was already dying. His last words, it is said. 
 
78 UNDER MANY FLAGS 
 
 were a lamentation that he should lay his bones so 
 far from the green kirkyard where mouldered those 
 of his ancestors. 
 
 Thus, on July 21, 1636, our gallant Scot ended 
 his stirring career. He was then in his thirty- 
 sixth or thirty-eighth year, according as he was 
 born in 1598 or 1600 — a point on which authorities 
 differ. 
 
 When the sad news reached the great French 
 minister, he wrote to La Valette as follows — 
 
 "I cannot express to you my profound regret at 
 the death of poor Colonel Hepburn, not only 
 because of the high esteem in which I held his 
 character, but on account of the affection and zeal 
 he always showed in his Majesty's service. His 
 loss has moved me in so sensible and lively a 
 manner that it is impossible for me to receive any 
 comfort. I do not question what you say in your 
 letter that it has affected you very particularly, for 
 to tell the truth, he was a gentleman very necessary 
 to us at this juncture. I have paid to his memory 
 all the respect in my power to express my sense of 
 his value, ordering prayers to be made to God for 
 him, and assisting his nephew (George Hepburn of 
 Athelstaneford) as if he were my own son." 
 
 Hepburn was buried, with great solemnity, in the 
 cathedral of Toul. 
 
 He was undoubtedly one of the very ablest of 
 those gallant Scottish gentlemen who served in the 
 European wars of their time with so much distinc- 
 tion ; not very scrupulous as to the cause for which 
 they fought, but honourably faithful to their 
 
SIR JOHN HEPBURN 79 
 
 employer as long as they continued in his service. 
 For their restless courage and adventurous temper 
 there was then no other outlet. No India offered 
 them those opportunities of gaining fame and 
 fortune which it was to provide for their descendants, 
 nor was there then any British army in which they 
 could employ their brilliant courage and patient 
 fortitude in the service of the empire of which their 
 country formed no inconspicuous part. Upon these 
 " soldiers of fortune," therefore, I do not feel 
 disposed to pass any severe censure ; and least of all 
 upon one who was aniong the noblest of them — 
 whom both Gustavus Adolphus and Richelieu 
 loved and trusted — whose bravery, military skill, 
 humanity, and fine qualities of character 
 commanded the admiring testimony of his con- 
 temporaries. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 AN OLD CAVALIER (SIR JAMES TURNER) 
 
 He was not seventeen years old — this man of 
 
 many adventures — when he obtained his degree 
 
 of Master of Arts at Glasgow ; in obedience, as he 
 
 tells us, to his father, and not from any desire of 
 
 his own. For it was never his intention to make 
 
 use of a title which he, like many others, had never 
 
 deserved. Our Cavalier — afterwards so widely 
 
 known as Sir James Turner^ — then spent a year 
 
 with his father at Dalkeith, studying humane 
 
 letters and history, and the points of controversy 
 
 between the Roman and Protestant Churches. To 
 
 a young man of Turner's energetic temper such a 
 
 course of life soon became intolerable; and flinging 
 
 aside Bellarmine and Liguori, he buckled on his 
 
 sword and set out for the wars. He hoped to 
 
 become, if not an actor in, at least a spectator of, 
 
 the memorable contention which was then pending 
 
 between Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden, the Lion 
 
 of the North, and the Catholic princes of the 
 
 Empire, and secured a pair of colours in a Scotch 
 
 regiment levied by Sir James Lumsden for service 
 
 under the Swedish King's flag. Gustavus, hovv- 
 
 80 
 
SIJ^ JAMES TURNER 8i 
 
 ever, fell on Liitzen's hard-fought field before 
 Lumsden and his Scots arrived in Germany; and 
 in February 1633, Turner found himself under the 
 command of Duke George of Brunswick, serving 
 in the trenches before the strong town of Ham- 
 melln. Late in the following June, an Imperialist 
 army, twenty thousand strong, advanced to its 
 relief 
 
 " We broke up," says Turner, " and met them 
 four English miles from thence, and fought them. 
 This was a battle wherein so much blood was 
 shed, as was enough to flesh such novices as I was. 
 We gained the victory, which was a great one to 
 be gained with so little loss on our side. Near 
 nine thousand of the Imperialists were killed in 
 the place, three thousand taken, with eighteen 
 cannon, and above eighty standards and colours." 
 Hammelln afterwards capitulated. During the re- 
 mainder of the campaign Turner saw much fighting 
 — of which those who had a stomach for it could 
 easily get large measure in Turner's stirring days ! 
 — but suffered not a little from want of provisions 
 and clothes, lying out in the fields with no, or 
 scanty, shelter, marching a-foot, and drinking 
 nothing stronger than water — this last being a 
 privation which Turner and his comrades greatly 
 took to heart. But he soon learned to love a 
 soldier's life ; and grew so tough and strong with 
 his hard knocking about, that the hardships of the 
 camp and the bivouac ceased to trouble him. He 
 came to feel as if he could always be content with 
 a crust of bread and a bundle of slraw — so true 
 
 G 
 
82 AN OLD CAVALIER 
 
 it is that Hahitiis est altera natura. [Note that 
 Sir James occasionally flourishes a Latin quotation 
 to remind you that he was an M.A. of Glasgow 
 University.] 
 
 Turner rapidly grew experienced in the ways 
 and methods of a soldier of fortune. He picked 
 up enough German to understand and be under- 
 stood. He acquired the fashions and manners, 
 such as they were, of the German officers ; and 
 soon became an expert in the science of living 
 without regular pay, so that during the remainder 
 of his foreign service he wanted little that daring 
 or ingenuity, force or stratagem, could furnish him 
 with. In the later months of 1634 he was tem- 
 porarily recalled to Scotland by his father's death 
 and the family arrangements necessary thereupon ; 
 and owing to the severity of the winter, was 
 unable to return to the field of war until the 
 spring, when he proceeded to Hamburg to join a 
 projected expedition to Persia. But the expedition 
 never came off; and Turner, who had gone on to 
 Osnaburg, was shut up within its walls by the 
 unwelcome appearance of an Imperialist army, 
 and had to endure the privations of a siege until 
 the city was relieved in the summer of 1636 by the 
 Protestant forces. 
 
 There seem to have been occasions when even 
 a soldier of fortune was moved by the horrors of 
 war. In quite pathetic terms does Turner describe 
 the cruelties of the Imperialist General, Bigod, 
 who, in 1637, burned three fair towns, Eschvegen, 
 Ollendorp, and Vitsenshausen, before the eyes of 
 
SIR JAMES TURNER 83 
 
 the Protestant leaders. "A mournful sight it was," 
 he says, " to see the whole people follow us, and 
 climb the two high rocks which flanked us. Old 
 and young left their houses, by the loss of them 
 and their goods to save their lives. Aged men 
 and women, many above fourscore, most lame or 
 blind, supported by their sons, daughters, and 
 grandchildren, who themselves carried their little 
 ones on their backs, were a ruthful object of pity to 
 any tender-hearted Christian [like James Turner, 
 I suppose !], and did show us with what dreadful 
 countenance that bloody monster of war can 
 appear in the world." Turner, however, did nothing 
 to avoid the face of that "bloody monster," but 
 kept to his trade of fighting, and rose through the 
 successive stages of ensign, lieutenant, captain- 
 lieutenant, captain. 
 
 The Swedish Government owing him a sum of 
 four hundred dollars in arrears of pay, he repaired 
 to Sweden in 1639 in the hope of getting it. 
 " Stockholm," he says, " is the capital city of that 
 kins^dom. There I saw one of the fairest castles, 
 and of the greatest reception, of any I ever looked 
 on, all covered with copper, of which metal that 
 kingdom abounds. It stands on a pretty ascend- 
 ing hill from the sea ; and under it, for most part, 
 rides the navy royal, composed of great and tall 
 ships, carrying some fifty, some sixty, some 
 seventy, and some eighty brass guns. The Queen 
 [Christina] was then about fourteen years old, 
 applying herself much to learn foreign languages, 
 and to the study of those sciences, which by the 
 
84 AN OLD CAVALIER 
 
 strength of her great natural endowments she soon 
 acquired, which has made her so famous all the 
 world over." 
 
 Turner lost most of his four hundred dollars, 
 receiving only a small gratuity which kept him 
 above water, until he was attracted towards his 
 native land by the rude echoes of the war which 
 had broken out between Charles I. and the Puritan 
 party. He confesses, frankly enough, that, in 
 Germany, he had " swallowed without chewing," a 
 maxim of military morals which he admits to be 
 a very dangerous one ; namely, that if a soldier 
 served his master faithfully, it mattered not who 
 that master was ; and circumstances preventing 
 him from going to England and offering his sword 
 to the King, as he had first intended, he made up 
 his mind to cross into Scotland and take up tlie 
 cause of the Covenant. His skipper landed him 
 at Cove, on the Aberdeenshire coast. Thence he 
 rode post to Edinburgh, where he learned that 
 General Leslie had marched across the Border, 
 and putting Lord Conway- and a loyalist force to 
 defeat at Newburn, had made himself master of 
 Newcastle and of the wliole bishopric of Durham. 
 
 " I found," says Turner, " this success had elevated 
 the minds of my countrymen in general to such 
 a height of vanity, that most of them thought, and 
 many said, they should quickly make a full con- 
 quest of England; but," he soberly adds, "time 
 hath shown them since that they made their 
 reckoning without their host, for the very contrary 
 fell out." 
 
S/J^ JAMES TURNER 85 
 
 Our captain followed Leslie to Newcastle, and, 
 through the influence of the Earl of Rothes, was 
 appointed major of Lord Kirkcudbright's regiment. 
 In this capacity he served for two months in the 
 Scots army, though he had not taken the Cove- 
 nant ; not that he would have refused, he says 
 with his usual candour, to have sworn to it and 
 signed it, and have observed it too, but that nobody 
 asked him ; all supposing, naturally enough, that 
 an officer in the Covenanting army would be a True 
 Blue ! At the end of the year the army returned 
 to Scotland, and our doughty Cavalier was con- 
 demned to several months of inaction. In 1641 
 he was appointed major in Lord Sinclair's regi- 
 ment, included in the army of ten thousand Scots 
 who had been hired by the English Parliament to 
 assist in putting down the great Irish Revolt. 
 They landed at Carrickfergus, and leaving a 
 garrison there, marched inland with fire and 
 sword, inflicting on the Irish Papists a bloody 
 retaliation for their massacre of the Protestants. 
 At Newry the rebel soldiery capitulated ; but, next 
 day, with many merchants and traders of the town, 
 were conveyed to the bridge and put to death in 
 cold blood, some by shooting, some by hanging, 
 and some by drowning, the innocent suffering with 
 the guilty. " Our soldiers," says Turner, '* seeing 
 such pranks played by authority at the bridge, 
 thought they might do as much anywhere else ; 
 and so ran upon a hundred and fifty women, or 
 thereby, who had got together in a place below 
 the bridge, whom they resolved to massacre by 
 
S6 AN OLD CAVALIER 
 
 killing and drowning, which villany the sea seemed 
 to favour, it being then flood. Seeing afar off what 
 a game these godless rogues intended to play, I 
 got a-horseback and galloped to them with my 
 pistol in my hand ; but before I got at them, they 
 had dispatched about a dozen ; the rest I saved." 
 
 In this Irish campaign Turner had many rough 
 experiences. On one occasion he was sent to 
 Carrickfergus to fetch up some reinforcements 
 from Scotland. Marching through the dense 
 woods and wild hills of Morne, they killed and 
 captured several rebels. On the route they suf- 
 fered one of the stormiest and most tempestuous 
 nights that the oldest among them had ever 
 known. " All the tents were in a trice blown over. 
 It was not possible for any match to keep fire, or 
 any soldier to handle his musket, or yet to stand ; 
 yea, several of them died that night of mere cold. 
 So that if the rebels," says Turner, " whereof there 
 were five hundred not far from us, had offered to 
 beat up our quarters with such weapons as they 
 had, which were half-pikes, swords, and daggers, 
 they would undoubtedly have had a cheap market 
 of us. Our soldiers, and some of our officers too 
 (who suppose that nothing that is more than 
 ordinary can be the product of nature), attributed 
 this hurricane to the devilish skill of some Irish 
 witches ; and if that was true," says the shrewd 
 old Cavalier, "then I am sure their master gave 
 us good proof that he was really prince of the 
 air." 
 
SIR JAMES TURNER 87 
 
 He tells us also of the sufferings of himself and 
 his men from want of provisions, and of the 
 irregularity with which they were paid ; of their 
 guerilla-like war with the rebels, and their long 
 and wearisome marches ; all of which he seems 
 to have undergone with the nonchalance of a good 
 soldier, though as modesty is by no means a 
 marked feature of his character, we must necessarily 
 accept his statements with judicious reserve. Early 
 in 1644 he was back in Scotland ; and finding that 
 the Earl of Leven (the elder Leslie) had marched 
 into England with twenty thousand foot and two 
 thousand horse, to the assistance of Parliament, he 
 hastened to follow him. I suspect his reception 
 was not to his liking ; for he soon rode back to 
 Scotland ; and after a fresh study of the Solemn 
 League and Covenant, came to the sudden con- 
 clusion that it was a treacherous and disloyal com- 
 bination, and concerted with some other swash- 
 bucklers to join the Marquis of Montrose, who 
 held the King's commission. They kept their 
 intention secret, however, until they had persuaded 
 the Executive to pay up their arrears, and furnish 
 them with equipment for every private soldier in 
 their commands. They then sent messengers to 
 Montrose, inviting him to join them at Stirling, 
 where he would find town, castle, and troops at his 
 disposal. But Montrose would not advance so far 
 with his small force into a hostile neighbourhood ; 
 and the opportunity was lost. 
 
 Finding himself suspected by the Committee of 
 Estates, Turner made a virtue of necessity, and to 
 
88 AN OLD CAVALIER 
 
 regain their good opinion, solemnly swore to the 
 Covenant. He gives us to understand, however, 
 that all the time he was only playing a part. 
 Moralizing as is his wont, when doing something 
 immoral, he describes this act of treachery as " a 
 thing (though too much practised in a corrupt 
 world) yet in itself dishonest, sinful, and disavow- 
 able ; for it is certain that no evil should be done 
 that good may come of it." Surely James Turner 
 missed his vocation, and the pulpit would have 
 suited him better than the saddle ! Or he should 
 have been a village dominie, and have written nice 
 little commonplaces as texts for his scholars to 
 copy. Unfortunately his moral sense never made 
 itself felt until after the event. He continued to 
 serve under the Earl of Leven ; and at the storm 
 of Newcastle, in 1644, led the first two companies 
 which fought their way into the town. He was 
 present at the siege of Newark in the summer of 
 1646, when King Charles surrendered himself to 
 the Scots, who, after they had captured Newark, 
 returned with him to Newcastle. ''At Sherburne," 
 says Turner, " I spoke with him, and his Majesty 
 having got some good character of me, bade me 
 tell him the sense of our army concerning him. I 
 did so, and withal assured him he was a prisoner, 
 and therefore prayed him to think of his escape, 
 offering him all the service I could do him." This 
 was the only time he had conversation with the 
 King, who, as we know, saw no necessity to act 
 upon his advice, and did not put Turner's loyalty 
 to the test. 
 
Turner has a bout with a stiani;er. 
 
 Page 89. 
 
S/A' JAMES TURNER 89 
 
 During the following winter Turner was married 
 to Mary White, a beautiful young Irish girl, whose 
 acquaintance he had made in Ireland. So strong 
 was her affection and so profound was her confidence 
 in our bold Cavalier, that she gave up her parents, 
 her friends, her country, and all that was dear to 
 her, to become his wife. A charming little story 
 might, I think, be founded on this incident, which 
 casts as it were a bright gleam of romance on the 
 sombre background of strife and death. It may 
 well be doubted whether he was really worthy of 
 so much devotion. He admits that on her arrival 
 she found him "but in a bad condition." Havincr 
 drunk too freely with a great personage, he was 
 riding home, somewhat distempered, when he fell 
 in with a Colonel Wren, against whom he had some 
 cause of quarrel. As the Colonel was on foot, 
 Turner sprang from his horse that both might be 
 on an equality, and forced him to draw his sword, 
 which was " two great handfuls " longer than his 
 own. Truly a monstrous sword ! " Perceiving this," 
 says Turner, " I gripped his sword with my left 
 hand and thrust at him with my right ; but he, step- 
 ping back, avoided it, and drew his sword away, 
 which left so deep a wound between my thumb 
 and foremost finger that I had almost lost the use 
 of both." Some passers-by interfered, and made the 
 combatants put up their swords ; and Turner could 
 never again meet with his adversary to be revenged 
 on him, though he sought him far and near. Now 
 comes in the inevitable bit of moralizing! '* This 
 was an effect," he says, "of drinking, which, I con- 
 
90 AN OLD CAVALIER 
 
 fess, besides the sin against God, bath brought me in 
 many inconveniences. This was the first time ever 
 my blood was drawn, though I have hazarded it 
 and my Hfe very often, not only in battles, skir- 
 mishes, rencontres, sieges, sallies, and other public 
 duties of service, but also in several private duels." 
 After a vain attempt to obtain employment in 
 Ireland, Turner visited Lieutenant-General Leslie's 
 quarters at Dunblane, and was "easily persuaded" 
 to accept the post of Adjutant-General in the 
 Covenanters' army, though it was employed in the 
 putting down that cause of the monarchy with 
 which he professes to have been in sympathy. He 
 took an active part in all the cruel work that was 
 done in the Western Highlands and the Hebrides 
 — smoking fugitives out of the caves to which they 
 had retreated, slaying in cold blood prisoners who 
 had surrendered on a promise that their lives 
 should be spared. But in 1648, when a consider- 
 able faction in the Scots Parliament resolved on 
 raising forces to march into England and effect the 
 King's release, his inclination coincided with his 
 duty ; and it was with alacrity he obeyed orders to 
 advance upon Glasgow, which showed a disposition 
 to oppose the new policy. He tells us that he 
 easily enforced submission upon the Glasgow citi- 
 zens. The quartering of a few troopers and mus- 
 keteers proved argument strong enough, in two or 
 three nights' time, to convert the most obstinate 
 burgher from the cause of the Kirk to that of the 
 Parliament. He then placed before the citizens a 
 short paper, promising that those who signed it 
 
SIR JAMES TURNER 91 
 
 should be released from the presence of the soldiers. 
 It was a submission to all orders of the Parliament 
 agreeable to the Covenant; and "Turner's Coven- 
 ant," as it was thereafter called, received without 
 delay a crowd of signatures. He was then sent 
 into Renfrewshire, where he met with the same 
 success; and afterwards joined the main body of the 
 army, which, under the Duke of Hamilton, crossed 
 the Border to co-operate with Sir Marmaduke 
 Langdale, who v/as still maintaining the King's 
 cause in the north of England. 
 
 Turner relates with much gusto an accident that 
 befell him while he and his brigade were quartered 
 near Appleby. He was lodged in the house of a 
 loyal Cavalier who, at the time, was fighting under 
 Sir Marmaduke, while his wife, through illness, 
 kept her chamber. What happened shall be told 
 as nearly as possible in Turner's own language. 
 
 The first night he slept well enough; but on 
 rising next morning, missed a linen stocking, a 
 half-silk one, and a boot-hose, the accoutrement 
 under a boot for one leg ; neither could they be 
 found on the most careful search. Being provided 
 with more of the same kind, he dressed and rode to 
 head-quarters. On his return — no news of his 
 stockings. Next morning he found himself used, 
 or rather misused, in the same manner ; missing 
 the three stockings for one leg, the other three 
 being left entire as they v/ere the day before. A 
 close search led to no result. As he had got in 
 reserve a pair of "whole stockings" and a pair of 
 boot-hose larger than the former, he put them on ; 
 
93 AN OLD CAVALIER 
 
 but on the third morning, lo and behold! again only 
 the stockings of one leg were left to him. He and 
 liis servants then concluded that some rats were 
 the nocturnal thieves who showed such a partiality 
 for a Cavalier's hose; and the room being carefully 
 examined, the top of his great boot-hose was found 
 in a hole into which the rats had dragged the rest 
 of their booty. The boards were taken up in the 
 presence of a servant of the house, sent for the 
 purpose by his mistress. On the first plank being 
 partly raised, Turner's boy thrust in his hand, and 
 brought out four-and-twenty pieces of gold and 
 one angel, which the servant immediately claimed 
 for his mistress. Thereupon Turner repaired to her 
 chamber and told her that as Lambert, the Puritan 
 General, had formerly been quartered in the house, 
 the gold had probably been hidden by one of his 
 domestics, and was therefore Turner's lawfully, by 
 right of war ; but if she could show it belonged to 
 her he would immediately give it up. The poor 
 gentlewoman replied, with many tears, that her 
 husband being none of the frugallest of men, she 
 had, unknown to him, concealed the money as a 
 reserve when she might have special occasion ; and 
 conjured him, as he loved the King, for whom 
 her husband and she had suffered much, not to 
 deprive her of it. She added that the exact 
 quantity she had put there was four-and-twenty 
 whole pieces and two angels ; and that she had 
 placed them in a red velvet purse. On further 
 search being made, the other angel was found, and 
 also the purse — gnawed to bits, as the stockings 
 
SIR JAMES TURNER 93 
 
 were ; and the gentlewoman's story being thus 
 confirnied, the money was restored to her. 
 
 Turner's comments on this episode are too 
 characteristic to be passed over. 
 
 " I have often heard," he says, " that -the eating 
 or gnawing of clothes by rats is ominous, and por- 
 tends some mischance to fall on these to whom the 
 clothes belong. 1 thank God I never was addicted 
 to such divinations, or heeded them. It is true 
 that more misfortunes than one fell on me shortly 
 after; but I am sure I could have better foreseen 
 them myself than rats or any such vermin ; and yet 
 did it not. I have heard, indeed, many fine stories 
 told of rats ; how they abandon houses and ships, 
 when the first are to be burnt and the second 
 drowned. Naturalists say they are very sagacious 
 creatures, and I believe they are so ; but I shall 
 never be of the opinion they can foresee future 
 contingencies, which I suppose the devil himself 
 can neither foreknow nor foretell ; these being 
 things which the Almighty hath kept hidden in the 
 bosom of His Divine prescience. And whether the 
 great God hath pre-ordained or predestinated these 
 things, which to us are contingent, to fall out by 
 an uncontrollable and unavoidable necessity, is a 
 question not yet decided." And our Cavalier wisely 
 made no attempt to decide it. 
 
 Turner was present at Preston field, where the 
 Scots felt the heavy hand of Cromwell. Having 
 joined the Puritan army, under General Lambert, 
 among the Yorkshire hills, he had then moved upon 
 
94 AN OLD CAVALIER 
 
 Preston, and finding the Royalists, under the in- 
 competent authority of the Duke of Hamilton, 
 loosely scattered over a wide extent of country, he 
 fell upon their vanguard, led by Sir Marmaduke 
 Langdale, on Wednesday night, August i6th, and 
 dispersed it to the winds. Next day he attacked 
 their main body. The English regiments fought 
 well, though ill supported by their Scotch allies, 
 owincf to divisions of counsel amonc{ the command- 
 ers ; but after a three hours' struggle, they were 
 driven across the Ribble in great disorder, with the 
 loss of a thousand slain and five thousand taken 
 prisoners. 
 
 During the night, the Duke of Hamilton, with 
 his Scots, retreated upon Wigan, pursued by 
 Cromwell, " killing and taking divers all the way." 
 Within three miles of Wiran, the Scots made a 
 stand, until the main body of the Parliament 
 army coming up, they fell back upon the town, and 
 there spent the night of the i8th. The following 
 day they resumed their retreat, until at Winwick, 
 three miles from Warrington, they made a last 
 desperate effort to check Cromwell's furious pursuit. 
 But it was in vain ; and after sustaining heavy loss, 
 the infantry surrendered, and the great Puritan 
 soldier pushed forward into Scotland, leaving 
 Lambert to follow up the cavalry as far as 
 Uttoxeter, where they too were forced to capitulate. 
 It was agreed that the officers and privates should 
 be held prisoners of war, but civilly used, until they 
 could secure their liberty by exchange or ransom ; 
 that they should keep the clothes they wore and 
 
S//^ JAMES TURNER 95 
 
 all the money they had about them — the rest of the 
 baggage, with the arms and horses, going as "booty 
 and prize " to the victor. 
 
 Turner, who was one of the prisoners, was re- 
 moved to Hull, where he was kindly treated by the 
 Governor, Colonel Overton, being allowed the use 
 of paper, pens, ink, and books ; to attend the ser- 
 vices of his church; to take exercise on the town 
 walls; and even to receive visits from some "honest 
 Royalists." His captivity lasted for about fourteen 
 months, when he was released by order of Fairfax, 
 on giving his parole to go beyond the seas, and 
 not return for a twelvemonth to any one of the 
 three kingdoms. With a joyful heart — for inaction 
 was a torture to a man of Turner's temperament — 
 he embarked, early in November 1649, on board of 
 a ship which landed him safely at the "rich and 
 flourishing" town of Hamburg. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 AN OLD CAVALIER (SIR JAMES TURNER) 
 
 {continued) 
 
 Turner was too restless to keep his parole to 
 the letter. He visited the principal Dutch towns — 
 voyaged to Copenhagen — and finding no employ- 
 ment, listened to a proposal from Lord Carnegie 
 that be should accompany him back to Scotland. 
 His parole had two months to run ; but disregard- 
 ing the obligation of honour, he accepted Lord 
 Carnegie's offer, and the two were landed on the 
 Scottish coast ''the very night before Cromwell 
 beat the Scottish army at Dunbar." When the 
 news of that great victory reached him. Turner 
 stole off to Fife, where his wife joined him, and 
 they spent the winter at Desart. 
 
 The soldier of fortune in those days seems to 
 have been insensible to all the higher impulses, 
 whether of loyalty to a person, fidelity to a cause, 
 or patriotic devotion to a country. He killed for 
 lucre or the mere love of fighting, and fought in- 
 differently under any standard. His sole virtue — 
 though even this was sometimes wanting — was 
 faithfulness to his employer so long as he received 
 
 96 
 
SIR JAMES TURNER 97 
 
 his wages. There was no elevated aim or purpose 
 in his life ; his trade was bloodshed ; and he 
 carried it on in a most mercenary spirit. Thus 
 one need not be surprised that Turner speedily 
 professed his Presbyterian and Royalist sympathies, 
 and made his peace with the Kirk by unsaying all 
 that he had said, and repenting for all he had 
 done. As an experienced officer he was gladly 
 welcomed, and was at once appointed Adjutant- 
 General of the army that was being raised to 
 restore Charles II, and establish the supremacy of 
 the Kirk. In this capacity he served during the 
 disastrous campaign which ended in the total 
 defeat of the Royal army at Worcester, September 
 2, 165 1, and in this last battle was taken prisoner. 
 
 As he had broken his parole, it is likely he 
 would have had but short shrift ; and at Oxford, 
 where the prisoners halted on their way to London, 
 he contrived to effect his escape. With the help 
 of his host, whom he describes as " a barger, a 
 barber, and a shoemaker," he got out on the roof 
 of the house where he was billeted, made his way 
 into an empty house next door, and slipped past 
 all the guards, both horse and foot, not without 
 *' obstructions " and some " merry passages," which, 
 he observes, were not so pleasant at the time as 
 was afterwards the recollection of them. For two 
 days and nights he lay in the garret of a new 
 house, which was both doorless and windowless. 
 As soon as the search was over, and the other 
 prisoners, with their escort, were well advanced 
 
 towards London, he crept out of his hiding-place, 
 
 II 
 
98 AN OLD CAVALIER 
 
 and disguised in mean attire, took the same direc- 
 tion, in company with half-a-dozen watermen, who 
 had all served in the Royal army, under Charles I. 
 " The first day," he writes, " I walked afoot to 
 Morley, which was twenty miles from Oxford, but 
 my feet were so spoiled with the clouted shoes 
 which I wore, and myself so weary, that my com- 
 panions were forced to carry me almost the last 
 two miles. Lusty, strong, and loyal fellows they 
 were, but extremely debauched. They missed not 
 an alehouse in the way, and my paying for all 
 the ale and beer they drank (for I thank God they 
 would drink no wine) did not at all trouble me ; 
 but it was a vexation to me to drink cup for cup 
 with them, else they should have had no good 
 opinion of me, and to them I was necessitated 
 to reveal myself, my honest barger going before us 
 all the way on horseback, and so serving us for 
 a scout. At Morley I hired an old carcase of a 
 horse from a knavish old fellow, who made himself 
 exceeding merry with me, jeering me very broadly ; 
 and indeed I was in so woeful a plight that I was 
 ridiculous enough, neither could any man have 
 conceived that ever I had been an officer in any 
 army of the world. On horseback I came to 
 Brentford, thirteen miles from Morley, and seven 
 from London, and rode through at least two 
 hundred red-coats that had convoyed my country- 
 men to Titlefield, but was well seconded in passing 
 them by my trusty comrades, the watermen. At 
 Brentford I took oars, and in the night-time landed 
 at Westminster Stairs, which I had never seen ; 
 
SIR JAMES TURNER 99 
 
 for I came in an evil hour to London, where I had 
 never been before. I was lodged that night with 
 an honest Welshman, to whom my barger revealed 
 what I was, that he might make me known to 
 some of the royal party, for I had no acquaintances 
 in that great city." 
 
 In a short time three influential Royalists came 
 to his assistance, and he lay in strict seclusion in 
 Westminster, until an opportunity offered for him 
 to get to Dover, and thence to cross to Calais. 
 As soon as possible he went on to Paris, where he 
 was graciously received by the young King, Charles 
 II. Soon afterwards, Lieutenant-General Middle- 
 ton, who had escaped from the Tower, also arrived ; 
 and quite a little court gathered round his saturnine 
 Majesty. Turner retired to a private house in the 
 Faubourg St. Antoine, to study French, some know- 
 ledge of which our keen-witted Scot had acquired, 
 with no other help than that of a Grammar and 
 Dictionary, during his period of compulsory leisure 
 at Hull. 
 
 Solitary studies, however, were never at any 
 time to Turner's taste. The old war-horse scented 
 the smell of battle afar, and eagerly responded to 
 an invitation from Lieutenant-General Middleton, 
 who had been appointed Captain-General of all 
 the King's forces in the kingdom of Scotland. 
 These forces were non-existent, but Middleton was 
 bound for Holland and Germany to levy con- 
 tributions from loyal Scots for obtaining arms and 
 ammunition, with which to equip the volunteers 
 he hoped to rally to the King's standard. On 
 
100 AN OLD CAVALIER 
 
 this service Turner was also dispatched ; and 
 sufficient funds being raised, the adventurous Cava- 
 liers landed at various points on the coast of Fife 
 in the spring of 1654. Their expedition, however, 
 came very speedily to a disastrous end. Scotland 
 was firmly ruled by Cromwell's lieutenants, and 
 showed no inclination to hazard another insurrec- 
 tion. Turner's experiences were of a painful and 
 pitiful kind. A soldier of fortune's life had its 
 dark as well as its bright side ; and of this dark 
 side he now saw more than he cared for ; so that 
 he made haste to throw up the losing game, and 
 recross the inauspicious sea to Ostend. 
 
 At Aix-la-Chapelle he had an audience of the 
 King ; but his past career had not been of a kind 
 to entitle him to a place in the royal councils, and, 
 perceiving that he was unacceptable, he wandered 
 away into Holland, visited the Queen of Bohemia 
 at the Hague, and then returned in November to 
 his wife at Bremen. The year 1655 he spent in 
 idleness ; but in the following spring his resources 
 being exhausted, he found that he must once more 
 go " a-colonelling," as Butler puts it, and, as a 
 preliminary, sent his wife to her friends in Scotland. 
 He gives quite a pathetic account of their parting — 
 
 " Finding no passage from Amsterdam to Scot- 
 land, I took my wife from thence to Rotterdam ; 
 and after a month's stay there and at the Hague, 
 I found a good vessel bound for Leith, and in it 
 my wife embarked. William Bruce, now Sir 
 William, and Baronet and Clerk of the Bills, was 
 likewise a passenger ; at which I was glad, know- 
 
SIR JAMES TURNER loi 
 
 ing he would do my wife all the good offices he 
 could. I went with her below the Briell, where 
 with a very sad heart I took my leave of her ; 
 finding then how sensible and touching a sorrow it 
 is to part with a beloved yoke-fellow. I thought 
 this separation of mine from her did too near 
 resemble death ; for I had no visible ground for 
 any hope to see her again ; I not being permitted 
 to come to the country whither she was going, and 
 there being but small probability that I could 
 expect any fortune so soon as might invite her to 
 take a share of it. But, 
 
 ' Astra regtmt homines^ sed regit astra Deiis. 
 
 * The stars above governeth men below, 
 But the Ahnighty rules the stars, we know.' 
 
 We put our trust in God, and He, Who never 
 deserted those who put their confidence in Him, 
 did not disappoint us. She landed safely, notwith- 
 standing of a storm, and a great many Spanish 
 capers at sea." 
 
 The disconsolate Cavalier rejoined General Mid- 
 dleton, after his wife's departure, and went with 
 him to Dantzic, in the hope of engaging the King 
 of Poland in the cause of Charles II. Deposed 
 kings have few friends, and nothing came of the 
 journey but disappointment and debt. Turner 
 borrowed some moneys, and went on a mission of 
 his own making to Copenhagen, being wishful to 
 sell his sword to the Danish King, who was then 
 at war with Sweden. He received an immediate 
 commission to raise a regiment of foot one thousand 
 
102 AN OLD CAVALIER 
 
 strong, and for this purpose returned to Holland ; 
 but while busily engaged in recruiting he received 
 information of the death of the King, and was 
 once more thrown out of employment. We may 
 suppose, however, that he made a profit out of the 
 transaction ; for in spite of his doleful apprehen- 
 sions he was able again to send for his wife, who 
 joined him at the Hague, and they lived there 
 together for a couple of years '* with much content." 
 
 At the Restoration our Cavalier made his appear- 
 ance in London, losing no time in petitioning the 
 King to remember his faithful service. His 
 Majesty asked to whom he wished his petition to 
 be referred for consideration. Turner named the 
 two most powerful of the Scottish nobles, the Earls 
 of Lauderdale and Middleton. The former pro- 
 mised that he would get the King to confirm in 
 England whatever the latter proposed in Scotland, 
 thus relieving himself of responsibility. The truth 
 seems to be, that Turner was trusted by neither 
 party. At all events, as Middleton did nothing in 
 Turner's behalf, Lauderdale's good-will was never 
 put to the test. Our soldier of fortune, grievously 
 disappointed, wished to go back to Scotland. On 
 taking leave of the King, he was flattered with 
 some very gracious expressions, and received the 
 honour of knighthood ; an honour, he says, which 
 he had not desired nor deserved. Probably ; but 
 then it cost the King nothing, and was a cheap 
 way of paying off a debt 
 
 However in August 1662, as the result of inces- 
 
S7J^ JAMES TURNER 103 
 
 sant solicitation, something more was done for him. 
 He was commissioned to raise a company of foot, 
 with which he was sent to keep order in Glasgow. 
 Ha remained there until 1663. In March 1665 he 
 was again dispatched to the West country, with one 
 hundred and twenty foot and thirty horse, to put 
 the laws concerning Church ordinance in force, or 
 in other words, to wring out of the people on any 
 plausible pretext the largest sum of money possible, 
 in order to fill the royal treasury at Edinburgh. 
 He stayed in Glasgow for two months and reduced 
 the country into tolerable obedience. Soon after- 
 wards he was sent to Ayr, Irvine, and Kilmarnock, 
 to assist in disarming all persons but those en- 
 trusted with official duties. Next he was dis- 
 patched to Galloway, which was in a very disturbed 
 state. There his stern and cold temper made 
 itself painfully felt ; and his cruelty and unscrupu- 
 lousness attached perpetual odium to his name. 
 The spirit in which he carried out his orders we 
 may infer from an official report, drawn up some 
 years later, in which he was condemned for — 
 I. Quartering of soldiers for levying of fines and 
 impositions ; 2. Exacting cess or quartering money 
 for more soldiers than were actually present, some- 
 times for double the number or more ; 3. Cess 
 exacted for divers days, sometimes eight, ten, or 
 more, before the party did actually appear ; 4. 
 Imposing of fines and quartering before any pre- 
 vious citation or hearing of parties, and so on. 
 Such oppression, not unnaturally, provoked the 
 people of the West to insurrection. 
 
104 AN OLD CAVALIER 
 
 One November day, at Dairy, four peasants 
 interfered to prevent three or four ruffianly soldiers 
 from ill-usin^^ a poor old man. In the scuffle a 
 pistol was fired, and a soldier wounded. The 
 peasants knew that " if taken, they would certainly 
 be hanged, and they resolved to go through with it," 
 and stand to their defence as best they might. 
 There was a post of twelve soldiers hard by. 
 Securing the co-operation of some of their neigh- 
 l:ours, they attacked and overcame them, and carried 
 off their weapons. The successful rioters then 
 remembered that Sir James Turner was at Dum- 
 fries, and if they did not seize upon him, he would 
 assuredly seize upon them, when their fate would 
 soon be decided — a hasty trial and the nearest 
 gibbet. A country gentleman, the Lord of 
 Bascute, sided with them ; numerous sympathizers 
 came in ; and with fifty horsemen and a crowd of 
 peasants on foot, they marched into Dumfries, 
 surrounded Turner's house, and as most of his 
 force had been sent to Leith, easily made him 
 prisoner. 
 
 What befell afterwards he relates with his usual 
 complacency — 
 
 " The Captain (of the insurgents) mounted me on 
 his own horse, and there was good reason for it, 
 for he mounted himself on a far better one of 
 mine, besides those he disposed of to others. Some 
 gentlemen, out of affection, followed me out of 
 Dumfries ; one whereof was rudely commanded 
 back, and two others were carried eight miles 
 further, almost as prisoners. Yet I had the oppor- 
 
SIR JAMES TURNER 105 
 
 tunity to tell one of them, that so soon as he 
 returned to town, he shall immediately post away 
 a servant of mine (whom he knew I trusted) to my 
 Lord Archbishop of Glasgow, to acquaint him with 
 all that had passed. It was a great addition to my 
 grief to know that my lord at that time, because of 
 a fever whereof he was not recovered, might fall 
 in a relapse, and so not only endanger his life, 
 but render him incapable to pay the King and the 
 Church that service which otherwise I knew he 
 was both able and willing to do, yet I thought it 
 more fitting he should have it from my servant 
 than from another, who would not perhaps have 
 given him so right an information. 
 
 " That night I was lodged at the minister's house 
 at Glencairn, but the rebels did not let me stay 
 long there, being frighted from thence by a mis- 
 intelligence they had, that the Earl of Annandale 
 and my Lord Drumlanrig were following them with 
 a strong party of friends and vassals. I found it 
 was in vain for me to offer to persuade the Captain, 
 that it was purely impossible for these Lords, in 
 so short a time, to get so many men together as could 
 encounter his party, which consisted of above nine 
 score men, more than the half whereof consisted 
 of horsemen, indifferently well mounted, with 
 swords, pistols, and carabines ; the rest were afoot, 
 armed with muskets, pikes, swords, scythes, and 
 pitchforks. When they had carried me away 
 from thence, they put a strong guard upon me, and 
 with much difficulty I was permitted to speak to 
 the Captain, who a little before had dismissed 
 
I06 AN OLD CAVALIER 
 
 twenty of my soldiers, whom he had taken in the 
 country, telling them they should have no quarter 
 hereafter, if they served the Prelates any more. 
 They had killed one Hamilton, a soldier of my 
 own company, the night before, because he would 
 neither take the Covenant, nor cared for their 
 quarter. I did plead, I could be no prisoner of 
 war, and therefore desired I might be set at liberty, 
 which was refused me with much scorn and 
 contempt. 
 
 " Then I desired he would leave me in some place 
 till I convalesced, which I hoped would be within a 
 day or two, and that I would not fail to come to 
 him upon my parole, which I promised not to 
 break. But the wicked wretch told me that he 
 was so far from believing my word, that he would 
 not trust the King, my master, if he were there ; 
 and uttered such horrid speeches as are not fit for 
 any loyal subject to rehearse. I then told him he 
 might now dispose of me as he pleased, for after 
 these expressions of his, it did not become me to 
 make any further applications to him. Most part 
 of that night was spent in riding, in regard my 
 indisposition constrained my guards to march but 
 slowly. Once they took me in to refresh at a place 
 called Castlefairn ; the honest woman of the house 
 was but shrewdly used, because by her pitiful looks 
 she did show she had commiseration of my con- 
 dition. There was one of my guards called 
 Cannon of Barnshalloch, who entertained me the 
 whole night with discourses of death, by order, as 
 I imagined, from the Captain. He told me, he 
 
SIR JAMES TURNER 107 
 
 believed it was concluded I should die, and 
 therefore wished me to prepare for it, and to repent 
 of all my heinous sins, especially of that crying 
 one of my persecuting God's people, who made 
 conscience to keep the Covenant, to which all my 
 actions showed me to be a mortal enemy. It is 
 needless to repeat any more of his language or my 
 answers to him ; let it be enough to say that I 
 endeavoured to learn from him whether my death 
 was to be delayed till more of their forces were 
 come together ; his answer was, it was probable it 
 might be delayed. 
 
 " On the 1 6th of the month we came to the old 
 Clachan of Dairy, where they increased to two 
 hundred and fifty. Master Hugh Henderson, late 
 minister of Dumfries, who lived near that house, 
 obtained leave of Gray that I might dine with him. 
 And though he and I be of different persuasions, 
 yet I will say that he entertained me with very 
 real kindness, and desired the Captain to set me at 
 liberty ; whose answer was, that he could not 
 dispose of me till he came to Ayrshire, where he was 
 to receive further orders from his superiors. At 
 this place Major Steuart of Monwhill gave me a 
 visit, and though he be a Presbyterian, yet in plain 
 language he called them both knaves and fools. It 
 was reported to me that Captain Gray did here 
 offer to resign his command to this Major Steuart, 
 and that he absolutely refused it. I had often 
 inquired what this Captain Gray was, and by what 
 authority he did command these gentlemen he had 
 never seen before ; but I was answered by them all, 
 
io8 AN OLD CAVALIER 
 
 that they knew no more of him but that he called 
 himself Captain Gray, and that he had brought 
 an order with him to them all to obey him. I 
 took much pains to learn from whom that order 
 came, whether from one man as a general, or from 
 more men as a council, a committee, or junto ; but 
 could never yet, by any means I could use, come 
 to the knowledge of it." 
 
 So far I have allowed this ingenious and self- 
 satisfied gentleman to speak for himself; but his 
 stupendous egotism, his easy confidence in his 
 superior knowledge and wisdom, renders him so 
 incontinently prolix that, interesting as, in itself, 
 is his narrative of adventure, I must now abridge 
 and condense it, in justice to the reader's patience 
 and my limitations of space. 
 
 On Sunday, the 1 8th, the Covenanters, with their 
 prisoner, marched to Dalmellington. On the way, 
 the couple of guards who rode on either side of 
 him chose, as a cheerful subject of discourse, the 
 lawfulness of putting him to death on the Sabbath 
 day, because he had compelled many precious 
 Christians to transgress the Sabbath by preventing 
 them from hearing their lawful pastors "in hills 
 and woods," and forcing them to go to church to 
 hear "dumb dogs" — that is, the ministers of the 
 Established Kirk. 
 
 By way of Tarbolton they moved on to Ayr, 
 the strength of the insurgents being increased to 
 seven hundred. They fell in with a Major Ler- 
 mond, who accosted the shifty Cavalier with 
 disagreeable frankness. He had known him, he 
 
SIR JAMES TURNER 109 
 
 said, when he was a gentleman ; but he was such 
 no longer, being a persecutor of God's saints, a 
 slave to prelacy, and an instrument of its tyranny. 
 Turner was lodged in an inn at Ayr, with three 
 gentlemen in his apartment to keep him under 
 watch and ward, and a guard of horse and foot 
 below stairs. 
 
 On the 2 1st his guards were changed. The men 
 were proved to be of rougher texture than their 
 predecessors; and half-a-dozen breaking into his 
 room dragged him from it with great rudeness, 
 and in such haste that he had no time to settle 
 with his landlord ! His horse not being ready, he 
 was made to trudge afoot almost out of the town ; 
 but encountering fortunately the officer who had 
 been previously in command, he was carried back 
 to the inn, where he was allowed to discharge his 
 reckoning and enjoy his morning draught. The 
 march being resumed, he was mounted on a slow- 
 footed horse, and deprived of his spurs, to lessen 
 his chances of escape ; but Calhoun, a bankrupt 
 merchant of Glasgow, who held him in charge, 
 behaved with very much respect and civility. 
 
 At Ochiltree lodgings were found for him in the 
 principal alehouse, where he was " indifferently well 
 used," and visited by some of the Covenanters, 
 both officers and ministers. And here I may note 
 that he seems to have had really very little to 
 complain of in the way of treatment, notwithstand- 
 ing the evil reputation he had acquired as an 
 "oppressor" and "enemy of God's people." Some 
 sharp reproaches were occasionally hurled at him, 
 
no AN OLD CAVALIER 
 
 but this was all. He makes the most of every 
 petty grievance in that garrulous and not always, 
 I fear, too veracious narrative of his ; it is evident, 
 however, that he experienced no very harsh usage 
 or special privation. 
 
 From Ochiltree they pushed on to Muirkirk, and 
 thence to Douglas — in the neighbourhood of Scott's 
 Castle Dangerous — where the command of the 
 Covenanters was taken up by an experienced 
 soldier, Colonel Wallace. They then numbered 
 about four hundred horse, armed with sword, or 
 sword and pistol ; and five hundred foot, carrying 
 musket, pike, sword, scythe, or pitchfork, according 
 to their degree — some, nothing but a great long 
 staff. When a couple of troops of cavalry were 
 skirmishing against each other by way of exercise. 
 Sir James was moved to admiration by the agility 
 of both the horsemen and their steeds, the excellent 
 order kept in the ranks, and the high degree of 
 discipline attained in so brief a period. 
 
 Their object being Edinburgh, our insurgents 
 kept their course to the east, crossing the Clyde 
 at Lanark, where Sir James's fastidious sense of 
 right and wrong was much shocked by their 
 behaviour, though I find nothing in it that was 
 worse than his own when he trailed a pike in the 
 German wars. " It was an ordinary thing," he 
 says, " for any of them all to call for anything was 
 necessary for either horse or man, and say they 
 would pay it when they came back " — which, pro- 
 bably, most, if not all, of them may have meant 
 to do. He adds, sarcastically, that this was but 
 
SIR JAMES TURNER in 
 
 "a peccadillo in both officers and soldiers, for a 
 great sin it could not be in such saints, who, say 
 they, have the only true right to the creature." It 
 must be remembered, however, that Turner is by 
 no means a trustworthy authority as to the action 
 of those whom he calls "the sectaries." He tells 
 the following curious story, by the way, which, 
 if true, may be taken as a measure of the hatred 
 he had inspired by his exactions. 
 
 A certain person who, he says, shall be nameless, 
 desiring to see him as a prisoner and environed 
 with drawn swords, Major Lermond led him out 
 of his corner, round about the Tolbooth, and before 
 a high window where that person stood. There 
 were many signs of joy, and much laughter passed 
 betwixt him and the Major, yet he endeavoured 
 to keep so within the window that Sir James 
 Turner might not espy him, but in vain. " It was 
 a ridiculous action," comments Sir James, " of that 
 foolish Major, to satisfy any man's curiosity by 
 abusing himself and the charge he then exercised. 
 And to the other I shall say, it was below a gentle- 
 man, and unbeseeming a good subject, to desire to 
 glut his eyes with the sight of the low condition 
 and captivity of one who professed loyalty to 
 the King." 
 
 At Lanark the insurgents were joined by some 
 forty or fifty sympathizers, attaining their maxi- 
 mum of numbers, which Turner puts at eleven 
 hundred, though some authorities estimate it at 
 three thousand. Descending from the Lanarkshire 
 hills, with the Royal army under General Thomas 
 
112 AN OLD CAVALIER 
 
 Dalyell (or Dalziel — a soldier of fortune, like 
 Turner, who had seen much service against the 
 Turks and Tartars, and had been raised to the 
 rank of General by the Czar Alexis Michaelovitch) 
 in hot pursuit, they crossed a wide stretch of 
 moorland and morass, ascended the vast shoulder 
 of the Pentlands, and approached within five miles 
 of the Scottish capital. There they were drawn 
 up in two squadrons of horse and one division of 
 foot, and harangued by one of their ministers, who, 
 in ardent language, desired them to remember that 
 Covenant and oath of God which they had taken, 
 and their duty to carry themselves not only 
 devoutly towards God, but civilly and discreetly 
 towards men. He assured them that their friends 
 were ready to receive and embrace them with open 
 arms, and to furnish them with all necessaries for 
 back and belly, as also with all things which might 
 render them able to meet their enemies. "But," 
 said he, "you must not stop there, for to be civil 
 to those who are good to you deserves neither 
 thanks nor reward. I entreat you to use all 
 imaginable discretion to those who are not of your 
 persuasion ; endeavour to gain them with love, and 
 by your good carriage stop the mouths of your 
 adversaries." 
 
 On November 27, the thirteenth day of the 
 insurrection, the Covenanters advanced to Colin- 
 ton, two miles from Edinburgh. At some points 
 of their march they were visible from the Castle, 
 but out of range of its guns. They encamped in 
 a place defensible enough against sudden attacks 
 
SIR JAMES TURNER 113 
 
 *' by reason of a church and churchyard, and a 
 stone bridge," the river, because of the great rains, 
 being unfordable. But a terrible disappointment 
 awaited them. There was no rising in the city as 
 they had been led to expect ; the saints came not 
 forth to battle with the ungodly ; no brave spirits 
 offered to swell their scanty ranks ; even " the 
 necessaries for back and belly " were not forth- 
 coming. There, in the black gloom of the November 
 night, they realized that their cause was hopeless ; 
 that they had committed themselves to an enter- 
 prise which never had any prospect of success. 
 Colonel Wallace saw that his only chance was a 
 hasty return to the West ; and quickly putting his 
 little force, which was rapidly diminishing by 
 desertions, into motion, he re-crossed the green 
 slopes of the Pentlands by House of Muir to 
 RuUion Green on their southern side. There they 
 were overtaken by Dalziel and his army ; and 
 Wallace, perceiving that an action was inevitable, 
 posted his half-starved men and horses on a bold 
 ridge that rises out of the natural valley (Novem- 
 ber 28). It was not without some sharp fighting, 
 nor until two attacks had been beaten off, that 
 Dalziel, with all his superiority in numbers, 
 discipline, and equipment, overcame the resistance 
 of those gallant peasants. But, overcome by 
 repeated charges, at nightfall they broke and 
 fled. 
 
 Sir James Turner's experiences on this memor- 
 able occasion he narrates with his characteristic 
 
 air of superiority. 
 
 I 
 
114 AN OLD CAVALIER 
 
 At the outset of the fight, his guards were 
 ordered to come down from their position on the 
 summit of the ridge, and take up ground in the 
 rear of the main body, " only to make a show." 
 As soon as he saw that the Covenanters were 
 being overpowered, he addressed these men with 
 his usual bonhomie — *' My friends," said he, " the 
 day will be either yours or ours. If yours, I am 
 still your prisoner, and I believe I shall not be 
 long troubled with you after your victory. If the 
 day prove ours, your lives and mine are in equal 
 danger. If then the King's forces gain the victory, 
 defend you me from the violence of your party 
 in their flight, and I shall assure you of your 
 lives." 
 
 To this proposal those of his guards who 
 remained with him — eight in all, the other eight 
 having fled — readily assented. " Then put your 
 swords in your left hands," said he, " and hold up 
 your right hands to heaven, and let both you and 
 me swear the performance of our mutual promises." 
 Which was presently done. "And who will now 
 say," remarked Sir James, humorously, " that I am 
 not a Covenanter .'' " A few minutes later, he heard 
 the Covenanting ministers crying aloud, and very 
 frequently, *' The God of Jacob ! The God of 
 Jacob ! " This was when they saw a temporary 
 check on the part of the King's troops. Turner 
 asked them the meaning of their shout. They 
 replied. Could he not see that the Lord was 
 fighting for them .'* With a good deal of passion, 
 he told them that they did not understand the 
 
SIR JAMES TURNER 115 
 
 course of the fight, for they would see those troops 
 whom they thought beaten quickly rally and make 
 a stand ; and as he spake, the whole body of 
 Dalziel's foot and the left wing of his horse 
 advanced firmly and in good order, with trumpets 
 sounding and drums beating. "And in one word," 
 exclaimed Turner, " if your party do not reel, run, 
 and fly within a quarter of an hour, then I shall 
 be contented you pistol me." 
 
 " It fell out so," says Turner, " that though the 
 rebels for their number fought desperately enough, 
 yet it pleased the Lord they were beaten, and 
 their horse fled apace." While he was meditating 
 how to avail himself of this opportunity, came one 
 Cannon of Mondroget, bleeding freely from his 
 wounds ; and told him he must go with him. 
 Turner answered that he was so ill mounted that 
 he could not keep his pace, and that he knew he 
 was not allowed the use of a spur. It was prob- 
 able, said the Covenanter, that some of their officers 
 might be made prisoners, and Turner might help 
 by exchange to relieve them ; therefore, forward 
 he must go, for he neither could nor would leave 
 him behind, much as it was against his inclination. 
 But the Royal dragoons were galloping up ; and 
 Turner, catching sight of their shining corselets, 
 advised Mondroget to take thought of his own life 
 and not seek another's. The Covenanter perceived 
 that the tables were turned, and rode away, fast 
 and far. Four more of Turner's guards had beaten 
 a retreat ; the others he persuaded to turn with 
 him, and he bade a drummer of his, who had foi- 
 
Ii6 AN OLD CAVALIER 
 
 lowed his fortunes, make known to any officer he 
 came across that his master was on the field. The 
 drummer fell in with a servant of the Duke of 
 Hamilton, who soon afterwards rode up, and giving 
 Turner and his prisoners — for such his former 
 guards had become — the pass-word and the sign, 
 conducted the former to his Grace, by whom he 
 was received with the utmost kindness and courtesy. 
 The Duke gave orders that the four peasants 
 should be kindly used, and eventually, on Turner's 
 application, they were set free. 
 
 Such was the end of our Cavalier's experiences 
 as a captive ; and such, too, was the end of the 
 fourteen days' insurrection, which he had provoked 
 by his severities. For these severities he was 
 called to account by the Government, and it must 
 be admitted that he made an adequate defence. 
 There was also much debate about a sum of 
 ;^38,ooo which he had raised : what became of it 
 is by no means clear, and at this distance of time 
 is by no means important. But I do not think 
 that much of it stuck in our Cavalier's hands ; as 
 a matter of fact, the Privy Council exonerated him. 
 The official inquiry into his various alleged offiences 
 was concluded in May 1668. Thereafter he lived 
 in strict retirement — a disappointed man, whose 
 adventures had brought him no great profit and 
 but small distinction. In his Memoirs, however, 
 he attempts to make the best of things, and poses 
 with some skill as a man more sinned against than 
 sinning. '* Though I profess myself," he writes, 
 
SIR JAMES TURNER wj 
 
 " no Stoic, nor have I indeed that apathy or in- 
 sensibility of the strokes of Fortune and afflictions 
 whereof they fooHshly boast, yet I may without 
 vanity say that the King's displeasure with me 
 being set aside, I have been but little moved with 
 those changes of fortune that hath befallen me, 
 nor have they brangled my resolutions from 
 looking on prosperity and adversity with an equal 
 eye, nor shall hinder me, so far as God shall enable 
 me with grace, to keep a good conscience before 
 God, an unspotted loyalty to my prince, and fair 
 and honest dealing with all men, at least in as high 
 a degree as man in the state of imperfection can 
 reach to. 
 
 " I am writing this in the month of February, of 
 the year of our Lord 1670, and entering in the 
 fifty-sixth year of my own age, being in indifferent 
 good health ; my body, considering the fatigue of 
 my life, not very crazy ; the intellectuals which 
 God hath bestowed upon me sound enough ; and 
 my memory so good, but though I never used to 
 keep notes in writing, and that I have written 
 within these last four months the Introduction to 
 my Discourses, and the Introduction to this long 
 Narration, with the Narration itself, in which are 
 comprehended the most remarkable passages of 
 my life ; yet all and every one of them represented 
 themselves as freshly to my remembrances as if 
 they had been but the occurrences of yesterday. 
 To God only wise, be glory for ever. Amen." 
 
 Turner, it must in all honesty be said, was no 
 
ii8 AN OLD CAVALIER 
 
 Dugald Dalgetty ; no rough, rude, unlettered 
 mercenary, but a man of considerable acquire- 
 ments, and not without a certain sense of duty. 
 It was his boast — and a justifiable one — that he 
 rendered faithful service to his employers. As to 
 the cause or principles represented by those 
 employers he was not particularly scrupulous ; 
 but at bottom he was a Royalist, and attached to 
 the Stuart dynasty. That he was of a stern and 
 severe temper is affirmed by his contemporaries, 
 and proved by his actions. Bishop Burnet's 
 character of the man is not very flattering, but I 
 fear it is true — '' He was naturally firm, but was 
 mad when he was drunk, and that was very often. 
 He was a learned man, but had always been in 
 armies, and knew no other rule but to obey orders. 
 He told me he had no regard to any laws, but 
 acted as he was commanded in a military 
 spirit." 
 
 In his romance of Old Mortality^ Scott makes 
 Major Bellenden refer to the most important of 
 the works of this learned Cavalier and swash- 
 bucklering scholar — " For my part," says the 
 Major, " I have not read a book these twenty 
 years except my Bible, The Whole Ditty of Man; 
 and, of late years. Turners Pallas Armata, a 
 Treatise on the Pike Exercise, and I don't like 
 his discipline much neither." 
 
 That his range of reading was tolerably exten- 
 sive, we may infer from the titles of his MS. 
 Essays or Discourses preserved in the Advocates' 
 Library, Edinburgh, such as Duties of Sovereigns 
 
SIR JAMES TURNER 119 
 
 and Subjects^ Orators and Preachers^ Magic, The 
 Jezvish Cabbala, Anger, Reve?ige, Duels, Cruelty. 
 While in his Miscellanies he touches upon the 
 following characters : Francesco Petrarca, Edward 
 III., Lucrezia Borgia, Orlando, Julius Scaliger, 
 Mary Stuart, Raymond LuUi, Cardinal Mazarin, 
 Wallenstein, Villiers Duke of Buckingham, Mary 
 Tudor Queen of England, King Charles, Gustavus 
 of Sweden, and Queen Christina. 
 
 The date of Turner's death is generally given 
 as 1685 ; his widow survived until 17 16. 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 GENERAL PATRICK GORDON 
 
 Among the numerous Scots who figured in the 
 court and camp of Peter the Great the most dis- 
 tinguished was General Patrick Gordon ; and it so 
 happens that of him we know the most, since he 
 took the precaution to write the record of his 
 career, with its more stirring experiences, in the 
 form of a Diary. From its unpretending, and, I 
 think, veracious pages I have chiefly gathered the 
 particulars which I have woven into the following 
 narrative. 
 
 Patrick Gordon w^as a native of Buchan — a land 
 of granite, worthy to have produced a man with 
 such granitic strength of character. He was the 
 son of the gudeman ^ of Auchleuchries, and was 
 born in 1635, on the eve of the great contest which 
 was to convulse both England and Scotland with 
 its throes. At the age of five he was sent to school 
 at Crochdan, at nine he was removed to one at 
 Achridy; and when the war-troubles between the 
 
 1 For the benefit of English readers I may explain that 
 a " laird " was one who held his estate direct from the Crown ; 
 a " gudeman " held it from a great house, like the Dukes of 
 Gordon or the Earls of Sutherland. 
 
 120 
 
GENERAL PATRICK GORDOJST I2i 
 
 two countries broke out, he went with his family 
 to reside at Achmade. 
 
 He was only sixteen when he resolved to go out 
 into the world, and see what it had to offer to a 
 young fellow with a clear brain, a stout heart, and 
 an iron will. Some kind of equipment was pro- 
 vided for him by his father and uncle, though 
 neither had much money to spare, and embarking 
 at Aberdeen, he sailed for Dantzic. As a matter 
 of course he happened upon one of his own 
 countrymen, whose heart warmed towards the 
 young adventurer, and supplied him with '' bite 
 and sup," until he pushed on to Konigsberg. Then 
 he fell in with a zealous Jesuit priest — another 
 Scot — Father Alexander Menzies, who induced 
 him to enter a Jesuit college at Braunsburg, hard 
 by, but the close watch and ward under which he 
 was kept proved intolerable to a youth of Gordon's 
 temper. Moreover, he had no ambition to become 
 either priest or scholar ; he longed for the life 
 adventurous ; and quickly resolved to bid his 
 custodians an unceremonious farewell. Slipping 
 out of the college, one fine Tuesday morning, with 
 a staff in one hand, a little bag (containing his 
 linen and some books) in the other, and seven and 
 a half dollars in his pocket, he " pilgrimed it away 
 all alone." It was a bright fresh morning, and 
 the enterprise suited his disposition ; so that he 
 had no misgiving until, in a patch of woodland, he 
 came to a dividing of the ways, and stood hesitat- 
 ing which to choose — which led to fortune, which 
 to failure. 
 
122 A SOLDIER OF FORTUNE 
 
 After he had made his choice, a spasm of doubt 
 possessed him, as it takes possession of all of us 
 under similar circumstances. For though we have 
 decided, and have no intention of going back, we 
 cannot help a momentary apprehension that the 
 other may have been the riglit way after all. " I 
 began," he says, " with serious thoughts to consider 
 my present condition, calling to mind from whence 
 I was come — from my good, loving parents and 
 friends — and where I was now, among strangers 
 whose language I understood not, travelling, myself 
 knew not well whither, having but seven dollars 
 by me, which could not last long, and when that 
 was gone I knew not where to get a farthing more 
 for the great [homeward] journey and voyage which 
 I intended. To serve or work, I thought it a dis- 
 paragement [such was the pride of the Gordons !] ; 
 and to beg, a greater. With these and such-like 
 thoughts " — natural enough to a lad of seventeen — 
 '* I grew so pensive and sad that, sitting down, I 
 began to lament and bewail my miserable condi- 
 tion. Then, having my recourse to God Almighty, 
 I, v/ith many tears, implored His assistance, craving 
 also the intercession of the Blessed Virgin, and all 
 the saints in heaven." At this moment, he says, 
 an old man came riding up on the right hand, and 
 perceiving that he wept, said to him in Dutch — 
 " Cry not, my child ; God will comfort you." With 
 which words being much consoled, he sprang to his 
 feet, and resumed his journey. 
 
 That night he lodged in a Krue ("Kroog"), or 
 village tavern, and indulged himself at supper with 
 
GENERAL PATRICK GORDON 123 
 
 half a stoup of beer. On asking for a bed he was 
 conducted to an empty waggon in the stable, where 
 he laid himself down, with his cloak partly over 
 and partly under him, and his coat and valise as a 
 pillow ; but by and by the maid of the inn, pre- 
 possessed perhaps by the tall, well-favoured young 
 Scot, brought him a proper pillow, and he slept 
 so comfortably that he woke not until half-an- 
 hour before sunrise. Resuming his journey, he 
 was greatly troubled by sore feet, and this trouble 
 increasing upon him, he was at length compelled 
 to hire a seat in a waggon which carried him to 
 Dantzic. There he discovered that the last ship 
 bound for a British port had sailed, and that he 
 would have to wait some months for another 
 chance. What was to be done ? In Dantzic and 
 its neighbourhood quite a little colony of Scotch- 
 men was planted, and its hospitality did not fail 
 him ; but it was a kind of hospitality that young 
 Gordon did not relish ; and being advised that 
 Poland offered the chances of a career, he set out 
 on a journey to Warsaw. On arriving there, he 
 obtained lodgings in the Luzinski suburb ; then 
 looked about him. He recosrnized not a few of his 
 own countrymen, but his poverty induced him to 
 hold back from their society; and he saw none 
 who were likely to employ him. So he worked his 
 way to Posen by assisting a man in charge of a 
 team of horses; found there some more Scots, and 
 being recommended by them to the kindly notice 
 of a young Polish noble, travelled with him to 
 Hamburg. 
 
124 A SOLDIER OF FORTUNE 
 
 Gordon was now on the verge of twenty — a mere 
 youth in years, but in knowledge of the world, in 
 knowledge of men and manners, as old as the 
 wisest of old men, or the oldest of wise men, and 
 well able to hold his own among his fellows. At 
 the moment of his arrival Hamburg was full of 
 recruiting officers, who were levying men for the 
 great Swedish army ; and the streets echoed with 
 the din of cavaliers ranting and carousing in every 
 ale-house. A tall, strongly built, athletic young 
 Scot, like this hero of ours, with resolution in the 
 poise of his head and the carriage of his body, 
 intelligence in the keen glance, and fearlessness on 
 the firm-set lips, became at once an object of 
 interest to the Swedes, who made every effort to 
 secure him. " In all their discourses they extolled 
 a soldier's life ; telling that riches, honours, and all 
 sorts of worldly blessings lay prostrate at a soldier's 
 feet, wanting only his will to stoop and take them 
 up ; then, falling out in commendation of our 
 countrymen, than whom no better sojers were of 
 any nation to be found, and that albeit nature had 
 endowed them with a genius fit for anything, yet 
 did they despise the ease, advantage, or content- 
 ment any other trade might bring, and embraced 
 that of a soldier, which, without all dispute, is the 
 most honourable." Gordon, however, turned a deaf 
 ear to these advances. He was not minded to 
 enlist in the ranks ; nothing less than an officer's 
 commission would satisfy his young ambition. 
 
 It is not true, perhaps, that Fortune always 
 favours the bold ; but it favoured young Gordon, 
 
GENERAL PATRICK GORDON 125 
 
 for it brought him into contact with one of his 
 own class, a Gordon of Troup, who held the rank 
 of Rittmaster, or captain, in the Swedish army. 
 Through this man's good services he was happily 
 started on what proved to be a prosperous career. 
 On July 25, 1655, he joined the Swedish army in 
 its camp near Stettin, in command of a company. 
 Thence he followed that brilliant but erratic 
 meteor of war in his iniquitously aggressive cam- 
 paign against the Poles. To Gordon, as to other 
 soldiers of fortune, the right or wrong of the 
 quarrel in which he fought mattered little. His 
 sole principle of military morality was loyal service 
 to his employers, and this he was rigid in his 
 observance of More than once taken prisoner by 
 the Poles, and pressed to join them, he refused 
 their liberal offers, and when an exchange took 
 place returned to the Swedish flag. It was not 
 until 1659, when, having once more fallen into their 
 hands, the Poles refused to exchange him, that 
 he yielded to their solicitations, and the force of 
 circumstances ; and after a good deal of huxtering 
 accepted the lucrative post of quartermaster. That 
 such an appointment should have been given to 
 a young man of twenty-four is a convincing proof 
 that he had already come to be known as a brave 
 soldier and a good officer. 
 
 That he was a man of hard temper, with no 
 scruple about bloodshed, we know from his pro- 
 jected attempt on the life of the individual whom 
 he mistook for the regicide Bradshaw. This was 
 in 1658, when the Poles were encamped at Werder. 
 
126 A SOLDIER OF FORTUNE 
 
 "An English ambassador," he says, "called 
 Bradshaw, having been on his journey to Moscovia 
 and not admitted, returned that way, and was 
 lodged in Lamehand's tavern. We getting notice 
 thereof, and judging him to be that Bradshaw who 
 sat President in the Highest Court of Justice upon 
 our sovereign King Charles I. of blessed memory, 
 were resolved, come what will, to make an end of 
 him ; and being about fifteen with servants, six 
 whereof might be accounted trusty weight, the 
 others also indifferent, we concluded that, doing 
 the feat in the evening, we could easily make our 
 escape by benefit of the strait ground and darkness 
 of the night, and so, being resolved, we took our 
 way thither. Being come near, and asking a boor 
 come from thence some questions, he told us that 
 just now some officers were come from Elbing to 
 the ambassador, and some forty dragoons who 
 were to guard and convey him to Marienburgh, 
 which made us despair of doiitg any good (?), and 
 so we returned. We had resolved to make our 
 addresses to him, as sent with a commission from 
 Field-marshal Von der Linde to him ; and being 
 admitted, seven or eight of us, to have gone in and 
 stabbed him, the rest guarding our horses and the 
 door ; and so, being come to horse, make our escape 
 to Dantzic." 
 
 I do not quote this autobiographical passage with 
 any intention of asking the reader to admire it, and 
 assuredly I do not quote it as reflecting the slightest 
 credit upon Quartermaster Patrick Gordon. It 
 describes what seems to me a really dastardly 
 
GENERAL PATRICK GORDON 127 
 
 project for committing a great crime with the least 
 possible risk of life or limb to those engaged in it ; 
 and no amount of royal favour can be held to have 
 justified it. We learn from it the extent to which 
 the stormy influences of the age deadened men's 
 moral sense ; so that when they planned with the 
 utmost coolness the murder of a political opponent, 
 they were not at all concerned if the blow aimed at 
 him struck somebody else. I can find no ground 
 for believing that if Gordon had slain the 
 ambassador, and afterwards discovered that he was 
 not the regicide, he would have felt very great 
 regret. 
 
 Gordon had been only a few months in the Polish 
 service when he heard of the restoration of the 
 Stuarts, and for a moment thought of carrying his 
 ambition and experience into the pay of his own 
 country. But his father wrote to him that the army 
 had been disbanded, and that Britain offered no 
 field for military enterprise. He remained, there- 
 fore, in Poland, but discontentedly ; for he wanted 
 opportunities of distinction — ample room and verge 
 enough to beat his daring wings. There must have 
 been an air of command about the man, young as 
 he was, for he was treated even by his superiors 
 with marked deference. The Russian ambassadors 
 showed as much eagerness to secure him as the 
 Poles had done, and earnestly desired their colonels 
 to engage him in the Czar's service, promising that 
 he should not be delayed longer than three years, 
 one year with the rank of major, and two years 
 
128 A SOLDIER OF FORTUNE 
 
 with that of lieutenant-colonel. He did not accept 
 their offers at the time, but held them in reserve 
 that he might have another string to his bow. 
 
 He seems to have had some thought of entering 
 the Emperor's service in the hope of fighting against 
 the Turks ; but when an opportunity offered he 
 began to dwell on the Russian bid, and to obtain a 
 better knowledge of the Muscovite system he made 
 his way to Riga to consult with an experienced 
 soldier, one General Douglas. Him, however, he 
 missed, but, as usual, Scotchmen were there ; two 
 of his old comrades and friends, as he calls them, 
 Alexander Landells and Walter Airth, to whom, 
 over a cup of wine, he revealed his position and 
 prospects. They told him that the Muscovite pay 
 was not very liberal, but it was sure ; that promo- 
 tion was speedy ; that many Scotchmen of high 
 quality were serving under his standard ; and that 
 they themselves, with many others, were about to 
 join. " So that the consideration," says Gordon, 
 '* of at least a certain livelihood, preferment, good 
 company, and my former promises and engage- 
 ments, confirmed me in my resolution to go to 
 Moscow." 
 
 At Koluminsko, a country house belonging to 
 the Czar, Gordon had his first interview with Peter 
 the Great, whom he was to serve for so many years 
 with eaual capacity and faithfulness, and assist in 
 the great work of building up and consolidating 
 the Russian empire. He was at once placed upon 
 the Imperial staff; and at the head of a regiment, 
 
GENERAL PATRICK GORDON 129 
 
 which he was to train and discipline, was 
 dispatched to Novogorod. There he gave an 
 example of his very practical and resolute temper. 
 The rich burgesses of that opulent city were 
 exceedingly reluctant to admit the officers and 
 soldiers into their houses. " Amongst the rest," says 
 Gordon, " a merchant, by whom my quarters were 
 taken up, whilst my servants were cleansing the 
 inner room ; he broke down the oven in the outer 
 room which served to warm both, so that I was 
 forced to go to another quarter. But, to teach 
 him better manners, I sent the provost-marshal 
 to quarter by him, with twenty prisoners and a 
 corporalship of sojours, who, by connivance, did 
 grievously plague him a week ; and it cost him near 
 a hundred dollars before he could procure an order 
 out of the right office to have them removed, and 
 was well laughed at besides for his incivility and 
 obstinacy." 
 
 At the outset his position in the service had its 
 inconveniences. The Muscovites regarded these 
 Scotch soldiers of fortune who were crowding into 
 their regiments with not unnatural dislike. A 
 foreign immigration is seldom popular with the 
 natives. " Our country for ourselves ! " is a senti- 
 ment to which everybody but a cosmopolitan 
 philosopher will respond, and with which the 
 Muscovites of those days were in cordial agreement. 
 *' Strangers," writes Gordon, " are looked upon as a 
 company of hirelings, and at the best (as they say of 
 women) " — O churlish Patrick ! — '* but nccessaria 
 mala (necessary evils). No honour or degree of 
 
 K 
 
130 A SOLDIER OF FORTUNE 
 
 preferment here to be expected but military, and 
 tliat with a limited command, in the attainment 
 whereof a good mediator or mediatory, and a piece 
 of money or other bribe, is more available than the 
 merit or sufficiency of the person ; a faint heart 
 under fair plumes, and a cuckoo in gay clothes, 
 b^ing as ordinary here as a counterfeited or painted 
 visage." 
 
 Some of the earlier entries in his Diary at this 
 period seem worth transcribing — 
 
 " 1661. September 17. — I got orders to receive 
 from a Russ 700 men to be in one regiment, being 
 runaway sojours out of several regiments, and 
 fetched back from divers places. Having received 
 them, I marched through the Sloboda of the 
 strangers to Krasira Villa, where we got our 
 quarters, and exercised these soldiers twice a day 
 in fine weather. 
 
 " September 20. — I received money (25 roubles) 
 for my welcome, and the next day sables, and two 
 days thereafter damask and cloth. 
 
 "September 25. — I received a month's means in 
 cursed copper money, as did those who came along 
 with me. 
 
 " September 27. — About thirty officers, most 
 whereof I had bespoke m Riga, came to Moscow, 
 most of them being our countrymen, as Walter 
 Airth, William Guild, George Keith, Andrew 
 Burnet, Andrew Caldcrwood, Robert Stuart, and 
 others, most whereof were enrolled in our regiment." 
 
 For more than a twelvemonth after his arrival in 
 Moscow, Gordon suffered from depression of spirits. 
 
GENERAL PAT RICK GORDON 131 
 
 He had a severe illness — an attack of intermittent 
 fever, and was exposed to frequent annoyances from 
 the ignorant jealousy of the Muscovites. Of their 
 ignorance he records a striking sample — A Lithu- 
 anian officer was advised by his Italian doctor to 
 sprinkle cream-of-tartar upon his food. They 
 spoke in Latin, and the Russian captain of the 
 guard, overhearing the words '' cremor tartaric' 
 reported that the patient and his physician had 
 been discussing the affairs of Crim Tartary. The 
 physician with difficulty escaped torture. 
 
 Through these and other trials Gordon steadily 
 did his duty after the old Scottish fashion, and 
 steadily rose in the esteem and confidence of his 
 employers. In 1662 he was made a lieutenant- 
 colonel. He then determined that " it would be for 
 his advantage to take unto himself a wife ; that he 
 should be much happier as a married man than he 
 was as a bachelor." After looking carefully around, 
 he fixed his choice on the daughter of Colonel 
 Philip Albrecht von Bockhoven — a handsome, 
 amiable, well-educated girl, who, however, was only 
 thirteen, while Gordon was twenty-seven. Neither 
 the young lady nor her parents raised any objec- 
 tion ; and, after a two years' courtship, Gordon and 
 she were happily married. 
 
 In 1666 the Czar sent him on a mission to Charles 
 II. He thus describes his interview with the so- 
 called Merry Monarch — 
 
 " October 9. — I found his Majesty standing under 
 a canopy bareheaded, with many nobles about 
 him. Having entered the room, and performed the 
 
132 
 
 A SOLDIER OF FORTUNE 
 
 usual reverences, I took the Emperor's letters from 
 my brother-in-law. After I had the short compli- 
 ment, his Majesty was pleased to receive the letters 
 with his own hand, and gave them up immediately 
 to one standing by, and asked me for the good 
 health of his Majesty, which I answered after the 
 ordinary way. Then his Majesty was pleased to 
 say that this message was so much the more 
 acceptable that the Czar had been pleased to 
 entrust one of his own subjects with it, and caused 
 tell me that I might use the freedom of the Court." 
 
 As regards the latter privilege he notes, two 
 days later, that the King's locksmith, by order, 
 brought a key which opened the doors to the 
 park, galleries, and other passages in the Court. 
 His name was engraved upon it, and it cost him a 
 fee of twenty shillings to the locksmith, and five 
 shillings to the locksmith's man. Twenty-five 
 shillings seems little enough for the freedom of the 
 Court ! 
 
 Gordon remained in London until the following 
 January, when, having fulfilled the mission with 
 which he had been entrusted, he took leave of the 
 King on the 22nd, gave a farewell dinner — "a 
 valete dinner," as he calls it — to his friends at The 
 Cock Tavern in Suffolk Street ; left London on 
 the 29th, embarked at Dover on February 6, and 
 landed at Nieuport on the following evening. 
 But he did not reach Warsaw until June 6, when 
 he was received by his wife and comrades with 
 great rejoicing. 
 
 One of the experiences of his long journey is 
 
GENERAL PATRICK GORDON 133 
 
 not without interest. It occurred on the road 
 from Gluckstadt to Hamburg, March 8. 
 
 He had hired a great waggon with four horses, 
 and had for his companions a sea-captain, and 
 another who was travelling with his wife. The 
 weather being very cold, they caused a good deal 
 of straw to be put in, which, by and by, occasioned 
 a disaster. For the captain's wife, sitting beside 
 her husband, had with her, as the fashion then 
 was, a pot with coals in a wooden case. By some 
 accident the coals ignited the straw, and compelled 
 a general retreat. While the captains and others 
 were striving with their hats and cloaks to damp 
 and stifle the fire, Gordon threw out the cloak- 
 bags, but not before some holes were made in his 
 new Ferendine cloak, and a Mr. Deeri's little bag 
 of linen, worth fifteen or twenty dollars, completely 
 destroyed. The two captains' hats and cloaks 
 were also ruined. 
 
 For nearly ten years, from June 1667 to January 
 1677, a great gap occurs in the General's Diary; and 
 for information as to this period of his life we must 
 turn to other sources. From these we know that 
 he lost favour with the Czar, for some unexplained 
 reason, and had to wait until the next reign before 
 he could even obtain payment of the expenses he 
 had incurred on his English mission. From 1670 
 to 1677 he had command in the Ukraine, and 
 assisted in subduing the Cossacks of Little Russia. 
 In 1678 he made vigorous efforts to obtain permis- 
 sion to leave Russia, but in vain ; his value being 
 
134 A SOLDIER OF FORTUNE 
 
 too well understood. In the same year he acquired 
 fresh laurels by his successful defence of Tschigerin 
 against the combined forces of the Turks and 
 Tartars. In 1683, when he held the chief com- 
 mand in the Ukraine, he was raised to the rank of 
 Lieutenant-General. Three years later he ob- 
 tained six months' leave of absence, and visited 
 Scotland, to look after the inheritance which had 
 come to him by the death of his parents ; but 
 was compelled to leave his wife and children 
 behind him as hostages for his return. He 
 reached London in the middle of April, and was 
 graciously received by James II. and his Queen. 
 The freedom of the Court was again granted to 
 him. 
 
 To follow the General in all his doings in 
 England and Scotland would be superfluous. 
 With true Scottish caution he carefully noted 
 down all his disbursements during his stay, and 
 some of these items have an interest as illustrating 
 the different prices of commodities then and now. 
 For example. On May 4, 1686, he writes — " This 
 day I went to the City, and by the way did meet 
 the Scots battalion, marching through the City, 
 well-clothed, armed, and disciplined. I took my 
 leave of friends in the City, and, returning, saw the 
 tragedy of Hamlet^ Prince of Denmark^ acted in 
 Whitehall, in the presence of the King, Queen, and 
 all the Court. Expended this day for freight and 
 meat for two servants to Scotland, forty shillings ; 
 on the way to thence, twelve shillings ; for my two 
 servants' diet, while I was at Chcrtsey, four 
 
GENERAL PATRICK GORDON 135 
 
 shillings ; for dinner, eightpence ; tea and ale, six- 
 pence. 
 
 " May 6. — I began to look about me for horse 
 furniture, and Major Dougall bought for me a 
 saddle, with furniture and saddle-cloth, for seven- 
 teen shillings tenpence. Gave to a poor widow, 
 two shillings ; to Shenton, fourpence ; for trimming, 
 sixpence ; for dinner, with wine, two shillings six- 
 pence ; to the boy, at night, fourpence ; for 
 carrying things to the boat, one shilling. I saw 
 the Scots battalion exercised in the Hyde Park 
 before the King and Queen, and saw the comedy, 
 Rehearsal [the Duke of Buckingham's celebrated 
 burlesque] acted. 
 
 " May 7. — I hired another more private lodging 
 at a brazier's in Pall Mall, paying for a chamber, 
 five shillings sixpence a week, and a bed for my 
 servants. . . . May 8. — I moved to my new 
 lodgings, paying house-hire and some books which 
 I bought, two pounds eighteen shillings three- 
 pence ; for dinner, two shillings sixpence ; for a 
 trunk mail, seven shillings sixpence ; for two pair 
 of stockings, eight shillings ; for candle, sixpence." 
 
 On May 17, accompanied by Sir Ewan Camp- 
 bell, Lord of Lochiel, General Patrick Gordon left 
 London, and travelled northward. Next day he 
 rode through Godmanchestcr, where he saw " the 
 most, in such a place, handsome and beautiful 
 woman he ever saw in his lifetime." Is Godman- 
 chestcr still favoured in this way .'' Crossing the 
 Ouse, he and his friend found their horses failing, 
 
136 A SOLDIER OF FORTUNE 
 
 and " were forced to think of swapping." In the 
 end they effected a bargain, but not a profitable 
 one, and Gordon exclaims, with a sigh, " so are 
 travellers preyed upon everywhere." On the 21st 
 they rode through the green glades of Sherwood, 
 with its memories of Robin Hood and Maid 
 Marian. They reached Newcastle on the 25th ; 
 Wooler the next day ; crossed the Border on the 
 27th, and spent the night at Lauder. About three 
 o'clock the next day they entered Edinburgh, and 
 Gordon took up his residence in the Canongate at 
 the sign of the King's Arms. 
 
 In the Scottish capital he visited everybod}^ of 
 note, and saw everything of interest. He had 
 been absent from his native country so long 
 that the attraction of the dimly-remembered scenes 
 which caught his eye was enhanced by their air 
 of novelty. On June 21 he crossed to Burntisland. 
 On the 23rd he was at Arbroath, and next day 
 at Aberdeen, where kith and kin, and the men 
 of his clan, gave a great welcome to the veteran 
 soldier who had so well sustained the good repute 
 of the name of Gordon. 
 
 At Aberdeen he was very busy. 
 
 "July 7. — I went to see the College in the Old 
 Town, and was very well received, and showed all 
 worth the seeing there. I went to the Links after- 
 wards. In the evening the Earl of Aberdeen 
 came, to whom I paid a visit. 
 
 " July 8. — I was invited to a collation by the 
 Lord Provost and Magistrates, when, with my 
 friends, I was heartily entertained, and all my 
 
GENERAL PATRICK GORDON 137 
 
 relations who were there made burgesses. My 
 sister and sister-in-law being come into the town 
 to see me, we made very merry with good music. 
 
 "July 12. — In the evening the Lord Marshal 
 came to town, whom I visited, he coming over to 
 my lodging, where we supped and were merry. 
 
 "July 13. — I went with some friends to the 
 Bridge of Dee, and dined in a tavern upon ex- 
 cellent fresh salmon." 
 
 But the end soon came to Gordon's merry- 
 making and junketing, to the fresh salmon and the 
 old wine ; and having arranged his private affairs 
 to his satisfaction, he prepared to return to his 
 Muscovite employers. He left on the i8th, being 
 escorted to his vessel by the magistrates of the 
 city ; but owing to the stormy weather which 
 prevailed, did not arrive at Riga until August 2. 
 Thence he went on to Moscow, and husband, Vvife, 
 and children were reunited on December 27. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 GENERAL PATRICK CxORDON {conthllted) 
 
 On January 20, 1689, the Czar Peter — known in 
 history as Peter the Great — was married (being 
 in his seventeenth year) to Eudoxia Feodorowna 
 Lapuchon. Gordon had been introduced to his 
 young sovereign just three years before ; but it 
 was not until this year that he was admitted into 
 his confidence, in reward for his fidehty in the 
 struggle which took place between the Czar and 
 the Princess Sophia for supremacy, their imbecile 
 brother Ivan being senior Czar only in name. 
 
 At this time the Strelitzes, or household troops, 
 who in not a few respects resembled the Janizaries 
 of Turkey, claimed a definitive voice in the settle- 
 ment of the Crown. Originally established by 
 Ivan the Terrible in the middle of the sixteenth 
 century, as a curb and check on the arrogance of 
 the Boyards, or great nobles, and taking their 
 orders only from the Czar himself, they had 
 developed into a military oligarchy which defied 
 control and insisted on the most exceptional 
 privileges. The Czar being their master, they 
 pretended that it was for them to decide who this 
 
 13^ 
 
G&NERAL PATRICK GORDON 139 
 
 master should be. Through a series of ingenious 
 intrigues, and a lavish bestowal of bribes and 
 promises, the Princess Sophia won them to her 
 side ; and they undertook to release her from all 
 fear of her brother's rivalry by the simple expedient 
 of putting him to death. Had they succeeded— 
 and success was almost within their grasp — the 
 course of history, not in Russia alone, but in all 
 Europe, would, we may assume, have been com- 
 pletely changed ; and Russia might never have 
 risen to the position of a Great Power. 
 
 That the contention between Peter and the 
 Princess was rapidly approaching a climax became 
 evident, in the summer of 1689, to all cool 
 observers, like Gordon, who notes in his Diary 
 on August 6, that " rumours unsafe to be uttered " 
 are nevertheless abroad. On the following day 
 these rumours were tragically confirmed. At mid- 
 night some faithful hand conveyed intelligence to 
 Peter that the Strelitzes and soldiers of the Guard 
 had received orders from the Kremlin — his sister's 
 head-quarters — to march upon Preobraschenskoje, 
 and there do execution upon certain persons. 
 The young Czar at once understood the significance 
 of the message. He sprang from his bed ; and 
 without waiting to put on his heavy riding-boots, 
 hurried to the stables, threw himself on the back 
 of the nearest horse, and galloped into the covert 
 of the neighbouring wood, where he remained until 
 a few faithful attendants arrived with his clothes. 
 Then he resumed his flight ; and, riding in hot 
 haste, reached the monastery of Troitzka, or the 
 
140 A SOLDIER OF FORTUNE 
 
 Holy Trinity — a forty miles' journey — by six o'clock 
 in the morning. Throwing himself upon a bed, he 
 burst into tears, and having informed the Abbot 
 of what had occurred, desired his protection. The 
 sanctity of the place secured his personal safety, 
 and he was free to take steps for the maintenance 
 of his authority. Though he issued immediate 
 orders to the officers of the Strelitzes, he knew 
 that he could not rely upon them, and he turned 
 to the foreigners in his service in the hope of ob- 
 taining their adhesion. He was not disappointed. 
 Gordon, after a brief interval of reflection, made 
 known his intention of marching to the Troitzka, 
 and placing himself at the disposal of the young 
 Czar. The others immediately decided to follow 
 his example ; and next day saw them drawn up 
 in military array at the gate of the monastery. 
 Peter was at his midday dinner when their arrival 
 was announced. He sent at once for Gordon, and 
 ordered him to keep by his side ; while the other 
 officers were instructed to encamp their regiments 
 beneath the convent walls. 
 
 Four days afterwards, Peter entered Moscow in 
 triumph, and the trial of the conspirators began. 
 They were found guilty, and beheaded or banished. 
 The Princess Sophia was sent to a convent, 
 where she lived fifteen years in confinement. The 
 weakly Ivan was easily brought to consent that 
 his younger, stronger, and abler brother should take 
 into his hands the sole sovereignty. Thus the 
 revolution ended in placing Peter firmly on the 
 throne. He did not forget to reward with liberal 
 
GENERAL PATRICK GORDON 141 
 
 hand the Scotch soldier whose allegiance, so 
 promptly given at so critical a moment, had turned 
 the scale of fortune in his favour, and given him 
 the victory over his enemies. It is not, I think, 
 an exaggeration to say that to the loyal and 
 honest service of Patrick Gordon, Russia owes all 
 that became hers through the enlightened and 
 progressive rule of Peter the Great. 
 
 Some curious passages, illustrative of the con- 
 dition of society and the Court in this dawning 
 time of the Muscovite civilization, occur in our 
 soldier's Diary. 
 
 Thus, on January 8, 1690, we read that the 
 Governor of Torki was put to death, because "he 
 had employed magic" to regain the favour of 
 the Czar ; two poor wretches whom he had 
 employed for this purpose were burned alive ; 
 while ten of his servants were beaten with the 
 knout and sent to Siberia. One of them being 
 asked at the trial what manner of witchcraft he 
 used, answered, that placing himself to windward 
 of the person whom he wished to propitiate, he 
 made a wind blow which accomplished the desired 
 end. 
 
 On the loth, the mother-in-law of the Boyar 
 Golizn, having spoken in his hearing, and in that 
 of his friends, against the Czar's Government, she, 
 and he, and they were all banished and their 
 properties confiscated, while some of their servants 
 were knouted. 
 
 On the nth, while Gordon was at the Kremlin, 
 the young Czar was making a quantity of fireworks, 
 
142 A SOLDIER OF FORTUNE 
 
 which, on the i6th, when Gordon dined with him, 
 were successfully discharged. 
 
 On the 19th, Gordon was again at Court, and 
 accompanied the Czar to the country house of a 
 Boyar, who entertained them at a sumptuous 
 noonday meal. Then they repaired to a summer 
 residence of the Czar, where they had another 
 pyrotechnic display ; and returning to the Boyar's 
 mansion, enjoyed a second magnificent banquet, — 
 with the result that Gordon was too ill next day 
 to rise until the afternoon. 
 
 He dined at the Kremlin on the 21st, and again 
 on the 22nd, when his son-in-law, while making 
 fireworks — which seems to have been a favourite 
 pastime at the Court of Moscow — burned his face. 
 
 Numerous entries occur of long conversations 
 with the Czar. On the 19th (February), Peter 
 gave him a glass of brandy with his own hand. 
 On the 23rd, the troops were marched to the 
 Kremlin to congratulate the Czar on the birth of 
 a son. Gordon, in the name of the regiments 
 under his command, addressed the Czar as follows — 
 
 *' God grant that thou, great Czar and Grand 
 Duke, Peter Alexiscwitsch, Autocrat of all Great, 
 Little, and White Russia, and Lord, Heir and Ruler, 
 through father and grandfather, of many lordships 
 and lands in east, west, and north — with your 
 Majesty's new-born heir and our lord, the most 
 Serene Prince and Grand Duke Alexis Pctrowitsch, 
 of Great, Little, and White Russia — may be pre- 
 served in health many years ! " 
 
 The General then drew up his regiment in line 
 
GENERAL PATRICK GORDON 143 
 
 three deep, the first rank kneeling, the second 
 stooping, the third standing. In this array they 
 fired volleys, while their banners waved and their 
 drums beat merrily. The Czar was so delighted 
 with all this military pomp and circumstance, that 
 he ordered it to be repeated again and again. 
 Thus was celebrated the birth of the unhappy 
 prince, who, while still in his youth, was doomed to 
 fall a victim to his father's jealousy, and perish like 
 a criminal on a dubious charge. 
 
 Gordon records a great feast on May 3, in honour 
 of the Imperial birthday ; when Peter, who had 
 already developed the taste for brandy which 
 helped to shorten his life, handed a glass to each 
 guest as a signal favour. 
 
 To dine with the Czar seems to have been risky 
 work. We frequently meet with frank confessions 
 from Gordon of illness following his participation 
 in the Imperial bouts. 
 
 On January 2, 1691, Gordon had an audience 
 at Preobraschenskoje, and, when taking leave, 
 was ordered by the Czar to prepare for a visit 
 from himself and his Court, who would dine and 
 sup with him next day. And next day, about 
 ten o'clock, the Czar arrived, accompanied by 
 eighty-five persons of distinction, with about a 
 hundred attendants. He immediately sat down to 
 a truly imperial banquet, which was highly success- 
 ful — so also was the supper — and the Czar spent 
 the night as if in camp. 
 
 Hospitality on so extensive a scale must have 
 
144 A SOLDIER OF FORTUNE 
 
 been very costly ; but the Czar was liberal with 
 his gifts. On March 6, he presented Gordon with 
 confiscated plate and other property, to the value 
 of a thousand roubles. 
 
 Passing on to 1694, we get some glimpses of 
 Peter's efforts to create a Russian navy. In May 
 he went on a visit to Archangel as the " Great 
 Skipper " or High Admiral, accompanied by Gor- 
 don as Rear- Admiral, and a new ship was launched 
 in his presence. In the following month he sailed 
 in his yacht on a fortnight's cruise. Then a couple 
 of English men-of-war arrived, and the Skipper 
 and his Rear-Admiral went on board, examining 
 and admiring everything ; and a good deal of 
 powder was burned, and a good deal of wine drunk. 
 On the 29th, the Rear-Admiral received the Great 
 Skipper on board the newly-launched ship, and 
 congratulated him on the addition to his navy. 
 After receiving a cup of brandy and another of 
 sack from the Skipper, they landed and dined at 
 John Grim's, where, as Gordon acknowledges, they 
 all drank to excess, in the wild, coarse, Muscovite 
 fashion. A similar revel took place at Gordon's 
 house on July 6 ; so that one hopes the Czar and 
 his officers had seasoned heads. But more serious 
 business was at hand. 
 
 Early in 1698, Russia declared war against 
 Turkey, and Gordon received orders to march upon 
 Azov. His army came in sight of the city on 
 April 22, and two days later was joined by Peter 
 and his commander-in-chief, Somonowitsch Schein. 
 It was mid-June, however, before the investment of 
 
GENERAL PATRICK CORDON 145 
 
 the place was complete. Of two of the forts which 
 defended the approaches, one was captured by 
 Colonel James Gordon ; whereupon the enemy 
 evacuated the other. The siege being closely 
 pressed, the Turks, about the middle of July, made 
 an effort to break it up by a desperate sally against 
 General Gordon's division ; but though they fought 
 with immense courage, they were beaten back. 
 During the following night, a German engineer 
 deserted to theTurks, and disclosed the weak points 
 of the Russian lines. They repeated their attack, 
 and were nearly successful, being driven off only by 
 the opportune arrival of General Gordon and his 
 division. 
 
 On August 4, in opposition to Gordon's advice, 
 the Czar ordered the town to be assaulted. As 
 Gordon had predicted, the attempt failed. The 
 carnage was terrible. Of the four regiments in 
 his division, fifteen hundred men were killed, be- 
 sides officers. A second assault, towards the end 
 of August, was not less unsuccessful ; and the Czar 
 then raised the siege. 
 
 But with characteristic tenacity of purpose, he 
 resumed the campaign early in 1696; and Gordon, 
 at the head of fifteen thousand men, was again 
 ordered to march upon Azov. He arrived at 
 Womersh on April 19, and he records his being 
 present at a banquet given by General Lefort, 
 when the health of William III. being drunk, the 
 stout old Jacobite refused to join, but drank instead 
 to that of James II. 
 
 The second siege of Azov began in June; and 
 
146 A SOLDIER OF FORTUNE 
 
 Gordon's advice being taken, the city was com- 
 pelled to surrender before the end of the month. 
 A brief narrative of the military operations is 
 given by Gordon's son-in-law, Alexander Gordon, 
 of Auchintoul. 
 
 " The Czar," he says, " considering the great loss 
 of time he had sustained the preceding year, called 
 a council of war to know the opinion of the Generals 
 about the safest and most expeditious method of 
 becoming masters of the place. Most of them 
 delivered their sentiments in the common way, by 
 carrying on attacks, making of great breaches, with 
 mines and batteries, which (they said) would infal- 
 libly oblige the Governor to capitulate in the terms 
 of war, or expect the worst. Then General 
 Patrick Gordon, as the oldest General, gave his 
 opinion that the safest and most expeditious way 
 to become masters of the town, would be to carry 
 on before them a whole rampart of earth along the 
 front of the town, which [rampart], as they advanced, 
 would hourly increase. "By having ten or twelve 
 thousand men night and day at work," said he, "we 
 shall carry and roll as much earth before us as will 
 not only be sufficient to fill up the fosse, but will 
 have more over and above than will exceed the 
 height of the town walls ; by which means, in a few 
 weeks, we shall oblige the enemy to surrender, or 
 we shall bury them alive." The Czar preferred 
 this opinion, and told them to do as he [Gordon] 
 proposed. 
 
 " And with such vigour did Gordon press the work, 
 that in five weeks the fosse was full, and a great 
 
GENERAL PATRICK GORDON 147 
 
 bank or rampart of earth was raised, from the 
 summit of which the fire of the Muscovite guns 
 swept the walls of the beleaguered city. This 
 rampart was kept moving forward by a simple ex- 
 pedient : the men from inside shovelled the earth 
 up the slope and over the summit, where it rolled 
 down outside, the process being repeated till a new 
 rampart was built up of the same height as the 
 preceding one. Then the men began to dig away 
 from the inside and shovel over on the outside again, 
 each time drawing nearer to the city, and increasing 
 the deadliness of their fire, until on June 20 the 
 city capitulated. 
 
 "Though this r\J\j\I\!' says Auchintoul, 
 " seems to be a very extraordinary and uncommon 
 method of taking towns, yet here it proved very 
 successful and safe ; the loss of men during the 
 siege not amounting to above three hundred. Ac- 
 cording to General Gordon's plan, there were con- 
 stantly twelve thousand men at work, who threw 
 the earth from hand to hand like so many steps of 
 a stair. The greatest danger was at the top ; the 
 earth being so loose, especially as they advanced 
 nearer the town, that the enemy's small shot killed 
 and wounded several : for which cause they were 
 relieved every half-hour, the uppermost rank falling 
 down and becoming the lowermost, and so on. 
 There were strong guards kept on the right and 
 left, as also in the rear. About June 20, a body of 
 Turks and Tartars, by break of day, endeavoured 
 to pierce the lines and force their way into the 
 town, but were repulsed with considerable loss, and 
 
148 A SOLDIER OF FORTUNE 
 
 SO closely pursued by the Russian cavalry, Cossacks 
 and Calmucks, that most of them were cut to pieces. 
 The only officer of distinction the Czar lost during 
 this siege was one Colonel Stevenson, a Scots 
 gentleman. He was shot in the mouth, being a 
 little too curious, and raising himself too high on the 
 loose earth to observe the enemy. He died of 
 hunger, the eleventh day after he received the 
 wound, not being able to swallow any kind of 
 nourishment. He was a good officer, and much 
 regretted by the Czar, who caused bury him with 
 all the honours of war. 
 
 " The army marched out of the town, about six 
 thousand persons, whereof three thousand were 
 armed men." 
 
 Crowned with laurels, the Russian army returned 
 to Moscow on October 9. The Czar was liberal 
 in his rewards to his victorious officers, and 
 especially to Gordon, with whom rested the hon- 
 ours of the siege. He received a medal, a gold 
 cup, a costly robe of sables, and an estate with 
 ninety serfs upon it. 
 
 Gordon did not accompany his Imperial master 
 on his celebrated visit to England — where, at 
 Deptford, he worked hard as a shipwright by day, 
 and at night drank brandy with his boon com- 
 panions ; occasionally amusing himself by trying 
 to drive a wheelbarrow through John Evelyn's 
 famous holly hedge, and by similar frolics — but 
 remained in charge of the capital and of the recent 
 conquests in the Crimea. Both at Azov and 
 Taganrog Gordon superintended the construction of 
 
GENERAL PATRICK GORDON 149 
 
 works of defence on a large scale. In 1698, it fell 
 to his lot to render the Czar a most important 
 service by crushing the mutiny of the Strelitzes. 
 Of this remarkable episode in Russian history, our 
 chief knowledge is derived from Gordon's Diary. 
 
 The trouble began in the early days of spring. 
 On April 3, a large body of discontented Strelitzes 
 presented themselves at the house of their Boyar, 
 Prince Iwan Borissowitsch Trojekurow, and de- 
 manded redress for certain alleged grievances. 
 Four of their number were admitted to the Prince's 
 presence ; and they declared that the Strelitzes 
 could not march by the selected route, owing to 
 the badness of the roads, and they asked for delay, 
 inasmuch as they had undergone great privations 
 in the late campaign, and were still feeling the ill 
 effects. The Boyar replied by ordering them to 
 do their duty, and to set out immediately under 
 the command of their officers. When they point- 
 blank refused, he caused them to be arrested and 
 conveyed to prison, but their comrades over- 
 powered the guards and set them at liberty — a 
 mutinous act which necessarily alarmed the author- 
 ities. The Generalissimo, Prince Romodanowski, 
 sent in hot haste for Gordon, who, when all the 
 particulars were set before him, thought they 
 pointed only to the insubordination of a Hmited 
 number, and that it would be unwise to excite the 
 temper of the whole body by treating the escapade 
 seriously. He repaired, however, to the camp of 
 the Strelitzes at Butirki to be prepared for what 
 might happen ; and finding the soldiers all in their 
 
I50 A SOLDIER OF FORTUNE 
 
 quarters, and no signs of disorder anywhere, he 
 lay down to rest. 
 
 The night passed peacefully ; and at early davv^n 
 Gordon sent messengers to Moscow to hear how 
 things were going. All was quiet, and he then 
 rode off to Generals Romodanowski and Sussen- 
 owitsch, who had been attending a meeting of the 
 Council of State. Rumours of impending disaster 
 were afloat, and the chiefs and their suites were 
 agreed that the Strelitzes meditated mutiny. 
 Gordon remained cool and collected. " Many 
 persons," he writes, " who are inclined by nature 
 to anticipate dangers, have, in such cases, yet 
 another object — they magnify the circumistances 
 in order that their own zeal and services may 
 appear the more signal in quelling them, and that 
 they may thus extract merit and consideration 
 from them." In the course of the day he returned 
 to Butirki, where the influence of his firm and 
 resolute temper subdued every symptom of dis- 
 obedience. He dispatched some companies of a 
 regiment on which he could rely to hasten the 
 departure of the Strelitzes ; they attempted no 
 resistance, delivered up the ringleaders of the out- 
 break, and at midnight marched off in good order. 
 The probability is that the Strelitzes had not 
 then completed their preparations. At all events, 
 in two months the storm broke. 
 
 It was on June 8 that intelligence reached 
 Gordon that trouble was brewing among four 
 Strelitz regiments stationed at a place called 
 Toronetz. An equerry was immediately sent to 
 
GENERAL PATRICK GORDON 151 
 
 inquire into the condition of affairs ; and hearing 
 from him that something was wrong, he took with 
 him some picked troops, and hurried off for 
 Toronetz. One hundred and forty StreHtzes were 
 arrested and sent into the Ukraine ; and he gave 
 orders that all the regiments at Toronetz should 
 be distributed among various stations. These 
 summary measures were necessarily distasteful to 
 those whom they affected; and after holding several 
 secret conferences, the StreHtzes resolved to dis- 
 obey orders, to refuse to march to the quarters 
 assigned, and march straight upon Moscow, in- 
 sisting that their officers should lead them thither. 
 They refused, and were at once deposed. In their 
 places four men were chosen in each regiment to 
 act as a council of command and direct the march. 
 With five guns and two thousand picked men, 
 Gordon set out in pursuit, and on the 27th arrived 
 at Tschernerva. Learning from a Boyar's servant 
 that the StreHtzes were marching with all speed to 
 reach the convent of Wortressensk that night, he 
 made forced marches to get there before them, and 
 galloped in with such horsemen as he could muster 
 in advance of his main body. " Two versts from 
 the convent," he writes, " the scouts brought to me 
 four StreHtzes, who said that they were sent, one 
 from each regiment, to take a petition to the 
 Boyar. Reading it, I found in it nothing but a 
 catalogue of their services, with exaggeration of 
 their grievances, and a prayer for leave to come to 
 Moscow to visit their homes, wives, and children, 
 as well as a petition for their necessities. I sent 
 
152 A SOLDIER OF FORTUNE 
 
 them on to the Generalissimo ; and having learned 
 from these deputies that the Strelitzes were still 
 fifteen versts off, and could not reach the convent 
 that night, I gave orders to mark off a camp near 
 the convent as the most convenient place. I 
 arrived at the place fixed upon about sunset, and 
 immediately received information from my scouts 
 that the Strelitzes had reached the river Swednje, 
 and were crossing at a shallow ford. Hearing this, 
 I hastened thither with my horsemen. I spoke to 
 them in a calm tone, and advised them to return 
 across the river, and encamp on the other side. 
 Not heeding this, they turned into a lane, and re- 
 mained stationed on a meadow beside the river, 
 outside the village. I returned as quickly as 
 possible to bring up our infantry. I made the 
 first two regiments march through the village and 
 take post in the best positions, while the other two 
 stationed in the fields by the Moscow road. I 
 then rode down to the Strelitzes and had a con- 
 versation with them ; but I found them very 
 refractory in all that we required." 
 
 Gordon continues — 
 
 "After a mutual promise that no movement 
 should take place that night, they returned to 
 their camp, leaving a strong guard in the lane. 
 I made a battalion keep guard not far from them, 
 and stationed another near for relief. I then went 
 to the other regiments, and ordered strong guards 
 and detachments in various places in sight of their 
 camp, to observe them. Having reconnoitred their 
 camp at a little distance, and found no stirring 
 
GENERAL PATRICK GORDON 153 
 
 among them, and having also visited our own 
 guards, I went back to the camp at the time of 
 reveille, which I did not allow to be beat, and 
 rested an hour. After which I went to the General- 
 issimo, and consulted him with what was to be 
 done. After mature deliberation, it was resolved 
 that I should repair to their camp and intimate 
 certain conditions." These have no interest for 
 us now-a-days ; but they were so moderate as to 
 show with what leniency the authorities were dis- 
 posed to have treated their pampered and arrogant 
 troops. But the conditions were rejected v/ith 
 contumely, and the mutineers declared they would 
 go to Moscow, if only for eight days, or even three. 
 Gordon sternly told them they would not be 
 allowed. They affirmed that they would carry 
 out their project or perish. A couple of veterans 
 took up the parable, and began to dilate on the 
 privations they had suffered ; half-a-dozen others 
 talked in a similar strain, evidently bent on in- 
 flaming their comrades' minds. In vain Gordon 
 advised that each regiment should deliberate apart. 
 In vain he urged them to consider what they were 
 refusing, and what must be the consequences of 
 their disobedience. They would not listen to him 
 further, and protested there were no differences of 
 opinion among them ; they were all of one mind. 
 With gloomy brows and angry looks they drew 
 together when Gordon informed them of his in- 
 tention to withdraw and give them an interval for 
 their final answer ; adding, that if they rejected 
 his Majesty's gracious offers, they need not expect 
 
154 A SOLDIER OF FORTUNE 
 
 them to be repeated when once he was compelled 
 to use force to bring them into obedience. The 
 menace fell upon deaf ears. 
 
 The General rode out of their camp, and halting 
 at some distance beyond, waited in grim silence 
 for some fifteen minutes ; after which he sent for 
 their answer. As they persisted in their con- 
 tumacy, he took his departure with much regret. 
 Strong measures could no longer be avoided. To 
 have given way to the Strelitzes would have been 
 ruinous ; v/ould have placed in their hands, indeed, 
 the mastery of the empire. Accordingly, after 
 reconnoitring their position, and holding formal 
 consultation with the Generalissimo, Gordon drew 
 out his forces, and proceeded to close round the 
 insurgents with a belt of iron — horse, foot, and 
 artillery. To the last anxious to avoid bloodshed, 
 he sent an officer to demand their submission ; 
 but they rejected every proposal, and boasted that 
 they were as ready for the defence as Gordon was 
 for the attack. A round of cannon-shot was then 
 fired over their heads — an act of humanity which 
 they understood as a confession of weakness — 
 Gordon having posted his forces so skilfully that 
 their superiority was concealed. At all events, 
 with much waving of banners and throwing up of 
 caps, the Strelitzes resumed their march. Then 
 in upon the unhappy men crashed the fire of five- 
 and-twenty great guns, creating many a gap in 
 their close ranks, and scattering wounds amongst 
 them, A panic seized them ; and to escape the 
 
GENERAL PATRICK GORDON 155 
 
 deadly shot, or in a sudden dismay, they made a 
 rush to escape by a lateral lane, which Gordon, 
 unknown to them, had already occupied with a 
 strong body of foot. Foiled, beaten, broken, they 
 drew back upon their camp, a few seeking shelter 
 in the barns and outhouses of the neighbouring 
 village. Their defeat was complete. In an hour 
 all was over. They had lost twenty-two killed, 
 and about forty wounded, most of them mortally. 
 Throwing down their arms, they surrendered, with 
 a facility which inclines one to think that their 
 previous reputation for bravery must have been 
 exaggerated greatly. 
 
 On June 19, Gordon writes — '' Information having 
 been got as to a few of the ringleaders, from some 
 who thought to gain favour for themselves, several 
 influential individuals were called up and examined. 
 One of the regiments was then mustered. The 
 greater part of the influential men and others 
 being examined, it was frankly confessed that 
 some had been the ringleaders and guilty rebels. 
 Those that were found good we put on the one 
 side, and the bad on the other. In the afternoon, 
 another regiment was proceeded with in the same 
 way. 
 
 "June 21. — We mustered another regiment of the 
 Strelitzes, and examined various individuals, putting 
 them to the torture ; whereon they confessed the 
 wicked designs they had meant to carry out when 
 they got to Moscow. . . . 
 
 "June 22. — Twenty-four individuals were found 
 guilty, on their own confession, of the most shock- 
 
156 A SOLDIER OF FORTUNE 
 
 ing crimes, and of having designed, when they got 
 to Moscow, to massacre certain Boyars, and to 
 extort an increase of pay, and a new regulation 
 of their services. On these we pronounced sentence 
 of death, to consist in beheading. They were con- 
 fined apart, and directed to confess, receive the 
 Eucharist, and prepare for death." 
 
 On the 23rd the poor wretches were executed. 
 For some time afterwards, entries occur in Gordon's 
 Diary which show with what tremendous severity 
 the Strelitzes were punished for their misdeeds. 
 It leaves a stain upon Gordon's career, for the torture 
 was freely applied, at his order ; hundreds were 
 knouted ; in some companies decimation was 
 adopted ; while on one occasion no fewer than 
 seventy men were hanged " by fives and threes " on 
 the same gallows. The General remarks that, 
 with few exceptions, the men met their death 
 bravely. On July 4 he presents a ghastly state- 
 ment to the effect that one hundred and thirty had 
 been executed ; that about seventy had been killed 
 in the engagement, or had died of their wounds ; 
 and that one thousand eight hundred and forty-five 
 had been banished to various convents and prisons. 
 The number of those knouted or tortured he does 
 not record. 
 
 The news of the formidable mutiny of the 
 Strelitzes reached the Czar at Vienna, towards the 
 end of July, and hastened his return home. It is 
 needless to add that he approved of Gordon's action, 
 and perpetrated some more cruelties on his own 
 account. 
 
GENERAL PATRICK GORDON 157 
 
 This was the last great service which Gordon 
 rendered to the Czar. His health began to decline, 
 and, after a severe and protracted illness, he died 
 on December 29, 1699, greatly lamented by his 
 Imperial master. His remains were deposited in 
 a vault in front of the high altar of the Roman 
 Catholic Church at Moscow. At the time of his 
 death he was in his sixty-fifth year. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 THE FOUNDER OF THE BANK OF ENGLAND 
 
 "William Paterson, of Dumfriesshire," says 
 one of his biographers, "was by profession a 
 merchant, who in early life attained the highest 
 success, in the midst of which he became the victim 
 of a great reverse. But the difficulties to which 
 he was long exposed, after being deservedly the 
 object of almost national homage, have been even 
 magnified through the strange indifference of 
 posterity to his eminent qualities. Of his two 
 chief works, the Bank of England and the plan 
 of the Darien Colony, the former has proved a 
 model of usefulness, whilst the latter was the 
 grandest of conceptions, the failure of which is in 
 no wise attributable to him. Other noble designs 
 of his, developed with remarkable ability and most 
 industrious zeal for the good of the three kingdoms, 
 in their financial and commercial relations abroad 
 as well as at home, even surpass these two objects 
 in importance." 
 
 This is the man whom Lord Macaulay describes 
 as having been gifted by nature with fertile in- 
 vention, an ardent temperament, and great powers 
 
 158 
 
THE FOUNDER OF THE BANK OF ENGLAND 159 
 
 of persuasion, and to have acquired somewhere in 
 the course of his vagrant Hfe a perfect knowledge 
 of accounts. 
 
 This is the great financier of whom Hill Burton 
 says — " His memory has been revived and cherished 
 in the present day as the prophet of the blessings 
 of free trade, and the announcer of a currency 
 system identical in its fundamental principles with 
 that adopted in recent times after experience and 
 inquiry. He was a man of quiet, retired life. He 
 had travelled and seen much of the world, but it 
 was as an observant tradesman, not as a courtier 
 or ruffler. His pride was to call himself ' merchant 
 in London,' to circulate among his fellow-traders 
 his views on commerce and finance, and to work 
 practically in some of their adventures. He was 
 a man of serious walk and conversation after the 
 Presbyterian fashion." 
 
 Of a man of genius of this kind, a brief memoir 
 will probably be acceptable. Both England and 
 Scotland are interested in him. both England and 
 Scotland benefited by his schemes ; but it cannot 
 be said that either England or Scotland showed 
 him gratitude. 
 
 William Paterson was born in April 1658, in the 
 house of Skipmyre, in the parish of Tinivald, 
 Dumfriesshire. His father's family came of a 
 respectable stock, which in his own time was repre- 
 sented among the leading Scotch Episcopalians 
 and partisans of the House of Stuart ; as, for 
 example, his paternal kinsman, the last Archbishop 
 of Glasgow, and another, Sir Hugh Paterson, who 
 
i6o UNDER MANY FLAGS 
 
 was attainted for his share in the Jacobite insurrec- 
 tion of 171 5. 
 
 Of his early years we know but httle, and that 
 little is dubious ; but it is evident from his writings 
 that he must have received a solid, if not a very 
 extensive, education, and made excellent use of it. 
 Either an adventurous temper, or the res angustcE 
 domi, drove him from the "parental roof" when he 
 was only in his seventeenth year; and we find him 
 at Bristol in 1675, sheltered by one of his mother's 
 relatives. At her decease he came in for a legacy, 
 which enabled him to gratify his longing to see the 
 world. After a visit to Holland, he crossed the 
 seas to America ; where he remained for several 
 years, busy with plans and projects of every kind, 
 and already dreaming of the colonization of 
 Darien. His adventures at this period are, how- 
 ever, mere matter of conjecture ; and the obscurity 
 that rested upon them emboldened his enemies in 
 after years to accuse him of having been a buc- 
 caneer. From a letter written in 1699, it would 
 appear that he at one time held business relations 
 with the colony of New England ; but where or 
 how it is impossible to ascertain. His first wife, 
 however, was the widow of Mr. Bridge, the 
 Covenanting minister of that colony. In Paterson's 
 native county long lingered a tradition that he took 
 part in the prohibited services of the Covenanters, 
 but failed as a preacher ; and it is certain that in 
 the satires of the versifiers hired by the English 
 Government to traduce him, he is ridiculed as 
 " predicant Patcrson." In various names we may 
 
Removing the treasure from ilie Spanish Galleon. 
 
 Vcise i6i. 
 
THE FOUNDER OF THE BANK OF ENGLAND i6i 
 
 conclude that he was at one time settled at New 
 Providence (in the Bahamas). At another, he was 
 making himself acquainted with nautical affairs — I 
 suppose on board ship ; while he seems also to 
 have taken part in Sir William Phipps's successful 
 venture, when he removed treasure to the amount 
 of ^300,000 from a Spanish galleon wrecked near 
 New Providence. 
 
 But whatever may have been the true nature of 
 his various avocations before 1685, we then come 
 upon solid ground ; for in that year he conceived 
 his great idea of a grand colony in Central America, 
 independent of Spain, and based on the principles 
 of religious freedom, and the abolition of com- 
 mercial monopolies. This became the main object 
 of his life, though many years passed before he 
 could attempt its realization. For when, on his 
 return to England, he submitted it to James II., 
 who was not wanting in political sagacity, and 
 regarded it with favour, the troubles in which that 
 monarch became involved compelled him to dismiss 
 it ; and afterwards, when the Elector of Brandenburg 
 was inclined to introduce it, he was prevented by 
 the national jealousy of a foreign adventurer. 
 
 For a time, therefore, Paterson laid it aside, and 
 turned his attention to financial affairs. He settled 
 in London as a merchant, was made a member of 
 the Merchant Taylors' Company, and appears to 
 have gained the confidence of his fellow-traders by 
 his energy and intelHgence. Much of his business 
 lay with the Dutch merchants, and he was well 
 known on the quays and in the coffee-houses of 
 
 M 
 
l62 UNDER MANY FLAGS 
 
 Amsterdam. Enterprising as ever, he took up a 
 scheme for the better supply of North London with 
 water from reservoirs to be constructed south of the 
 Highgate and Hampstead Hills, in which he was 
 assisted by Sir John Trenchard (1690). By this 
 time he had made himself such a position that he 
 was summoned as an important witness before the 
 Parliamentary Committee appointed to inquire into 
 the economic condition of the country, and in his 
 evidence advocated certain measures for its improve- 
 ment, in which may be traced the adumbration of 
 his scheme for a Bank of England. 
 
 At that time two public Banks were established 
 in Europe ; one, the Genoese Bank of St. George, 
 which was completing its third century ; the other, 
 the Bank of Amsterdam, which had an eighty years' 
 record. Why, it had been asked, should there not be 
 a Bank of London as prosperous and as permanent ? 
 Even in Charles IL's reign the question had been 
 answered by several pamphleteers, but never in a 
 practical form. A speculative Land Bank was 
 proposed by Briscoe and Chamberlayne. But now 
 came our Dumfriesshire adventurer with what was 
 really a well-considered plan for a Bank of England 
 — a plan which stood the test of the sharpest 
 criticism. In Friday Street, at the Wednesday 
 Clubs which then met there, it was discussed by 
 merchants and financiers with growing favour ; and 
 at length was approved and adopted by Charles 
 Montague (afterwards Chancellor of the Exchequer), 
 an influential politician, and Richard Godfrey, one 
 of the ablest, wealthiest, and most respected of 
 
THE FOUNDER OF THE BANK OF ENGLAND 163 
 
 London's merchant princes. The former undertook 
 to manage the House of Commons, and the latter 
 the City. Both were successful. " An approving 
 vote," says the historian, " was obtained from the 
 Committee of Ways and Means ; and a bill, the 
 title of which gave rise to many sarcasms, was laid 
 on the table. It was indeed not easy to guess that 
 a bill, which purported only to impose a new duty 
 on tonnage for the benefit of such persons as 
 should advance money towards carrying on the 
 war, was really a bill creating the greatest com- 
 mercial institution the world had ever seen." 
 
 Paterson's proposition was that the Government 
 should borrow ^1,200,000 at what was then con- 
 sidered the moderate interest of eight per cent. 
 In order to induce capitalists to come forward with 
 their moneys, the subscribers were to be incorpor- 
 ated by the name and title of "The Governor and 
 Company of the Bank of England." But no ex- 
 clusive privileges were to be granted ; and they 
 were prohibited from trading in anything but " bills 
 of exchange, bullion, and projected pledges." And 
 in order that " the power of the purse " might not 
 be transferred from the House of Commons to the 
 new corporation, they were forbidden to advance 
 money to the Crown without authority from 
 Parliament, under penalty of forfeiting three times 
 the amount of money so advanced, while provision 
 was made that the Crown should have no power to 
 remit any portion of the penalty. 
 
 There was much vehement discussion in Parlia- 
 ment and the coffee-houses ; but eventually thQ 
 
t64 under many flags 
 
 bill passed through both Houses, and received the 
 royal assent. 
 
 Such were the beginnings of the Bank of England. 
 It sprang from the fertile and ingenious brain of the 
 financier whom Lord Macaulay sourly and erro- 
 neously stigmatizes as an obscure Scotch adventurer. 
 Paterson was one of the first directors of the New 
 Bank, upon a qualification of ;^2000 stock, which, 
 however, he sold out before the end of 1695, at the 
 same time retiring from the Board. I have met 
 with the assertion that wealthier men than Paterson 
 took dishonourable advantage of his financial capa- 
 city in establishing the institution, and then de- 
 frauded him of his just reward. But I fail to discover 
 any justification for it. Montague and Godfrey 
 undertook those services which it was impossible for 
 Paterson to have undertaken, because he did not 
 possess sufficient commercial or political influence. 
 Nor can I discover any justification for the state- 
 ment that he was expelled from the directorate. 
 What really happened was this. With characteristic 
 activity he proposed to form what was practically 
 another joint-stock company for the purpose of 
 consolidating the perpetual fund of interest payable 
 to " the orphans and other creditors of the city of 
 London." Such an operation his co-directors 
 considered to lie outside the proper work of the 
 Bank of England, and when Paterson found 
 himself out-voted, he immediately resigned. The 
 " perfervidum ingcnium " of the restless Scot 
 could not tolerate opposition. Perhaps he might 
 have been more successful if he had had the support 
 
7 HE FOUNDER OF THE BANK OF ENGLAND 165 
 
 of his friend Godfrey ; but the latter had been 
 killed in the trenches at Marlborough's siege of 
 Nan:iur. It is needless to say more on this subject 
 than that Paterson contrived to float his new 
 scheme by his own credit, and that it proved 
 moderately successful. 
 
 About this time our persevering projector — this 
 hard-headed, warm-tempered, sanguine -spirited 
 Scotchman — seems to have thought that the 
 opportunity had come for realizing his life- long 
 dream of a Central American Colony, and initiat- 
 ing the world into the advantages of Free Trade. 
 The capitalists shut out from the rich field of 
 operations monopolized by the East India Com- 
 pany — the free-traders or " interlopers " of those 
 days — would eagerly welcome the opening of a new 
 channel of commercial adventure. The good-will of 
 the King might be relied upon. The success of the 
 Bank of England would facilitate the raising of the 
 necessary funds. And a novel character would be 
 given to the latest project because it would be 
 centralized in Scotland, the commercial interests 
 of which had, it was generally admitted, been too 
 much and too long neglected. It was in those 
 circumstances that Paterson brought forward the 
 scheme for establishing " The Company of Scotland 
 trading to Africa and the Indies" — the African Com- 
 pany, as it was afterwards called — which received 
 the sanction of the Scottish Parliament on June 26, 
 1695. This Act conferred on the Company the ful- 
 lest trading powers, and other powers of a more ex- 
 traordinary character. As, for instance, they were 
 
1 66 UNDER MANY FLAGS 
 
 authorized to equip vessels of war, either in Scot- 
 land or in any other country not at war with the 
 British Crown ; to make settlements, and build 
 cities, harbours, and fortifications, in any unin- 
 habited place in Asia, Africa, or America, or wher- 
 ever they obtained the consent of the natives, or 
 were not met by the claims of any European 
 Power ; to resist when attacked, and make reprisals ; 
 and to form alliances with parties holding sovereign 
 rights in the three quarters of the globe already 
 specified. Further, this Company established as 
 a protest against monopolies, became a monopoly 
 itself, for all other Scotsmen were prohibited from 
 trading within its jurisdiction without licence from 
 it, and the Company were empowered to seize on 
 all such trespassers, " by force of arms and at their 
 own hand," a favour which they afterwards used 
 in a manner dangerous to the vital interests of 
 the empire. 
 
 It was arranged that half the capital should be 
 raised in England, and half in Scotland. It was 
 speedily subscribed, and then the English Com- 
 panies awoke to the fact that a new and formidable 
 competitor had sprung into existence, and began a 
 vigorous campaign against it, appealing for support 
 to the national jealousy. The House of Commons 
 was quickly roused to take measures to crush the 
 audacious project. The Lords were not slow to 
 co-operate, and both Houses having met in confer- 
 ence, they united in an address to the Crown 
 against the Scots Company. The agitation led to 
 the withdrawal of the English capitalists ; but the 
 
THE FOUNDER OF THE BANK OF ENGLAND 167 
 
 national spirit of Scotland then came to the front, 
 and poor as was the northern kingdom in the last 
 years of the seventeenth century, it contrived to 
 furnish the necessary funds, though when the 
 Company got into difficulties, the latter instalments 
 of the subscriptions were not forthcoming, and 
 the whole sum actually paid in reached only 
 ;^2i9,094 8 J". j\d. 
 
 Impelled by Paterson's enthusiasm, the new 
 Company set to work with patriotic energy. They 
 engaged in plans for extending the Scots fishery 
 to Greenland and Archangel ; for the develop- 
 ment of home manufactures ; for opening up 
 commercial relations with the Gold Coast and 
 Negro Coast of Africa ; and the establishment of 
 colonies and factories. In the last category it took 
 up Paterson's project for a Scots colony on the 
 Isthmus of Panama, on the narrow neck of land 
 which separated the two great oceans, the Atlantic 
 and the Pacific, and seemed designed by nature to 
 command the commerce of the world. "There 
 would naturally be concentrated the mutual trade 
 of the two coasts of America. Much more, it 
 would be a stage in the shortest means of commu- 
 nication from Europe to China and Japan, and the 
 unknown regions of the Eastern seas. In later 
 times it has been prophesied that the Panama 
 railway shall open a new track to New Zealand 
 and the Australian colonies [and the present 
 generation has seen a noble attempt to cut the 
 isthmus by a navigable canal.] The availabilities 
 of Darien, which inspired the ardour of the Scots 
 
1 68 UNDER MANY FLAGS 
 
 London merchant a hundred and eighty years ago, 
 are still a deeply interesting problem — unsolved. 
 
 Palerson's idea was that of a free port — as open 
 to ships of all nations as London is to-day ; so 
 that the merchandise of the whole world was to be 
 drawn to that favoured centre, and accumulated 
 there without restriction or distinction. It was a 
 grand, a noble idea ; but everything was against its 
 successful realization. The spot chosen for carry- 
 ing it out was apparently most favourable ; but in 
 reality it was surrounded by difficulties and dan- 
 gers. It was in the midst of the Spanish settle- 
 ments — Panama, Portobello, Carthagena — and thus 
 drew down upon the Company the vindictive 
 jealousy of Spain. It was deficient in natural 
 resources, and offered no means of sustenance to a 
 young colony; and it was cursed with a climate which 
 apparently concentrates all the pestilential ele- 
 ments of Tropical America. Then, Paterson's vivid 
 imagination was unaccompanied by the faculty of 
 organization ; so that the expedition was sent 
 forth without any proper provision having been 
 made for the government of the new colony and 
 the preservation of order. And as he had no 
 personal knowledge of the isthmus, no precautions 
 were taken against pestilence or famine. The truth 
 is, the disastrous failure of the expedition was 
 due, not to external causes — not to the jealousy of 
 England and Spain — but to the incapacity of its 
 leaders and the want of suitable equipment. 
 
 The Company purchased three Dutch ships, 
 which were fitted up as vessels of war, and with 
 
THE FOUNDER OF THE BANK OF ENGLAND 169 
 
 six thousand two hundred picked men on board, 
 sailed from Leith, amid the cheers of an excited 
 multitude, whose bosoms throbbed with patriotic 
 pride, on July 26, 1698. On November 4 they 
 landed on a rocky peninsula in the Gulf of Darien, 
 which seemed to offer great capabilities of defence. 
 Their first business was to build a strong fort, so 
 as to command the Gulf. Then they marked out 
 on the mainland, where the commercial colony of 
 New Caledonia was to spread indefinitely, two 
 sites for towns, to be called respectively New 
 Edinburgh and New St. Andrews. So far all was 
 well, but troubles soon arose. Some gentlemen 
 had been appointed to act as the council and 
 governors of the new State ; but they were not 
 backed by any substantial power, and possessed 
 no means of enforcing their authority. The colony, 
 therefore, was practically without any head, and 
 the wilder and more daring spirits acted with 
 absolute independence. A quarrel with the 
 Spaniards added to the pervading embarrassments. 
 Then the expected supplies from Scotland did not 
 arrive ; and no provisions could be obtained in 
 exchange for their merchandise, because much of 
 it was damaged, and for the rest there was no 
 market. Disease and privation began their fell 
 work among them. In the spring of '99 the 
 survivors, perceiving no hope of relief, came to a 
 resolution to abandon the settlement, and embarking 
 on board their three vessels, set sail for the first 
 port Providence should send them to. Two of the 
 ships reached New York in August, having each 
 
I70 UNDER MANY FLAGS 
 
 lost above a hundred men on the voyage ; the third, 
 not less unfortunate, arrived at Jamaica. Whether 
 many of the miserable adventurers ever found 
 their way back to Scotland may well be doubted. 
 
 Meanwhile, the directors at home, filled with a 
 blissful sanguineness, had fitted out a second expe- 
 dition, though in much too dilatory a fashion. Two 
 ships sailed in May, and four others early in August, 
 and all were well found with provisions and stores. 
 A third expedition, consisting of one thousand three 
 hundred men, was dispatched in September, just 
 before the earliest rumours reached the directors 
 of the disaster that had befallen the first. These 
 rumours attributed the abandonment of the settle- 
 ment to fear of the Spaniards ; and in a mood of 
 patriotic indignation the Company equipped a fourth 
 or auxiliary expedition, which they placed under a 
 veteran soldier, Campbell of Finab, and dispatched 
 with belligerent instructions. Neither of these 
 expeditions retrieved the situation, and the melan- 
 choly issue was the capitulation of Campbell and his 
 companions to the Spanish governor of Cartha- 
 gena, who had blockaded the colony with five men- 
 of-war (March i8, 1700). And thus Paterson's 
 great conception of a free port and an independent 
 Scottish colony in the isthmus between the two 
 oceans, faded away into the oblivion of failure. 
 
 Paterson accompanied the first expedition — not, 
 however, in his proper position as leader, owing to 
 some pecuniary difficulties which had arisen 
 between him and the Company, but as a voluntary 
 and uncommissioned settler. He was one of the 
 
THE FOUNDER OF THE BANK OF ENGLAND 171 
 
 survivors who reached New York ; and after suf- 
 fering so severely from distempers and troubles of 
 mind, that for some time his life was despaired 
 of, he sailed for Scotland on October 12, and 
 arrived at Edinburgh on December 5, 1699. He 
 had gone out to his Land of Promise accompanied 
 by his wife and only child, a son ; he returned, 
 wifeless and childless. He had sfone out with his 
 hopes in full blossom ; he returned with his hands 
 full of dead leaves. 
 
 No private affliction, however, and not even the 
 failure of his life's great aim and purpose, could 
 break down the spirit of this indomitable man. 
 He did his best to allay the national enmities that 
 had been excited by the untoward fortunes of the 
 Darien Company ; nor were his services in this 
 direction unacknowledged or unrewarded by the 
 Government. The Duke of Queensberry, the 
 royal commissioner in Scotland, writing on August 
 31, 1700, says — "The poor man acts with great 
 diligence and affection to the King and country. 
 He has no bye-end, and loves this Government 
 both in Church and State. He knows nothing yet 
 of my having obtained anything for him ; and I 
 am a little embarrassed how to give him what 
 I am allowed for him, lest his oarty in that [the 
 Darien] Company should conceive any unjust 
 jealousy of him, or he himself think that I intend 
 as a bribe that which is really an act of 
 charity." 
 
 His active intellect soon found new fields of 
 exercise. He published Proposals of a Council of 
 
172 UNDER MANY FLAGS 
 
 TradCy with the view of promoting the develop- 
 ment of the national resources. He conceived the 
 idea of a Sinking Fund ; and warmly advocated 
 the legislative union of England and Scotland. 
 Removing to London, he was admitted to the 
 confidence of William III., and held more than 
 one conference with the Kin.^ — of which he has left 
 an interesting record, illustrative both of our 
 Scottish adventurer's intellectual alertness, and 
 William's readiness to listen to suggestions even 
 from an uncourtly adviser. 
 
 " In the last months of the life of this great, 
 but then uneasy prince," he says, " I had access to 
 him, when, finding him in much perplexity and 
 concern about the state of his affairs, I took 
 opportunity to represent that his misfortunes did 
 not so much proceed from the variable tempers or 
 humours of his people, as some pretended, but 
 rather from the men of his house, or those he had 
 trusted with his business, who, either for want of 
 capacity or experience, or that they preferred 
 themselves to him, had brought the affairs of the 
 kingdom into such confusion as made his subjects 
 uneasy ; and now, at last, instead of removing the 
 causes of complaint, they had presumed to employ 
 his treasure and authority to silence the com- 
 plainers ; that as matters stood there were no reins 
 of government, no inspection, no inquiry into 
 men's conduct — every man did as he pleased, for 
 nobody was punished nor indeed rewarded accord- 
 ing to merit ; and thus his revenue was sunk, and 
 his affairs in the utmost confusion." 
 
THE FOUNDER OF THE BANK OF ENGLAND 173 
 
 [I find it difficult to believe that Paterson 
 addressed the King in such exceedingly frank 
 language as he here reports. He wrote his narra- 
 tive in 1709, and probably by that time had 
 forgotten the exact terms he used, putting down 
 what he thought he Jiad said not less than what 
 he actually did say.] 
 
 " He owned this," continues Paterson, " but 
 asked for remedies ; upon which I proposed that, 
 in the first place, he should put the management 
 of the revenues on the right footing, without which 
 all other remedies would prove ineffectual. The 
 first step towards reforming the revenue was that 
 of restoring the public credit, by making provision 
 of interest for all the national debts, and taking 
 care for the time to come such should be granted 
 as to prevent further deficiency. . . . 
 
 "The next thing I proposed was an attempt 
 upon the principal parts of the West Indies, by 
 which he might be enabled not only to carry on 
 the war at the expense of the enemy, but open 
 a secure and direct trade for ever between those 
 rich and vast continents of Mexico and Peru, and 
 this kingdom. I added that to secure the Spanish 
 monarchy from France, the true way was to begin 
 with the West Indies, since it was more practi- 
 cable to make Spain and other dominions in 
 Europe follow the fate of the West Indies, than 
 to make the West Indies, if once in the power of 
 France, follow the fate of Spain. Besides, France 
 would thereby be enabled to carry on the war by 
 the bullion and other wealth of the West Indies. 
 
174 UNDER MANY FLAGS 
 
 " The third thing I proposed was our union with 
 Scotland, than which, I convinced him, nothing 
 would tend more to his glory, and to render this 
 island great. 
 
 "The fourth thing . . was a present commission 
 of inquiry, by which he would see by whom his 
 affairs had been mismanaged, and who they were 
 who, under pretence of mending matters, perplexed 
 and made them still worse : in particular he would 
 be at a point how far the present debts had 
 arisen from mismanagement, or from deficiency 
 of funds." 
 
 The good sense of these proposals was readily 
 recognized by William's sagacious mind. But 
 Paterson's ill luck followed him on this as on 
 every other occasion. King William died ; and 
 though Queen Anne's ministers took up the chief 
 points of his policy, they neglected to reward the 
 man who had helped to shape it. Paterson, how- 
 ever, was employed by them to conduct the 
 financial arrangements involved in the Act of 
 Union. 
 
 From 1703 until his death in 17 19, Paterson 
 resided in Queen Square, Westminster. For some 
 years he lived in comparative poverty, for though 
 Parliament admitted his claim to be indemnified 
 for the losses he had sustained in the public 
 service, estimating them at ;^ 18,241, he received 
 never a penny until after the accession of George I. 
 As late as 171 1, one reads in Dryasdust Boyce's 
 Political States, a complaint " that this great 
 politician, the chief projector of the Bank of 
 
THE FOUNDER OF THE BANK OF ENGLAND 175 
 
 England, the main support of the Government, 
 should be so disregarded that even the sums due 
 to him are not paid. He was very instrumental," 
 it is added, " in bringing about the Union, when 
 he was the person chiefly employed in settling the 
 national accounts." However, this period of 
 adversity came to an end in or about July 171 5 ; 
 so that Paterson's last years were spent in comfort. 
 He died on January 22, 17 19. 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 JOHN LAW 
 
 In the city of Edinburgh, eleven years after the 
 
 restoration of the Stuarts, a son was born to an 
 
 opulent goldsmith and banker, named John Law, 
 
 to inherit his name and wealth. This well-to-do 
 
 citizen came of an old Fifeshire family, which 
 
 justified him, when he had amassed sufficient 
 
 means, in purchasing an estate, and taking his place 
 
 among the territorial gentry as Law of Lauriston — 
 
 Lauriston lying on the shore of the Forth, on the 
 
 borders of West and Mid Lothian. But he did not 
 
 abandon his trade, nor did he wish his son to grow 
 
 above it ; and John Law the younger, at the age 
 
 of fourteen, entered his father's counting-house, 
 
 where, being gifted with an extraordinary aptitude 
 
 for figures, he quickly mastered the principles of the 
 
 current monetary system. For three years he was 
 
 all that a Scotch father, in Law of Lauriston's place, 
 
 could have wished him to be ; but at the age of 
 
 seventeen he began to display tendencies of quite 
 
 another sort. Tall and well-made, he loved to 
 
 attire himself in becoming clothes. He sought the 
 
 gaieties of society, and the ladies smiling upon the 
 
 176 
 
JOHN LAW 177 
 
 dashing youth, who was heir, be it remembered, to 
 a good property, he became quite a personage in 
 Edinburgh society, his admirers styHng him " Beau 
 Law," and his detractors sneering at him as 
 " Jessamy Law." The death of his father, which 
 happened at this time (1688), left him at Hberty 
 to follow his own devices, and abandoning the 
 counting-house, he started off for London, bent upon 
 "seeing life" and widening his knowledge of the 
 world. 
 
 Money, youth, health, good looks, and a large 
 stock of self-confidence — with such an equipment 
 Law soon made his way in certain circles. In 
 London, as in Edinburgh, ladies of rank looked 
 graciously upon the handsome young Scot ; and in 
 the most select drawing-rooms of May fair he was 
 a welcome visitor. Unfortunately he contracted a 
 love of play. At first his ventures at the gaming- 
 table were crowned with success. He pursued a 
 definite system which he had founded upon an 
 ingenious calculation of chances, and his fellow- 
 players, astonished by his luck, imitated his play 
 and staked their money on the same chances. But 
 the gamester's fate in due time overtook him. His 
 system broke down. He met with heavy losses, 
 and, endeavouring to retrieve them by bolder 
 ventures, met with losses heavier still. Finally, 
 after a nine years' headlong career, he found himself 
 burdened with debt to an extent which compelled 
 him to mortgage his paternal estate. This was not 
 all. An affair of gallantry with Miss Villiers (after- 
 wards Countess of Orkney) involved him in a 
 
 N 
 
t7^ UNDER MANY FlAG^ 
 
 quarrel with a Mr. Wilson. In those days the 
 usual result of a quarrel was a duel ; and Law had 
 the misfortune to shoot his antagonist dead on the 
 spot. He was arrested, tried on a charge of 
 murder, and sentenced to death, but the sentence 
 was commuted to a fine on the ground that the 
 offence was only manslaughter. An appeal being 
 lodged by the dead man's brother. Law was 
 detained in the King's Bench, but by some effort 
 of dexterity effected his escape, got down to Dover, 
 and crossed the Channel. 
 
 He was now twenty-six. For three years he 
 travelled the Continent, and, his early taste for 
 figures reviving, examined with much curiosity the 
 financial and banking systems of the countries 
 through which he passed. About 1700 he seems to 
 have returned to Edinburgh, where he published a 
 small pamphlet entitled Proposals and Reasons for 
 Constituting a Council of Trade. It did not attract 
 the attention it deserved ; but, nothing daunted, 
 the ingenious speculator launched a project for 
 establishing a Land Bank (or, as the small wits of 
 the day called it, a Sand Bank), the notes issued by 
 which were to exceed the entire landed property of 
 the State, at ordinary interest, or were to equal the 
 value of the land, with the right to take possession 
 at a certain time. This project excited a good deal 
 of discussion, even within the walls of the Parlia- 
 ment House ; but, in spite of the strenuous efforts of 
 its supporters, it was rejected by the majority, who 
 passed a resolution hostile to all kinds of paper 
 credit. 
 
fOHN LAW 179 
 
 Finding his own country disinclined to honour 
 him as a prophet, and disappointed in his efforts to 
 procure a pardon for the homicide of Mr. Wilson, 
 Law returned to the Continent, and to his old 
 habits of gambling. For fourteen years he passed 
 from one gaming-house to another in the chief 
 Continental countries, making huge sums of money 
 by his skilful combinations and wonderful insight 
 into the doctrine of chances. He acquired such a 
 reputation in this way that the magistrates of 
 Vienna, and afterwards those of Genoa, expelled 
 him from their cities as too dangerous an example 
 for young men. In Paris he contrived to make the 
 acquaintance and secure the friendship of the Duke 
 of Orleans, the Duke of Vendome, and the Prince 
 de Conti, who were fascinated by his address, his 
 daring, his knowledge of men and manners, his 
 vivacity, and the shrewdness that underlay it ; but 
 having offended D'Argenson, the lieutenant-general 
 of the police, he was compelled to absent himself for 
 a time from the capital. It was probably before 
 this event that the restless adventurer had sub- 
 mitted a scheme of finance to the Comptroller, 
 Desmarets. When it was laid before Louis XIV., 
 who was then in the fanaticism of his dotage, he 
 inquired whether the author of it was a Romanist, 
 and being answered in the negative, refused to look 
 at calculations which must therefore be heretical. 
 
 The untiring speculator then proposed his 
 favourite panacea of a Land Bank to Victor 
 Amadeus, Duke of Savoy, who sagasiously replied 
 that his territories were all too narrow for so vast a 
 
i8o UNDER MANY FLAGS 
 
 project, and that he himself was too poor to enjoy 
 the luxury of being ruined. He recommended him, 
 however, to make another appeal to the King of 
 France, sarcastically observing that, from what he 
 knew of the character of the French, they would 
 be delighted with a plan so full of glitter and 
 promise. 
 
 On the death of Louis XIV. in 1715, Law's 
 opportunity came at last. The Duke of Orleans 
 became Regent, and the Duke was Law's friend. 
 The tenacious Scot returned to Paris, and pressed 
 his schemes with unflagging persistency. The 
 Resent listened with no reluctant ear. France was 
 reduced almost to bankruptcy by years of extrava- 
 gant misgovernment, and he was really anxious to 
 accomplish something for her relief, if it could be 
 done without entailing upon himself any sacrifice 
 of his ease or his pleasures. Well, here was this 
 Scotchman at his elbow — a Detis ex machind ! And 
 there was a gallant assurance about him — an airy 
 self-confidence — a conviction of success which 
 captivated everybody, supplemented as it was by 
 his fluency of speech, his address, his command of 
 figures, his buoyant plausibility. To tell the truth, 
 there was nothing very dangerous about the 
 financial principles he laid down — England and 
 Holland had long acted upon them. That no 
 country could carry on extensive commercial 
 transactions unless its metallic currency was 
 assisted by a paper currency was an obvious truth. 
 That the national credit should be maintained at 
 all costs was a truth no less obvious. What was 
 
JOHN LAW iSi 
 
 original in Law's exposition was his project of a 
 public bank, which should control the administra- 
 tion of the royal revenues; and upon these, and upon 
 landed security, should issue notes. He proposed 
 that this bank should be managed, in the King's 
 name, by a certain number of commissioners, to be 
 named by the States-General. 
 
 Meanwhile, Monsieur Lass — as the French, to 
 avoid the w, called him — had risen into great popu- 
 larity, and was accepted by all classes as a possible 
 financial saviour. It was with something like a 
 burst of enthusiasm, therefore, that the nation 
 welcomed the royal edict of May 5, 17 16, which 
 authorized Law (and his brother) to establish a 
 bank under the name of Law and Company, the 
 notes of which should be received in payment of 
 the taxes. The capital was fixed at six millions of 
 livres, in 12,000 shares of five hundred livres each, 
 purchasable one-fourth in specie, and the remainder 
 in billets d'etat, or State notes. Thus, Law's perse- 
 verance was at last crowned with success, and the 
 idea realized which had haunted his mind through 
 years of adventure and wandering. It was only 
 right that Fortune should do as much as this for a 
 man who had wooed her with such infinite courage 
 and unfailing energy ; but the capricious goddess 
 was prepared to do more, and more, before she again 
 turned her wheel downward. 
 
 In the administration of his bank Law displayed 
 unquestionable financial ability. He made all his 
 notes payable at sight, and in the coin current at 
 the time they were issued — a provision which gave 
 
1 82 UNDER MANY FLAGS 
 
 them even a higher value than the precious metals, 
 since these were being continually tampered with 
 by the Government, whereas Law's notes under- 
 went no abatement. The public confidence was 
 increased by his frank declaration that a banker 
 deserved death if he did not retain sufficient 
 securities to meet every demand. In less than a 
 year his notes reached a premium of 15 per cent. 
 The effect upon the trade and commerce of the 
 country was extraordinary. Every branch of 
 industrial enterprise received a new stimulus 
 through the recovery of the national credit and the 
 increased supply of capital. Greater confidence was 
 felt by all classes ; and France enjoyed a prosperity 
 to which she had long been a stranger. 
 
 Unfortunately this rushing tide of success proved 
 too much for the prudence both of Law and his 
 royal patron. The Regent, astonished at the 
 immense beneficial effects of a paper currency when 
 used to supplement a metallic currency, was led to 
 suppose that the latter might entirely be superseded 
 by the former ; while Law conceived the project 
 by which he is so disadvantageously remembered — 
 though it was not so entirely a chimaera as is some- 
 times represented — the great Mississippi Scheme. 
 
 Law obtained from the Regent permission to 
 establish a Company with the exclusive right of 
 trading to the Mississippi and the province of 
 Louisiana, which Is on its western bank. The 
 knowledge which then prevailed of that part of 
 North America was exceedingly vague and imper- 
 fect ; it was supposed to be a Tom Tiddler's 
 
JOHN LAW 183 
 
 Ground of gold and silver, which would pour with- 
 out stint into the coffers of the Company ; and thus 
 enriched, the new corporation was to farm the taxes 
 and supply all the coinage of the country. Letters 
 patent incorporating the Company were issued in 
 August 17 1 7. The capital was divided into two 
 hundred thousand shares of 500 livres each, the 
 whole of which might be paid in billets d'etat at 
 their nominal value, though this was a great deal 
 more than they realized in the market. 
 
 From this time Law, the Regent, and the nation 
 seem to have been seized with a fever of speculation. 
 Fresh privileges were heaped upon Law's bank, 
 which was finally erected into the Royal Bank of 
 France. Departing from Law's maxim as to the 
 guilt of issuing notes for which no funds were pro- 
 vided, the Regent caused notes to the amount of 
 one thousand millions of livres to be thrown upon 
 the country. To this disastrous course Law seems 
 to have assented ; or if he protested at first, he 
 offered no opposition to later issues of the same 
 chimerical character. For awhile his brain was 
 dizzied by his success, and he failed to see the 
 certain ruin he was bringing upon himself by this 
 violation of every sound principle of finance. Mean- 
 time the Regent, and his Chancellor d'Argenson, 
 proceeded at headlong speed in a course which 
 meant national bankruptcy as its goal. The Parlia- 
 ment protested, but the Regent overruled its protests, 
 passed statutes which the Regent cancelled by his 
 authority ; and at last in its despair smiled grimly 
 when some of its members, who traced every evil 
 
i84 UNDER MANY FLAGS 
 
 to Law's example and influence, suggested that 
 he ought to be gibbeted at the gates of the Palais 
 de Justice. Law, alarmed at the violent menace, 
 sought the protection of the Regent, who silenced 
 his refractory Parliament by imprisoning the Presi- 
 dent and two of the most prominent councillors. 
 
 Our Scottish adventurer then turned to his 
 favourite Mississippi scheme. Early in 1 7 19 he 
 obtained a fresh concession — the exclusive privilege 
 of trading to the East Indies, China, the South 
 Seas, and all the possssions of the French East 
 India Company, founded by Colbert, and then 
 re-christened his Company with the proud title 
 of La Compagnie des Indes, besides creating fifty 
 thousand new shares. That fervent imagination, 
 which is ordinarily held in check by the reserve 
 of the Scotch character, was now kindled in Law 
 by the wide sweep of territory included within his 
 scope of action ; and prospects of boundless wealth 
 rising upon his heated brain, he promised to 
 every shareholder a profit of not less than one 
 hundred and twenty per cent, upon his investment. 
 
 A delirium of speculation nowseized upon France. 
 This prospect of almost boundless wealth — of 
 wealth beyond the dreams of avarice — had a 
 charm for all classes and both sexes. There were 
 at least three hundred thousand applicants for 
 the fifty thousand shares ; while the old shares 
 were not less in demand, and were sold and re-sold 
 at ever-increasing premiums. Some of the more 
 eager petitioners took lodgings close to Law's house 
 in the Rue de Quincampoix, that they might 
 
JOHN LAW 185 
 
 pick up any grains of gold which fell from his 
 fingers. The street was too narrow to hold the 
 crowds that daily flocked towards it. A cobbler 
 who rented there a small stall made two hundred 
 livres a day by letting it out to speculators. To 
 obtain greater accommodation, Law purchased the 
 magnificent Hotel de Soissons of the Prince de 
 Carignan, and removed thither. The Prince reserved 
 to himself the gardens ; and an edict being published 
 which forbade the sale or purchase of stock any- 
 where but in these gardens, they yielded him an 
 enormous return. For the convenience of the 
 brokers and their clients, five hundred small tents 
 and pavilions were planted among the groves and 
 parterres, and these were let at the rate of five 
 hundred livres a month. 
 
 Few were the sane brains which escaped a touch 
 of the prevalent madness. Two sober men of letters, 
 M. de la Motte and the Abbe Tcrasson, congratu- 
 lated each other on their immunity. A few days 
 afterwards, La Motte ascended the grand staircase 
 of the Hotel de Soissons to purchase some Missis- 
 sippi shares, and met the Abbe coming down from 
 Law's rooms. " Ha ! " said the Abbe, " is that you, 
 La Motte 1 " " And can that be you, Abbe ? " It 
 was some weeks before they could look in each 
 other's face and breathe the word " Mississippi." 
 
 To obtain admission to Law's presence was the 
 object of more stratagems than an introduction at 
 Court. What was a smile or a word from the Regent 
 compared with the scrip of Mississippi stock ? The 
 crowd of applicants was so great that Law, with 
 
i86 UNDER MANY FLAGS 
 
 all the good-will in the world, could see only a 
 portion of them, and dukes and duchesses and 
 marquises and marchionesses waited for hours in 
 his antechamber on the chance of seeing him, or 
 bribed his servants heavily to announce their names. 
 A lady of rank, who had failed several days running 
 in her efforts to see the fortune-making Scot, 
 ordered her coachman to keep a strict watch when 
 she was out driving, and if he saw Mr. Law coming 
 to contrive to upset her. For three consecutive 
 days, the lady and her coachman wandered about 
 Paris watching for an opportunity. On the fourth 
 it came. " Upset us now," she cried out to her 
 coachman ; " for Heaven's sake, upset us now ! " 
 With commendable dexterity he drove against a 
 post, and turned his lady out on the pave just as 
 Law was passing. Of course Law hastened to 
 offer his assistance, placed the lady in his own 
 carriage, and drove to the Hotel de Soissons, when 
 she confessed her manoeuvre, and was rewarded 
 for her ingenuity and boldness with a quantity 
 of the coveted shares. 
 
 The Regent, one day, was mentioning in the 
 presence of his courtiers that he desired to nominate 
 some lady of the rank of a duchess to attend upon 
 his daughter at Modena, but added, that he hardly 
 knew where to find one. "No! "said the Abb6 
 Dubois; "well, then, I can tell your Highness 
 where to find every duchess in France — in Mr. 
 Law's antechamber." 
 
 M. de Chirac, a celebrated physician, having 
 purchased stock under unfavourable conditions, was 
 
JOHN LAW 187 
 
 anxious to sell out ; and as it continued to fall for 
 two or three days, his anxiety greatly increased, 
 so that his mind was completely absorbed with 
 the subject. Being called upon to attend a nervous 
 lady patient, he murmured to himself, as he felt 
 her pulse — " It falls ! it falls ! good Heavens, it 
 does nothing but fall 1 " " Oh, Monsieur de Chirac 1 " 
 said the lady, starting to her feet. " I am dying ! 
 I am dying! it falls! it falls! it falls!" "What 
 falls ? " exclaimed the amazed doctor. " My pulse 1 
 my pulse!'' said the lady. "Do you not say so? 
 Oh, I must be dying ! " " Calm your fears, my 
 dear madame," said M. de Chirac. " I was alluding 
 to the stocks. The truth is, I am likely to be a 
 great loser, and my mind is so disturbed that I 
 hardly know what I am saying." 
 
 In the prosperity that prevailed while the inflation 
 lasted. Law naturally shared. The highest nobility 
 paid him the most respectful attentions ; his 
 daughter's hand was sought by the heirs of princely 
 and ducal families. He purchased fine estates 
 in ditTerent parts of France ; and entered into a 
 negotiation with the family of the Duke of Sully 
 to purchase the marquisate of Rosny. As his 
 religion was a bar to his advancement, the Regent 
 promised to appoint him Comptroller-General of 
 the finances, if he would make open profession of 
 Romanism. Law on this point was less scrupulous 
 than most Scotchmen are, and was confirmed by 
 the Abbe de Tencin, in the cathedral of IMelun, 
 in the presence of an immense multitude. On 
 the following day he was elected honorary church- 
 
i88 UNDER MANY FLAGS 
 
 warden of the parish of St. Roch, and signah'zed 
 the occasion by bestowing on the parish a gift of 
 five hundred thousand livres. Such were the sums at 
 the command of the soi-disant Edinburgh goldsmith ! 
 Notwithstanding Law's rapid elevation, and the 
 sense of power which, as the dispenser of wealth 
 and influence, he must necessarily have felt, and 
 the implicit confidence placed in his advice by the 
 Regent, he preserved all his coolness of judgment and 
 simplicity of manner. Towards ladies his behaviour 
 was marked by a charming courtesy ; his equals or 
 his inferiors he met in a spirit of the frankest affa- 
 bility. It was only towards the "cringing nobles," 
 who thought to win his favour by their lavish 
 adulation, that he showed himself proud and for- 
 bidding. His own countrymen he treated with 
 the greatest cordiality, and they could always rely 
 upon his services. That he expected them to re- 
 member that he was one of the most powerful men 
 in Europe, was not, perhaps, a very serious fault. 
 There certainly was as much pride as politeness 
 in his reception of Archibald Campbell, Earl 
 of Islay, and afterwards Duke of Argyll, who, 
 when he called upon him, was ushered through a 
 crowded antechamber, where the best blood of 
 France was waiting the financier's pleasure, to find 
 Law sitting quietly in his library, writing a letter 
 to his gardener at Lauriston about the planting 
 of some cabbages ! He entertained the Earl for a 
 considerable time, played a game of piquet with 
 him, and deeply impressed him by his fine breeding 
 and sagacity. 
 
JOHN LAW 189 
 
 Law was at this time engaged in his scheme for 
 building up a French empire in the valley of the 
 Mississippi, whither he proposed to draft the sur- 
 plus population of the country. On the morning 
 of September 19, 1719, the bells of St. Martin rang 
 forth a wedding peal ; to the music of which a pro- 
 cession of one hundred and eighty women, dressed 
 in white and garlanded with flowers, each attended 
 by a bridegroom suitably attired, wound its way 
 through the crowded streets. These couples were 
 not only linked together by matrimonial bonds, 
 but by iron fetters ; for they had been drafted from 
 the Paris prisons, and mated on some French prin- 
 ciple of order, previous to being shipped off to find 
 an Arcadia in the far West. This was the char- 
 acteristic way in which the Regent's government 
 developed Law's plan of colonization. It went 
 further, and seized upon any part of the population 
 which it conceived to be " damaged " or unsound — 
 establishing a kind of press-gang, which seized 
 upon this person and upon that, loaded them with 
 chains, and marched them upon shipboard. With 
 the usual French logic, it was argued that to pro- 
 mote the growth of a new empire, it was desirable 
 to infuse French blood into the native royal races 
 of North America. " Accordingly, the Queen of 
 Missouri was induced to come to Paris to select a 
 husband. The fortunate object of her choice was 
 a stalwart sergeant in the Guards, named Dubois. 
 A disagreeable condition attached to the new 
 dignity probably impeded more distinguished can- 
 didates. The Queen of IMissouri, being a Daughter 
 
190 UNDER MANY FLAGS 
 
 of the Sun, was entitled to cut off her husband^s 
 head if he displeased her ; and rumour went that 
 Dubois the First actually suffered the penalty of 
 this rigid discipline. But all distinct record of his 
 fate was lost in the tangled mixture of wild adven- 
 tures encountered by the thousands who were 
 unshipped on the desert shore — shovelled, as it 
 were, into a strange land swarming with savages, 
 and left there to struggle for life and food." 
 
 But early in 1720, the wonder-working " system " 
 which had sprung from Law's fertile brain, began to 
 show signs of collapse. The alarm v/as first raised 
 by the high price of commodities, which had kept 
 pace in their upward progress with the constantly 
 increasing inflation of " the shares." A hint of the 
 danger they were incurring was conveyed to Law 
 and the Regent, by the action of the Prince de 
 Conti. Offended that Law had refused to sell him 
 some shares in India stock at his own price, he 
 sent to the Bank to demand payment in specie of 
 so enormous a number of notes, that three waggons 
 were required for its transport. Law did not fail 
 to impress on the Regent the alarming consequences 
 that would ensue if his example found imitators ; 
 and the Regent, who fully appreciated them, com- 
 pelled the Prince to refund two-thirds of the money. 
 Happily the Prince was unpopular, and a run on 
 the Bank was for a time averted. But, by and by, 
 others took the same action, through prudence, 
 that he had taken through revenge. A want of 
 specie was gradually felt by all classes ; and as it 
 was traced to the conduct of those discreet specu- 
 
fOHN LAW ii^i 
 
 lators, who smuggled into England or Holland the 
 coin they received for their scrip, the Regent, at 
 Law's instigation, issued edicts depreciating the 
 value of specie five, and afterwards ten, per cent, 
 below that of paper, and at the same time limiting 
 the payments of the Bank in gold and silver. 
 Such artificial restrictions, instead of restoring 
 public confidence, weakened it ; and Law, or the 
 Government, ventured on a still bolder coup, but 
 with a more ruinous effect. An edict was published 
 which forbade any person whatever to hold more 
 than five hundred livres (;^2o) in specie, whether in 
 coined money or in plate or jewellery ! It is un- 
 necessary to dwell on the loss which this absurd 
 and iniquitous statute inflicted on the better classes. 
 It was carried out in the most rigorous manner. 
 The police were instructed to make domiciliary 
 visits, and as every informer received one-half of 
 the forfeited treasure, the espionage was widespread 
 and most harassing. There is a good story told, 
 however, of the President Lambert de Vannon, who 
 informed the chief of the police that he was pre- 
 pared to denounce a criminal possessed of five 
 thousand livres' worth of bullion. The chief was 
 astonished that such a man should stoop to the 
 role of informer, but said, " Name the offender." 
 " Cest vioi, le President Lambert de Vannon 1 " It 
 was the only way he could think of for saving a 
 moiety of his property. Lord Stair, wittiest of 
 ambassadors, said it was impossible now to mistake 
 the sincerity of Law's Catholicism ; after having 
 shown his faith in transubstantiation by turning so 
 
192 UNDER MANY FLAGS 
 
 much gold into paper, he had ended by estabhshing 
 the Inquisition. 
 
 Alas for our brilliant Scotchman ! It was all of 
 no avail. The structure he had reared upon paper 
 came down with a crash, like a child's house of 
 cards, before the first breath of suspicion. The 
 reported wealth of the Mississippi Valley was dis- 
 credited ; the stock of the Company sank lower 
 and lower ; and though the Regent and his Council 
 issued more notes, these failed to restore the public 
 confidence, since they could not be exchanged for 
 specie. Early in May, it was computed that the 
 total number of notes in circulation reached two 
 thousand six hundred millions of livres, while all 
 the specie in the country did not exceed fifty 
 millions of pounds, or about half that amount. 
 The Regent's Council then perceived that something 
 must be done in the way of equalization, and the 
 measure finally decided on was the depreciation of 
 the notes by one-half An edict to this effect was 
 issued on May 21, but the Parliament refused its 
 concurrence, and such an outburst of indignation 
 shook the country, that the Council recalled its 
 edict. 
 
 This was on the 27 th — a black day for France. 
 On that day the Bank stopped payment in specie, 
 and Law's dream of power was at an end. His 
 name, wherever mentioned, was loaded with curses ; 
 he was denounced as the author of the national 
 bankruptcy. The mob stoned his carriage as he 
 returned from the theatre, and assumed so menacing 
 an attitude that the Regent stationed a company 
 
John law 193 
 
 of Swiss Guards before his hotel night and day. 
 But even this precaution proved insufficient, and 
 Law found it necessary to take shelter in the 
 Regent's apartments in the Palais Royal. The 
 ruin that had overtaken so many thousands of 
 persons, and shattered the public credit, was not 
 able, however, to check the flow or blunt the edge 
 of French wit. When the trouble was at its worst, 
 epigram succeeded epigram, and pasquinade was 
 piled upon pasquinade. Here is a specimen — ■ 
 
 " Lundi, j'achetai des actions, 
 Mardi, je gagnai des millions, 
 Mercredi, j'arrangeai mon menage, 
 Jeudi, je pris un equipage, 
 Vendredi, je m'en fus au bal, 
 Et Samedi k I'hopital." 
 
 [On Monday, I bought shares ; on Tuesday, I 
 made millions ; Wednesday, I furnished my house ; 
 Thursday, I set up a carriage ; Friday, I went to 
 the ball ; and on Saturday to the poor-house.] 
 
 Through all this stormy time Law did credit to 
 his nationality by his imperturbable courage. He 
 remained unmoved in the midst of the chaos, main- 
 taining unshaken his confidence in his system, and 
 in — paper. Only on one occasion does his temper 
 seem to have yielded, when a mob pursuing him 
 with yells and execrations, he stepped from his 
 carriage, faced them calmly, and saying disdainfully, 
 *' Vous etes canailles^' walked on. Whether his 
 words were lost in the tumult, or whether his " majestic 
 
 sang-froid'' imposed on the multitude, the brave 
 
 o 
 
194 UNDER MANY FLAGS . 
 
 Scotchman was allowed to reach the Palais Royal 
 without accident. His coachman was less fortunate. 
 Imitating his master's disdain, he repeated the 
 contemptuous epithet ; whereupon the canaille fell 
 upon him, tore him from his seat and stamped him 
 to death, afterwards breaking the carriage into 
 fragments. The outrage was witnessed by the 
 President of the Parliament, who gained much 
 applause by relating it to the members In an impro- 
 vised couplet — 
 
 " Messieurs ! Messieurs I bonne nouvelle, 
 La carosse de Lass est reduit en cannelle " 
 
 — to which the reply was a general shout of hilarity, 
 and a solitary voice which asked, " And Law him- 
 self, is he not torn to pieces t " 
 
 Wounded by the ingratitude — for such It seemed 
 to him — of the people whom he had desired to 
 benefit, and conscious of the integrity of his 
 motives. Law, who preserved in his fall the 
 dignity of a Coriolanus, obtained the Regent's 
 permission to leave France. As he drove to- 
 wards the frontier, his carriage was followed by 
 another in swift pursuit, which carried, not an 
 officer of justice, but the agent of the Russian 
 Emperor, charged to invite him to take charge of 
 the finances of Russia. Though a poor man — 
 out of the wreck of his fortune he had saved little 
 more than a diamond worth four or five thousand 
 pounds — he declined the brilliant proposal. At 
 Venice he was met by Cardinal Alberoni, the 
 great Spanish minister ; and elsewhere his renown 
 
JOHN LAW 1 95 
 
 drew the principal personages in Europe to his 
 levees. To defray his expenses he seems to have 
 resumed his attendances at the gaming-table ; 
 though his was not the paltry dependence on luck 
 of the ordinary gambler, but a system of combina- 
 tions based upon elaborate calculations. For some 
 time he cherished the hope of being recalled to 
 France, but with the death of the Regent, in 1723, 
 this hope expired also ; and after a visit to Copen- 
 hagen, he obtained permission from the British 
 Government to return to his native country. It is 
 a curious fact that he was offered and accepted a 
 passage on board the flag-ship of Sir John Norris, 
 the Admiral of the British fleet : he who had fled 
 from the country a discredited fugitive, returning 
 in state like some high and privileged personage. 
 
 For about four years Law remained in England, 
 and then proceeded to Venice, where, in 1729, the 
 man who had controlled the disposal of millions 
 of pounds, died in indigent circumstances. An 
 epigrammatist of the time devoted a quatrain to 
 his memory — 
 
 " Ci-git cet Ecossais cdlebre, 
 Ce calculateur sans egal, 
 Qui, par les regies de I'Algebre, 
 A mis la France a I'hopital." 
 
 [Here lies that famous Scotchman, That calcu- 
 lator unequalled, Who, by the rules of Algebra, 
 Has sent France to the poor-house.] 
 
 It may be said of Law that his work lived after 
 him, though the shrewdest political vision could 
 
196 UNDER MANY FLAGS 
 
 not have foreseen the far-reaching consequences 
 that flowed from it. His Mississippi scheme was 
 the immediate cause of the South Sea Bubble in 
 England, and of a similar delusion in Holland. It 
 left on the hands of France the colony of Louisiana, 
 which Napoleon sold to the United States in 1803 
 for fifteen millions of dollars. This purchase gave 
 to the slave-holding States a preponderating in- 
 fluence which eventually led to the secession of the 
 Southern States and the war between North and 
 South — the greatest civil war in history. Law's 
 scheme also left France, as Mr. Hill Burton re- 
 marks, in possession of an East India Company 
 which rivalled our own, and but for the genius of 
 Clive and Hastings might have established a 
 Franco-Indian empire, and deprived us of that 
 great dependency to which we owe so much in 
 profit and prestige. These were the notable results 
 of Law's billets (Taction ! A sanguinary civil war 
 in the West — an Anglo-Indian empire in the East 
 — both may be directly traced to the scheme 
 evolved from the fertile and unresting brain of a 
 Scottish adventurer — the son of John Law of 
 Lauriston, banker and goldsmith of Edinburgh.^ 
 
 1 The best authorities for the hfe of Law are both French 
 — Cochut and Thiers. 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 TWO FAMOUS BROTHERS — GEORGE AND JAMES 
 
 KEITH 
 
 DUNNOTTAR Castle is one of the most remark- 
 able strongholds on the east coast of Scotland. 
 In the elevation of its position and the extent of 
 its area it surpasses even Tantallon, the ancient 
 seat of the Douglases. Planted on a steep 
 promontory, which descends to the sea with many 
 a rugged bluff and ledge, it presents in its broken 
 outlines the likeness to a ruined town rather than 
 a feudal fortress. We are told — and as we look 
 round upon the huge remains can well believe — 
 that no other of the Scottish castles covered so 
 wide a space of ground, or was able to accommodate 
 within its circuit so large a garrison. In addition 
 to the old square keep, the original castelliini^ it 
 is easy to trace the later erections and additions, 
 which tell of " modern wealth and hospitable pro- 
 fusion." The vestiges of most Scottish fortresses 
 are of "a lean and gaunt aspect," as if designed 
 to present the smallest possible front to hostile 
 attack ; but Dunnottar exhibits all the signs of 
 ample magnificence — the magnificence of a monarch 
 rather than of a subject. 
 
 197 
 
198 7 wo FAMOUS BROTHERS 
 
 Dunnottar was the home of the Keiths; a noble 
 and distinguished family, of whom the last repre- 
 sentatives were two illustrious brothers, who left 
 their names " writ large " upon the records of war, 
 — George Keith, Earl Marischal, and Field-Marshal 
 James Keith, the famous captain of Frederick the 
 Great. Of these adventurous Scots I propose 
 briefly to tell the story. 
 
 Let us begin with the elder, as of right. George 
 Keith was born in 1687 or 1692 — authorities differ. 
 He took up the profession of arms in his boyhood, 
 was still in his teens when serving under Marl- 
 borough, and about twenty, perhaps, when Queen 
 Anne made him a Captain of her Guards. He was 
 a fervent partisan of the Stuarts ; and at Anne's 
 death offered to march his troop down to Charing 
 Cross, and proclaim James Edward King of Eng- 
 land ; but the Jacobite leaders lost their nerve — 
 the opportunity passed — and the throne passed to 
 the House of Hanover. On the accession of 
 George I., Keith necessarily resigned his position, 
 and retiring to Dunnottar, awaited there, with his 
 brother, the course of events. Their political 
 principles, as well as their close kinship to the 
 Earl of Mar, led them to join the Earl among the 
 foremost when he raised the standard of revolt in 
 1715. The Earl Marischal was present at the 
 tinchel, or great hunting-match at Braemar, on 
 August 26, at which Mar made known his plans, 
 and obtained the promised support of the chiefs 
 of the Highlands. And it was he who proclaimed 
 James VHI. at Edinburgh, " by the grace of God) 
 
GEORGE KEITH 199 
 
 of Scotland, England, France, and Ireland, King, 
 and Defender of the Faith." After the battle of 
 Sheriffmuir, Keith attended the soi-disant sovereign 
 in his various movements until the Jacobite forces, 
 weakened by internal dissensions, broke up at 
 Perth on January 30, 17 16, and began their retreat 
 into the Highlands. The Prince escaped at 
 Montrose on board of a French vessel, which 
 landed him near Dunkirk. The young Earl 
 Marischal and his brother, with some other of the 
 Jacobite officers, then proceeded northward to 
 Aberdeen, where they held a council of war, sum- 
 moning " all the general officers and chiefs of the 
 Highlands, together with a great many of the 
 nobility and principal gentry." Then it was debated 
 " whether we should continue," says James Keith, 
 in his Autobiography , " the former resolution of 
 marching to Inverness, assembling all the troops 
 we could there, and fighting the enemy; or if we 
 should march directly to the mountains, and there 
 disperse, and every man to do the best he could 
 for himself" The decision arrived at was to march 
 on to Gordon Castle and take the advice of the 
 Marquis of Huntly. But it was found that the 
 Marquis would give no advice, and that he intended 
 to offer his submission to the Hanoverian Govern- 
 ment. Therefore they advanced to Ruthven in 
 Badenoch as a convenient centre, and hastened to 
 disband their regiments. 
 
 "From thence," continues James Keith, "every 
 one took the road [that] pleased him best. The 
 Low Country gentlemen, who could find no safety 
 
200 TWO FAMOUS BROTHERS 
 
 in their own country, resolved to keep together till 
 they should get to the west sea, and so take the 
 first opportunity of getting out of the kingdom. 
 The Highland gentlemen, trusting to the inac- 
 cessibleness of their hills, resolved to stay in the 
 country, and then endeavour to make their peace 
 \vith the Government. But before they separated 
 it was resolved to write a letter to the Duke of 
 Argyll, acknowledging their fault and desiring 
 pardon, which was drawn up in so mean terms 
 that few would sign it, and it received the answer 
 it desired, or rather had an answer given it. 
 
 *' We, who had taken the party to get out of 
 the kingdom, continued our march with Sir Donald 
 McDonald's and Clanronald's regiments, who were 
 going home to the West Islands, where we arrived 
 in the middle of March, after much fatigue and 
 the loss of near a company of foot, who were over- 
 set in passing a river by overloading the boat, and 
 here we remained near a month without any ap- 
 pearance of escaping, no ship being then on that 
 coast ; and the ships we had sent for to several 
 parts in Scotland not daring to come to us for 
 fear of the enemy's men-of-war ; but what troubled 
 us most was the repeated advices we had that the 
 enemy was preparing to attack us ; and that two 
 battalions of foot and three frigates were already 
 in the Isle of Skye, not above two leagues from us. 
 At last, about the middle of April, a ship sent by 
 the King [James VIII.] arrived for us from France, 
 in which we embarked to the number of about one 
 hundred officers, April 21, O.S., and, after a very 
 
GEORGE KEITH 20I 
 
 pleasant passage, arrived May 12, N.S." — I do not 
 understand why the writer so suddenly changes his 
 calendars — " at St. Paul de Leon in Brittany." 
 
 Such is James Keith's too brief account of the 
 circumstances which attended his escape from 
 Scotland. It is to be regretted that he does not 
 narrate his adventures in fuller detail, as he must 
 have met with many romantic incidents, and been 
 a witness of not a few strikingr scenes in the course 
 of his journey to the Western Isles, his detention 
 there, and his voyage to France. But both the 
 Keiths were men of action rather than of words, 
 and loved to do the deeds for other men to write 
 about. 
 
 I must now follow the elder Keith, the Earl 
 Marshal or Marischal, who, after wandering for 
 some months among the mountains of Ross-shire 
 and Inverness-shire — with a price set on his head 
 by the British Government — contrived to pass into 
 Spain — a country for which he had a great liking, 
 often remarking that he had many friends there, 
 especially the Sun. Cardinal Alberoni was at 
 that time chief minister ; and when the Earl made 
 known to him his desire to draw his sword in the 
 Spanish service, he offered him immediately the 
 high rank of Lieutenant-General. With excep- 
 tional but characteristic modesty, the Earl declined 
 it as being above his age and services, and accepted 
 an inferior commission. Spain was then at peace; 
 and our indefatigable Scot wandered on to 
 Avignon, where he was received with open arms 
 by his old friend and commander, the Duke of 
 
202 TIVO FAMOUS BROTHERS 
 
 Ormond. At Rome he was admitted to an 
 audience of the Pope, and afterwards of the 
 Pretender, who bestowed upon him the Order of 
 the Garter ; but Keith, knowing it to be a sham, 
 would never wear it, observing, with his usual calm 
 common sense — " One must set aside, under the 
 penalty of ridicule, these empty honours, when he 
 who confers them is in no condition to make them 
 respected." How much wiser and more dignified 
 was his conduct than that of the hangers-on of the 
 Pretender's mimic court, who decked themselves 
 out with stars and ribbons that carried neither 
 significance nor distinction ! 
 
 It has been surmised that while he remained in 
 Rome he was engaged in secret negotiations in 
 the Jacobite interest. I take leave to doubt it. 
 The Earl Marischal seems to me to have been 
 much too shrewd and practical ever to have 
 involved himself in a political game in which his 
 opponents held all the trumps. 
 
 In 1733, when war broke out between Spain and 
 the Empire, he wrote to the Spanish sovereign, 
 offering the aid of his sword ; but the offer was 
 rejected on the ground that he was a Protestant, 
 though in the previous year his creed had not 
 prevented him from being employed in a campaign 
 against the Moors in Africa. I suppose the 
 Spanish Government made this nice distinction, 
 that the services of a heretic might lawfully be 
 made available in fighting against infidels, but that 
 the case was altered when the enemy was a good 
 Catholic. Learning that his brother James had 
 
GEORGE KEITH 203 
 
 been wounded at the siege of Okzakow, he hastened 
 to his assistance, and fortunately arrived in time 
 to prevent him from losing a limb which some 
 ignorant surgeons were proposing to amputate. 
 After accompanying the invalid to the waters of 
 Bareges, he returned to Spain. In 1744, when 
 France was engaged in hostilities against Great 
 Britain, and sought to create a diversion in her 
 favour by kindling the fires of revolt in Scotland, 
 she supplied the Young Pretender, Prince Charles 
 Edward, with the means of disembarking a force 
 on the Scottish coast. The Earl Marischal dis- 
 believed in the success of the expedition, and 
 advised the Prince not to undertake it. His 
 counsel was disregarded ; and the result was the 
 ruin of the hopes of the Stuarts on the memorable 
 field of Culloden. 
 
 Shortly afterwards, the Earl, on receiving some 
 slight from the Spanish Ministry, withdrew to 
 France, where he occupied his leisure with study, 
 and the society and conversation of men of 
 letters. 
 
 His younger brother, the Field-Marshal, having 
 entered the Prussian service, pressed him to come 
 and live with him at Berlin. He assented ; and 
 his abilities as well as his scrupulous integrity 
 being recognized by Frederick the Great, he was 
 appointed Prussian Ambassador to the Court of 
 the Tuileries. In this capacity the Earl spent 
 several years in Paris, which he liked as warmly 
 as he disliked his diplomatic position. "Alas!" 
 
204 TIVO FAMOUS BROTHERS 
 
 he would say, " one requires for this vocation a 
 finesse — a subtlety — which 1 have not, and do not 
 wish to have !" His probity was never doubted ; 
 and from the impression it produced probably won 
 more diplomatic victories than the most ingenious 
 state-craft could have achieved. 
 
 He was dispatched, later on, as Ambassador to 
 the Court of Madrid ; whence he secretly sent in- 
 telligence to the great Earl of Chatham, of whose 
 genius he was an admirer, of the nefarious Family 
 Compact between the two branches of the House 
 of Bourbon, which was intended to secure for it 
 the supremacy of Anjou. The British Govern- 
 ment, however, treated the information v/ith con- 
 temptuous neglect, in order to mortify the 
 illustrious statesman who towered so high above 
 their mediocrity ; and thus, by their petty but 
 ruinous jealousy, plunged Europe into a protracted, 
 sanguinary, and useless war. 
 
 The Earl Marischal's attainder having been 
 reversed, he found himself at liberty to return to 
 Scotland. It is recorded, as a striking proof of 
 the esteem in which he was held by his country- 
 men, that when he attended in person the public 
 sale of his estates with the view of buying them in, 
 no one would bid against him. He did not long 
 reside, however, amid the patrimonial groves. 
 The coldness of the Scotch climate was too much 
 for his delicate constitution ; and the fastidious 
 habits of life he had acquired did not agree with 
 the rougher ways of the Highland lairds. He 
 
GBORGE KEITH 20^ 
 
 made haste to return to the milder temperature 
 and more cultivated society of Berlin ; but he did 
 not long profit by either. Towards the close of 
 April 1778 he was seized with a fever, which in 
 the course of a few weeks proved fatal, carrying 
 him off on May 25. He was then in his eighty- 
 eighth or ninety-first year, according as we believe 
 him to have been born in 1687 or 1692. 
 
 Throughout his illness he maintained a remark- 
 able composure. On one occasion he said to his 
 physician — "I do not ask you, sir, to make me 
 live, for you do not pretend apparently to take 
 fifty off my sum of years ; I simply beg you, if it 
 be possible, to shorten my pains. After all, I have 
 never been ill before. I must needs have my 
 share of the miseries of humanity, and I submit 
 to this decree of Nature." Two days before his 
 death, he sent for Mr. Elliott, our Minister at the 
 Pruss'an Court, and addressed him with his cus- 
 tomary liveliness — " I have sent for you because 
 there is something pleasant in a Minister of King 
 George receiving the last sighs of an old Jacobite. 
 Besides, you may have, perhaps, some commissions 
 to give me for my Lord Chatham [who had died 
 about a fortnight previously] ; and as I count upon 
 seeing him to-morrow or the day after, I shall with 
 pleasure take charge of your dispatches." 
 
 The Earl Marischal was a good conversationalist, 
 and told a story with infinite grace and point. 
 He was also an adept in correspondence ; concise, 
 terse, elegant. This is the introduction to a friend 
 
2o6 TWO FAMOUS BROTHERS 
 
 at Neufchatel which he gave to Boswell — Johnson's 
 Boswell — 
 
 " A Monsieur, Monsieur le Colonel, Chaillot. 
 " Monsieur, — II vous plaira payer a M. Boswell 
 une bonne Truite du Lac, avec une bouteille de 
 votre meilleur vin. 
 
 " Pour votre Serviteur, 
 
 " Marischal." 
 
 [Please pay to Mr. Boswell one fine lake trout, 
 with a bottle of your best wine, for your servant. 
 
 Marischal.] 
 
 Perhaps the most interesting thing about this 
 trifle is, that it has survived the chances and 
 changes of more than a century. 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 
 FIELD-MARSHAL JAMES KEITH 
 
 James Keith, the younger brother of the Earl 
 Marischal, was born at Inverugie Castle, near 
 Peterhead, on June i6, 1696. His father was 
 William, ninth Earl Marischal (who died in 17 12), 
 and his mother was Lady Marie Drummond, 
 daughter of the Earl of Perth — a zealous adherent 
 of the old faith and the old dynasty. 
 
 James was educated for the law, and had prose- 
 cuted his studies at Aberdeen and Edinburgh, 
 where he was induced to join his brother in the 
 Jacobite rising of 171 5. After the dispersion of the 
 Highland clans, he made his way to the Western 
 Isles, and concealed himself there for some months, 
 until he was taken on board a French vessel, and 
 conveyed to Brittany. Thence he made his way to 
 Paris, where, at first, his experiences were of the 
 harshest. It is true that he was well received by 
 the Queen-Mother, Mary of Modena, who told 
 him that he must stay in Paris, and that as he was 
 so young, she would send him to the Academy to 
 learn his sword exercise ; but royal memories are 
 
 proverbially short. He received no assistance from 
 
 207 
 
^o8 TIVO FAAfOUS BROTHERS 
 
 her for some time, and was reduced to pitiful 
 straits. " Having left Scotland," he says, " so 
 abruptly that I had no time to provide any money 
 to bring along with me, what I had was soon at an 
 end, and my friends there, not knowing to what 
 part of the world I was gone, had sent no bills for 
 me. I lived most of that time by selling horse 
 furniture and other things of that nature which an 
 officer commonly carries with him ; and though I 
 had relations enough in Paris, who could have 
 supplied me, and who would have done it with 
 pleasure, yet was I then either so bashful or so vain, 
 that I would not ov/n the want I was in." 
 
 Thus he had to suffer for the proud shame of 
 young manhood, until at length he received supplies 
 from Scotland, as well as donations from James 
 and his Queen, in whose unlucky cause he had 
 ventured and lost so much. The young adventurer 
 went to the Academy, learned his exercises, and 
 was favoured with a commission as Colonel of 
 horse. But he was of a more restless temper than 
 his elder brother, and thinking it was high time — 
 at the advanced age of twenty-one ! — to establish 
 himself somewhere, and begin to carve out his 
 fortune, he turned his eyes towards Spain, the 
 Government of which was preparing to invade 
 Sicily and make war against the Empire. But in 
 the spring of life a young man's fancy lightly turns 
 to — other things. " I was then too much in love," 
 he naively says, "to think of quitting Paris, and 
 though shame to my friends forced me to take 
 some steps towards it, yet I managed it so slowly 
 
FIELD-MARSHAL JAMES KEITH 209 
 
 that I set out only in the end of the year (17 18), 
 and had not my mistress and I quarrelled, it's 
 probable I had lost many years of my time to 
 very little purpose, so much was I taken up with 
 my passion." 
 
 But at last, early in 17 19, he went to Spain, in 
 company with his brother, the Earl Marischal ; 
 bound on a secret mission from King James to the 
 Court of Madrid. Landing at Palamos, on the 
 coast of Catalonia, they were subjected at first to 
 a pretty close examination and cross-examination 
 by the authorities, who, unable to make out the 
 mystery of the two strangers, sent them on to Don 
 Tiberio Caraffa, Governor of Giron, and the Duke 
 of Leria, commandant of the garrison. " We 
 arrived there in the evening," says the future 
 Marshal, " and were carried to the Duke's quarters, 
 who was no little surprised at our appearance, and 
 immediately sent to acquaint the Governor that he 
 answered for the two gentlemen, but concealed our 
 names at the desire of the Earl Marischal. We 
 lodged that night with him, and finding him 
 ignorant of any intended enterprise in England, we 
 concluded that we were sent for only to enter into 
 the King of Spain's service, and therefore resolved 
 to continue our route slowly to Madrid, without 
 fatiguing ourselves by going post. We accordingly 
 hired chairs (sedan) there, and two days after 
 arrived at San Andren, hard by Barcelona, and 
 from thence sent a letter from the Duke of Leria to 
 Prince Pio of Savoy, who was then Captain-General 
 of that province, begging him to allow us to ccme 
 
2IO TWO FAMOUS BROTHERS 
 
 into the town without being examined at the 
 ports ; and about an hour after we saw a coach and 
 six mules (the first equipage of the kind we had 
 ever seen), with the Prince's hVery, at the door of 
 our inn. This surprised us, and still more the 
 respect his doctor, whom he had sent in his coach 
 to receive us, paid to two strangers he had never 
 (before) seen." Long afterwards they discovered 
 the secret of this extraordinary courtesy. Cardinal 
 Alberoni had sent word to Prince Pio that King 
 James might shortly be expected incognito at one 
 of the Catalonian ports, and had given directions 
 for his becoming reception ; and on the advent of 
 the two young Scotchmen, tall, well-favoured, with 
 the air noble about them, the Prince had too hastily 
 concluded that they were King James and his 
 confidential attendant. " This," says Keith, " with 
 the Duke of Leria's letter, occasioned our entry 
 into Barcelona in this manner ; and I believe he 
 was sorry to have given himself so much trouble 
 about us, when he knew who we were ; yet he re- 
 ceived us very civilly, though with some embarras!'' 
 The young Scotchmen duly arrived at Madrid, 
 and on the following day were received by Cardinal 
 Alberoni, who informed them of his design to 
 support the Jacobite cause, and sent them to 
 Valladolid to arrange the details of an expedition 
 with the Duke of Ormond. They demanded, as 
 essential to its success, 4000 stand of arms and 
 18,000 pistoles ; but were obliged to be content with 
 half of each. The Cardinal, however, also under- 
 took to lend them six companies of infantry to 
 
FIELD-MARSHAL JAMES KEITH 211 
 
 protect a landing. Leaving George Keith to 
 accompany the expedition from San Sebastian, 
 where it was to embark, James set out for France, 
 to open up secret communications with TulHbar- 
 dine, Seaforth, and the other Jacobite exiles, and 
 engage their co-operation. It was both a difficult 
 and a dangerous task, as France and Spain were 
 then at war, but James Keith carried it out suc- 
 cessfully ; and he and his friends sailed for Havre, 
 in a small boat of twenty-five tons, on March 19, 
 1 7 19, and after narrowly escaping capture by the 
 British fleet, landed at Stornoway, in the Lewis, a 
 few days later. Here they found George Keith, 
 with the small body of Spanish troops promised by 
 the Cardinal. Alberoni had intended that the Earl 
 Marischal should take the chief command ; but 
 TuUibardine suddenly produced a commission from 
 Prince James Edward, empowering him to act as 
 Generalissimo. The Earl Marischal gave way so 
 far as the land forces were concerned ; but insisted 
 on directing the movements of the ships of the 
 expedition, as these had specially been entrusted 
 to him by the Cardinal. 
 
 The plan of action decided upon was to disem- 
 bark on the west coast, advance through the glens 
 to Inverness, which was known to be very feebly 
 garrisoned, and carrying it by a coup de main, 
 assemble there the Highland clans. But the 
 disputes and quarrels of the leaders so delayed 
 their progress that the British Government obtained 
 information of their movements, and were enabled 
 to forestall them. 
 
212 TIVO FAMOUS BROTHERS 
 
 It was the middle of May before the little 
 Jacobite flotilla sailed into Loch Alsh, which lies, 
 deep and still, among the green mountains of Ross- 
 shire. The troops having been landed, the vessels 
 returned to Spain. Some fortifications were then 
 thrown up at the mouth of the inner reach of the 
 loch ; and a garrison was placed in Ulandonan 
 Castle, once the stronghold of the "high chiefs of 
 Kintail." But the ancient fortress, though impreg- 
 nable in the rude Highland warfare, could offer no 
 effective resistance to modern artillery; and their 
 English men-of-war, which broke into the loch, soon 
 crumbled it into ruins. The Scotch, and their 
 Spanish auxiliaries, about 1500 in all, then moved 
 by Loch Duich into the high grounds of Glenshiel ; 
 where, on June 11, they were surprised and 
 defeated by General Wightman, with 1600 regular 
 troops. The Spaniards surrendered as prisoners of 
 war ; the Scots disappeared among the mountain 
 ravines. 
 
 "As I was then sick of a fever," writes James 
 Keith, " I was forced to lurk some months in the 
 mountains, and in the beginning of September, 
 having got a ship, I embarked at Peterhead, and 
 four days after landed in Holland at the Texel ; 
 and from there, with the Earl Marischal, went to 
 the Hague, to know if the King of Spain's minister 
 at that Court had any orders for us. And his 
 advice being that we should return with all haste to 
 Spain, we set out next day by the way of Liege, to 
 shun the Imperial Netherlands and enter France by 
 Sedan, judging that route to be the least suspected ; 
 
Lurkinix in tlie mountains of Kinlail. 
 
 Page 212. 
 
FIELD-MARSHAL JAMES KEITH 213 
 
 but, on arriving there, the town-major, finding we 
 had no passports, stopped us, and without inquir- 
 ing either our names or qualities, ordered us 
 immediately to be carried to prison, which was 
 executed with the greatest exactitude. I made no 
 doubt but that at the same time he would have 
 ordered our pockets to be searched, in which we 
 both had our commissions from the King of Spain, 
 then at war with France ; but he was contented 
 with having done the half of his duty, which was 
 our good fortune," — since it allowed time for their 
 destruction. Afterwards, when a demand was 
 made for papers, nothing was found upon them but 
 a letter which the Earl Marischal had received from 
 the Prince de Conti. This seemed so satisfactory a 
 credential to the town-major that he ordered their 
 release ; and next day they set out for Paris. They 
 arrived there during the fever of excitement caused 
 by Law's Mississippi scheme ; but as they had no 
 money with which to speculate in them, and neither 
 gained or lost, Keith does not think it incumbent 
 upon him either to praise or condemn. 
 
 Early in January 1720, the two brothers resolved 
 on a visit to Prince James Edward, or the Chevalier, 
 as he was called, at Rome. They embarked at 
 Genoa on board a galley bound for Leghorn ; and 
 soon had an opportunity of ascertaining how sadly 
 the Genoese seamen had deteriorated since the 
 days of Doria, when Genoa contended with Venice 
 for the mastery of the seas. They had a favourable 
 breeze at starting ; and about midday made Porto 
 Fino, where, to the surprise of our young Scots, 
 
214 TPFO FAMOUS BROTHERS 
 
 they dropped anchor. When one of the officers was 
 asked the reason, he replied, that the galleys of the 
 Republic never kept the sea at night, except in 
 the middle of summer, and that the next harbour, 
 Porto Vumo, was too far distant to be reached 
 before nightfall. Next day they got into Porto 
 Vumo about the same hour, and as it does not 
 lie more than seventy miles from Leghorn, it would 
 have been possible to have made the latter port 
 before midnight. But the bold Genoese could not 
 be induced to run the hazard ; and as the wind 
 veered round during the night, the Keiths were 
 detained at Porto Vumo for ten weary days. At 
 last, the weather becoming settled, the galley again 
 put to sea ; about half-way the wind freshened, 
 and the heroic captain, in a panic, gave orders to 
 return ; nor was he persuaded very easily that 
 there was no danger. 
 
 At Rome they received a gracious welcome from 
 the Chevalier, and spent six weeks very pleasantly. 
 James Edward soon discovered that their funds 
 were very low ; and in order to relieve the wants 
 of two such faithful partisans, applied to the Pope 
 to advance him a thousand crowns on his ordinary 
 pension. Clement XL prudently excused himself 
 on the plea of poverty, " which I mention," says 
 James Keith, " only to show the genius of the Pope, 
 and how little regard Churchmen have for those 
 who have abandoned all for religion." The 
 Chevalier eventually borrowed the money from a 
 trustful banker, and sent away his two young Scots 
 rejoicing. 
 
PIELD-MARSHAL JAMES KEITH 215 
 
 They were back in Madrid in July 1720, and 
 there, among courteous senhors and fascinating 
 senhoras, James Keith lingered for many months, 
 holding the commission of Colonel, but unattached 
 to any regiment ; finding no one to assist his 
 advancement ; and reduced eventually to such 
 distress that, had not an old friend arrived in 
 Madrid, and offered him his hospitality, it is pro- 
 bable that our adventurer's career would have come 
 to an unhappy and a premature end. 
 
 In 1722, at his mother's urgent request, he was 
 preparing to return to Scotland on business affairs ; 
 but on making known his intention to Mr. Stan- 
 hope, the British Ambassador, he was strongly 
 dissuaded from it. Mr. Stanhope reminded him 
 that the British Government was acquainted with 
 his share in the Spanish expedition ; and he added 
 that just at that moment they were much em- 
 bittered against all Jacobites by the discovery of 
 the abortive conspiracy in which Bishop Atterbury 
 and other leading men had been engaged. James 
 Keith, therefore, changed his plans and went to 
 Paris; where he loitered about the Court and the 
 salons for a couple of years, seeking employment 
 but finding none ; and supporting himself on 
 such small sums of money as reached him from 
 Scotland. 
 
 In June 1726 the scent of battle rose in the 
 gladdened nostrils of our adventurer. Hostilities 
 were again on the point of being resumed between 
 Great Britain and Spain. An English squadron 
 had already sailed for the West Indies to lie in 
 
2i6 TPFO PA MO US BROTHERS 
 
 wait for the huge Panama treasure-ship ; and 
 another, carrying three regiments of foot, was 
 cruising in the Bay of Biscay, with the intention, 
 it was supposed, of making a descent upon the 
 sea-fort of San Anders. As a counter-demon- 
 stration, Spain dispatched an army of twenty 
 thousand men into Andalusia with instructions to 
 attempt the recapture of Gibraltar. Keith flew at 
 once to the scene of action ; and late in December 
 rode into the Spanish camp at San Roque, within 
 three miles of the great fortress. To deceive the 
 English garrison there, the army was employed in 
 the erection of new defences at Algesiras. 
 
 " The English at first began to suspect," says 
 Keith, "that we had some design on the place; 
 but when they saw how weak we were, they con- 
 cluded that the new fort was all we had in view, 
 and I don't know if this presumption might not 
 have cost them dear, had we had a more enterprising 
 general at our head, for the garrison was then not 
 full a thousand men, and the service of the place 
 so negligently observed, that very often the guard 
 of the port was not above a dozen men. They 
 allowed our soldiers to come into the town in 
 what numbers they pleased, without even search- 
 ing them for hidden arms; and at less than four 
 hundred yards from the place, there are sand-banks 
 where a thousand men may lay concealed, and 
 which they then had not the precaution to re- 
 connoitre in the morning : how easy would it have 
 been to have rendered ourselves masters of the 
 gate, for sometimes we had above two hundred 
 
FIELD-MARSHAL JAMES KEITH 217 
 
 soldiers and forty or fifty officers at a time in the 
 place, and then have made our grenadiers, hid 
 amongst the sand-banks, advance ; but this was 
 not the design of the Count de Las Torres, our 
 General, who said that would the English give him 
 the town, he would not take it but by the breach." 
 When all the Spanish forces were assembled, it 
 was naturally supposed that the trenches would be 
 opened ; but, unfortunately for the Spaniards, they 
 had no cannon. To send them by sea was im- 
 possible on account of the vigilance of the English 
 cruisers ; they were therefore dragged across the 
 mountains by rugged and difficult paths, which 
 heavy rains had rendered almost impracticable. 
 The collection of this battering-train made known 
 to the garrison the ultimate object of the Spaniards, 
 while the delay afforded them opportunity of 
 communicating with Admiral Sir Charles Wager, 
 who was in command of the British fleet. He 
 immediately bore up for Gibraltar, and landed his 
 three regiments of infantry. The besiegers then 
 perceived that they had lost their chance, and 
 would have retired ; but the Court at Madrid 
 insisted that the siege should go on, and on the 
 night of February 21, a strong battery was 
 raised to cover the men at work in the trenches. 
 The British immediately opened a vigorous fire, 
 but the battery proved to be out of range, and 
 therefore innocuous. That night the Spanish 
 troops began to break ground, and so near the 
 Rock that our guns could not be pointed low 
 enough, nor did our musketry do much execution. 
 
2t8 TlVO FAMOUS BROTHERS 
 
 But in the morning it was discovered that the 
 engineers had mistaken their position — a blunder 
 which does not give one a very high opinion of 
 Spanish miHtary science ! — and had drawn the 
 parallel where it was exposed to the full observa- 
 tion of the garrison. At the same time three 
 British men-of-war dropped out of the harbour, 
 and sailing into the bay, let go their anchors in the 
 rear of the Spanish position at a point where was 
 such deep water that they were able to unite within 
 a cable's length of the shore. Throughout the day 
 they kept up a heavy fire, killing or wounding two 
 of the Spanish officers and seventy-two soldiers. 
 At nightfall they weighed anchor, and returned to 
 their former moorings. 
 
 Shortly afterwards a curious contretevips oc- 
 curred, which might have had disastrous con- 
 sequences. To obtain cover from the British 
 cannonade, the Spanish troops had lain prone on 
 their faces all day in the lines which they had 
 occupied the night before ; and in a gap in the 
 trenches which there had not been time to fill up, 
 a battalion of the Guards sought shelter without 
 being noticed or even remembered by the main 
 body of the troops. On the departure of the 
 British ships, the officer in command of the battalion 
 marched them to rejoin their comrades. The 
 way lying under the musketry of the town, they 
 advanced with rapid step — an alacrity which, in 
 the darkness, led the regiment nearest to them to 
 conjecture that they were a British column which 
 had sallied from the town. They accordingly fired 
 
PIELD-MARSHAL JAMES KEITH 2I9 
 
 a volley ; but as the battalion continued their 
 advance, most of these gallant Spaniards threw 
 down their arms and took to their heels. The 
 example proved contagious ; and had not the 
 nationality of the advancing troops been quickly 
 discovered, it seems probable that the greater part 
 of the Spanish army would have run away from 
 an imaginary enemy. One can hardly believe that 
 these poltroons were the countrymen of the Cid 1 
 
 "We continued our works," says the Field- 
 Marshal, *' above three weeks before our batteries 
 were in condition to fire ; and when they did, we 
 found the effect did not answer our expectation, 
 they being at too great a distance from the 
 works of the place to do much execution. In this 
 manner we continued cannonading one another 
 till June 22, without any hopes of taking the 
 town, which, by the works the Earl of Portmore 
 had raised during the siege, was soon in a better 
 condition than when we began it. At last, June 
 23, orders came from Court to cease all acts of 
 hostility, and to agree on a suspension of arms 
 with the Governor ; and thus ended a siege of five 
 months, in which we had about two thousand men 
 killed or wounded, and in which all we gained was 
 the knowledge that the place was impregnable 
 by land." 
 
 In 1747 George II. entered into an arrangement 
 with the Czar for the hire of thirty thousand 
 Russian infantry, four thousand Russian cavalry, 
 
220 TWO FAMOUS BROTHERS 
 
 and one thousand Cossacks, for an annual subsidy 
 of ^15,000. This force marched out of Moscow 
 on Christmas Day, 1747, and all through the winter 
 crept on through the " frozen peaty wildernesses " 
 of Lithuania and Poland, in order to confront the 
 French in the Rhineland in the early spring. It 
 was supposed that the command would have been 
 given to Keith, who was entitled to it by his serv- 
 ices, his renown, his seniority; but owing to Court 
 intrigues he was dishonourably passed over, and 
 Repnin, his junior and inferior, obtained the 
 coveted post. Keith, who had already undergone 
 several slights, immediately threw up his com- 
 mission, and departing from Russia without regret, 
 sought employment in a more congenial field. On 
 arriving at Hamburg, in September 1747, he wrote 
 to Frederick the Great to offer him his sword. 
 Frederick eagerly welcomed him, promising him 
 the rank of Field-Marshal, and an income of 
 £1200 a year. Negotiations, when both parties 
 were willing, came to a swift conclusion, and in the 
 following month I find the Field-Marshal writing 
 from Potsdam to his brother, the Earl — 
 
 *' 1 have now the honour, and, which is still more, 
 the pleasure, of being with the King at Potsdam ; 
 where he ordered me to come, two days after he 
 declared me Field-Marshal ; where I have the hon- 
 our to dine and sup with him almost every day. 
 He has more wit than I have wit to tell you ; 
 speaks solidly and knowingly on all kinds of 
 subjects ; and I am much mistaken if, with the 
 experience of four campaigns, he is not the best 
 
FIELD-MARSHAL JAMES KEITH 221 
 
 officer of his army. He has several persons with 
 whom he Hves in almost the familiarity of a friend ; 
 but has no favourite ; — and shows a natural polite- 
 ness for everybody who is about him. For one 
 who has been four days about his person, you 
 will say I pretend to know a great deal of his 
 character: but what I tell you, you may depend 
 upon. With more time, I shall know as much of 
 him as he will let me know ; and — all his Ministry 
 knows no more." 
 
 Keith seems to have become sincerely attached 
 to Frederick, who, on his part, placed the greatest 
 trust in both him and his ambassadorial brother, 
 and included them in the narrow circle of his 
 intimates. It was said by some that the Earl 
 Marischal was the only human being whom 
 Frederick ever loved. 
 
 James Keith's military talents shone conspicu- 
 ously in the earlier stages of that great European 
 conflict which historians designate the Seven 
 Years' War. The chief combatants in this pro- 
 longed struggle were Prussia and Austria, supported 
 by Great Britain and France respectively. But 
 Austria had also on her side Russia, Saxony, 
 Sweden, and the Germanic body ; so that the posi- 
 tion of Frederick was both difficult and dangerous. 
 With him it was a contest for everything that was 
 dearest. If his antagonist prevailed, Silesia would 
 return to Austria, East Prussia would go to the 
 Russian Empress, Sweden would acquire part of 
 Pomerania ; and Augustus of Saxony, Magdeburg ; 
 so that the House of Hohen^iollcrn would at once fall 
 
222 nVO FAMOUS BROTHERS 
 
 back into the obscurity from which it had been raised 
 by the ability of its successive chiefs. Relying on his 
 genius, on the courage and discipline of his troops, 
 and the unity of his councils, Frederick resolved 
 on striking the first blow ; and in the month of 
 August 1756, suddenly poured into Saxony an army 
 of sixty-five thousand troops, who quickly over- 
 flowed the country, captured Dresden, and laid 
 siege to Pirna. Learning that a force of Austrians, 
 under Marshal Browne, was preparing to traverse 
 the mountain passes which connect Bohemia with 
 Saxony, he left at Pirna a division strong enough 
 to wrestle with the Saxons, and, accompanied by 
 Field-Marshal Keith, invaded Bohemia. 
 
 Keith had been growing in the King's favour, 
 and in everybody's confidence, since he first 
 entered the Prussian service. Our great historian 
 describes him, with picturesque felicity, as a man 
 of Scottish type, whose broad accent, with its 
 sagacities, vivacities, its steadily-fixed moderation, 
 and its sly twinkles of defensive humour, is still 
 audible to us through the foreign wrappages. Not 
 given to talk, unless he had something to say; but 
 then he talked well and wisely, and there were few 
 subjects on which his opinion was not worth hearing, 
 and his judgment worth taking. 
 
 Frederick, seizing the heights on either side of 
 the Bohemian pass, threw himself across Browne's 
 line of march at Lobositz (October 1756), and in- 
 flicted upon the old Marshal a severe defeat, the 
 Prussians fighting with extraordinary steadiness. 
 "Never have my troops," wrote Frederick, "done 
 
FIELD-MARSHAL JAMES KEITH 223 
 
 such miracles of valour, cavalry as well as infantry, 
 since I had the honour to command them. By this 
 toiir de force — this masterly achievement — they 
 have shown what they can do." This notable 
 victory placed all Saxony at Frederick's feet. The 
 Elector fled to Poland, and the whole Saxon army 
 capitulated. Thenceforward, to the end of the war, 
 he treated Saxony as a conquered province, levying 
 troops and exacting contributions with merciless 
 severity. 
 
 For the campaign of 1757 the King's plans were 
 well conceived. He left the Duke of Cumberland, 
 with his British and Hanoverian force, to operate 
 in Western Germany, and keep the French em- 
 ployed. The Russians were immured in their 
 snows until spring opened. Saxony was prostrated, 
 and Sweden ineffectual. There was time and oppor- 
 tunity, therefore, to attack Austria alone, though 
 even in this single-handed contest the odds were 
 against him. Early in 1757 he sent his army in 
 four divisions through the Bohemian passes, intend- 
 ing to fall upon Prague, where Marshal Browne 
 was encamped, expecting the arrival of Daun, the 
 ablest and wariest of the Imperialist captains, with 
 heavy reinforcements. Frederick resolved to attack 
 and overhelm Browne before Daun could come up. 
 On May 6 was fought the bloodiest battle which 
 Europe witnessed during the long interval — nearly 
 a century — between Malplaquet and Eylau. The 
 King and Prince Ferdinand of Brunswick distin- 
 guished themselves in its fiercest throes by their hot 
 and indomitable courage, but the honour of the day 
 
224 TIVO FAMOUS BROTHERS 
 
 was with the veteran Marshal Schwerin, who had 
 command of the Prussian infantry. 
 
 He and his fighting men advanced upon the 
 Austrian front through a storm of case-shot. The 
 general Prussian order of the day was, " By push of 
 bayonet : no firing ; none, at any rate, until you see 
 the whites of their eyes." Swift, steady as on the 
 parade-ground, rapidly filling up the gaps torn in 
 their close-set ranks, the Prussians continued to 
 press forward, until they saw before them an 
 expanse of " fine, sleek pasture-grounds, unusually 
 green for the season." But when they stepped upon 
 them, they proved, alas! to be mere "mud-tanks,'* 
 verdant with " bearding oat-crop," sown there as 
 carp-provender ! " Figure the sinking of whole 
 regiments to the knee ; to the middle, some of them ; 
 the steady march become a wild scrawl through 
 viscous mud, mere case-shot singing round you, 
 tearing you away at its ease ! Even on those 
 terrible terms, the Prussians, by dams, by footpaths, 
 sometimes one man abreast, sprawl steadily forward, 
 trailing their cannon with them ; only a few regi- 
 ments, in the footpath parts, cannot bring their 
 cannon. Forward ; rank again, when the ground 
 will carry ; ever forward, the case-shot getting ever 
 more murderous ! No human pen can describe 
 the deadly chaos which ensued in that quarter ; 
 which lasted, in desperate fury, issue dubious, for 
 above three hours ; and was the crisis, or essential 
 agony, of the battle." 
 
 In this fiery trial it is no matter of wonder that 
 some of the Prussian regiments lost heart, and for a 
 
FIELD-MARSHAL JAMES 1<:EITH 225 
 
 time fell back — recovering themselves thereafter, 
 and returning to the field of slaughter. One of these 
 was Schwerin's regiment. The fiery veteran im- 
 mediately seized the colours, and shouting, Heran^ 
 meine Kinder, — " This way, my sons," — rode straight 
 into the chaos of the fight, followed by his "sons" 
 in swift repentance. Five bits of grape-shot struck 
 the white-haired hero, who fell dead upon his flag, 
 clutching it with tenacious hands ; but his spirit, as 
 it were, continued to lead the desperate charge, and 
 the Prussians, mad with grief and rage, fell so 
 fiercely upon the enemy, that he was compelled to 
 yield. 
 
 Keith, in this great battle, commanded three 
 thousand men, on the Moldau side of the battle- 
 field, and when the Austrian retreat began, pre- 
 vented them from escaping up the Moldau, and 
 helped to shut up part of them in Prague. The 
 remainder fled to swell the ranks of Daun's army, 
 which was rapidly approaching. 
 
 Frederick's victory was dearly won. He ad- 
 mitted that he had lost eighteen thousand men. 
 The loss of the Austrians was a third greater — 
 twenty-four thousand killed, wounded, or taken 
 prisoners ; but then the Austrians had another 
 great army in the field, and Frederick had not. 
 
 Leaving a large force, under Keith, to besiege 
 Prague, Frederick, with three thousand men, 
 marched against Daun, who, though he had the 
 superiority in numbers, was resolved to risk no- 
 thing, and had encamped in a very strong position 
 atKolin. The battle began before noon on June i, 
 
 Q 
 
226 TlVO FAMOUS BROTHERS 
 
 and was maintained on both sides with terrible 
 resolution and great shedding of blood. The 
 Prussians behaved with a gallantry worthy of their 
 fame ; but the deadly fire of the Austrian batteries 
 from every point of vantage proved too much for 
 them, and at length their decimated regiments could 
 no longer be brought up to the attack. Even then, 
 Frederick was unwilling to admit the indispensable- 
 ness of retreat, and the officers of his personal staff 
 were constrained to put the question to him straight 
 — "Will your Majesty storm the batteries alone.-*" 
 Entering the battle thirty-four thousand strong, he 
 lost thirteen thousand seven hundred and seventy- 
 three, of whom the prisoners (including all the 
 wounded) numbered five thousand three hundred 
 and eighty. They lost also forty-five cannon and 
 twenty-two flags, but held so resolute an attitude 
 even in defeat, that the victors meddled not with 
 their baggage. The Austrian forces in the field 
 are estimated at sixty thousand ; their killed, 
 wounded, and missing amounted to eight thousand 
 one hundred and fourteen. 
 
 Retiring upon Prague, Frederick immediately 
 raised the siege, and by different routes marched 
 his army out of Bohemia, Keith bringing up the 
 rear, and having charge of the magazines and 
 stores. 
 
 In November, having recruited his weakened 
 army, Frederick opened a new campaign. He 
 himself led the van ; the main body was under 
 Marshal Keith; and the rear under Prince Ferdi- 
 nand of Brunswick, one of the ablest captains of 
 
FIELD-MARSHAL JAMES I^EITH 227 
 
 the time. A great French army was moving up 
 from the west, under the command of Marshal 
 Soubise, a prince of the great house of Rohan ; 
 this was the enemy at whom Frederick resolved 
 to aim his first blow. He came up with him at 
 Rosbach on November 5, and though considerably 
 inferior in numbers, obtained a complete victory. 
 The French lost three thousand killed and 
 wounded, and five thousand taken prisoners, with 
 about seventy cannon, besides standards, flags, 
 kettledrums, and meaner baggage. Those who 
 fled, fled in the greatest confusion. The Prussians 
 had only one hundred and sixty-five killed, and 
 three hundred and seventy-six wounded. In number 
 they had been little more than one to three ; 
 twenty-two thousand of all arms, and of these not 
 more than half were under fire. 
 
 Victorious in the West, Frederick next turned 
 his arms towards Silesia, which had been overrun 
 by the Austrians, under Duke Charles of Lorraine. 
 He marched thither with indefatigable energy, 
 and on December 5, exactly one month after the 
 battle of Rosbach, fought the battle of Leuthen 
 — perhaps the most signal of his victories. Recog- 
 nizing the magnitude of the issue, he had summoned 
 Keith and his principal officers to his presence a 
 day before ; and made known to them his inten- 
 tions in terse and forcible language. After com- 
 menting on the critical position of affairs in Silesia, 
 he remarked that his embarrassments would be 
 insuperable but for the entire confidence he had 
 in them, and in their high military qualities. 
 
228 TWO FAMOUS BROTHERS 
 
 Hardly one among them but had distinguished 
 himself by some nobly memorable action ; but all 
 their services to the State and to himself he knew 
 well, and would never forget. He flattered himself, 
 therefore, that on the present occasion nothing 
 would be wanting which the State had a right to 
 expect of their valour. The hour was at hand. 
 He should think nothing done if he left the 
 Austrians in possession of Silesia. He wished to 
 inform them, therefore, that he intended, in spite 
 of the Rules of Art, to attack Prince Charles's 
 army, though it was nearly thrice their strength, 
 wherever and whenever he found it. Of its 
 numbers or the strength of its position he should 
 take no account. He hoped to neutralize these 
 advantages by his tactical skill and the courage 
 of his soldiers. This step, he said, he must risk, 
 or all was lost. " We must beat the enemy," he 
 cried, " or perish, all of us, in front of his batteries. 
 Make this my resolve known to all the officers of 
 the army ; prepare the men for the work they 
 will have to do, and say that I expect absolute 
 fulfilment of my orders." 
 
 There was no mistake about the temper of this 
 Prussian army ; it was as dogged and inflexible as 
 if its ranks had been filled with Keith's country- 
 men. And then it had such a noble faith in its 
 kingly leader ! " Never mind," the soldiers used 
 to say in Marlborough's time, " Corporal John will 
 get us through it ! " And this, too, was the feeling 
 of the Prussian fighting-men as regarded their 
 '' Vater Fritz." That same evening (I am con- 
 
FIELD-MARSHAL JAMES IvEITH 229 
 
 densing from Carlyle) he rode into the camp, and 
 went from regiment to regiment, exchanging frank 
 soldierly speech with all. The first he came upon 
 was the Life Guard Cuirassiers : the men, in their 
 wonted manner, gave him good-evening, which he 
 returned cheerily. Some of the veterans addressed 
 him confidentially : " What is thy news, then, at 
 this late hour ?" " Good news, children : to-morrow 
 you will drub the Austrians soundly." " That we 
 will," they said, '' by Heaven ! " " But look how 
 many of them there are yonder, and how strongly 
 they have entrenched themselves ! " " If they had 
 the devil in their front, and all round them, we 
 would knock them out : only thou lead us on 1 " 
 " Well, I shall see what you can do ! Now, lay 
 down, and sleep soundly; good sleep to you!" 
 " Good-night, Fritz," they cried with one consent ; 
 and the King moved on to the next regiment, the 
 Pommern or Pomeranian. '* Well, children, how do 
 you think it will go to-morrow ? They are twice 
 as strong as we." " Never thou mind that ; there 
 are no Pommerners among them ; thou knowest 
 what the Pommerners can do ! " " Yea, truly," 
 answered the King, "that I do, or I durst not risk 
 the battle. Now, good sleep to you ! to-morrow, 
 then, by this time, we shall either have beaten the 
 enemy, or shall all be dead." "Yes," resumed the 
 regiment, in chorus, '* dead, or else the enemy 
 beaten." 
 
 I do not propose to describe the battle of 
 Leuthen. To the non-professional reader the 
 description of one battle is very much like that of 
 
230 TWO FAMOUS BROTHERS 
 
 another, and even when it is written by a bril- 
 Hant expert, it carries no conviction to the mind. 
 He understands that A is beaten, and that B 
 conquers ; but he does not understand the why 
 or the wherefore ; nor can he separate the part 
 played by the stubborn courage of the men from 
 the part played by the genius of their leader. At 
 Leuthen it would be difficult to do so ; for though 
 it was Frederick's manoeuvres ^ which conferred 
 upon forty thousand men an insuperable superiority 
 over sixty thousand, these manoeuvres could have 
 been carried out only by troops of the highest 
 discipline and courage. The Austrian overthrow 
 was complete ; they left three thousand killed and 
 seven thousand wounded on the field, and twenty 
 thousand to twenty-one thousand were taken 
 prisoners. Necessarily such a victory was not 
 cheaply won ; it cost the victors one thousand one 
 hundred and forty-one killed, and five thousand 
 one hundred and eighteen wounded. " Gentlemen," 
 said Frederick that night, when the hurly-burly 
 was over, " after such a spell of work you deserve 
 rest. This day will hand down the renown of 
 your name and your nation to the latest 
 posterity." 
 
 Marshal Keith's share in these notable military 
 achievements I have not attempted to indicate. 
 He was a lieutenant, and, therefore, can claim 
 
 1 Napoleon did justice to Frederick's strategy — "That 
 battle," he said, " was a masterpiece. Of itself, it is sufficient 
 to entitle Frederick to a place in the front rank among 
 generals," 
 
FIELD-MARSHAL JAMES KEITH 231 
 
 little of the glory that on such occasions surrounds 
 the commander. He had to obey orders, and he 
 obeyed them with sagacity, promptitude, and 
 resolution. There was no one of his officers whom 
 Frederick more thoroughly trusted ; no one whose 
 counsel carried greater weight with him ; but his 
 was not the initiative genius, and Rosbach and 
 Leuthen are Frederick's victories, and neither 
 Keith's nor Schwerin's nor any other of the 
 Prussian generals, except in so far as each did his 
 duty with true soldierly instinct. 
 
 Having recovered Silesia, Frederick passed the 
 winter at Breslau in the studies he loved, and in 
 making vigorous preparations for his next cam- 
 paign. Fresh levies brought up the fighting 
 strength of his army to the normal standard, and 
 in the spring of 1758 he again took the field. 
 Leaving Prince Ferdinand to deal with the French, 
 he marched to encounter the Russians, who had 
 sided with Austria, and slaying, ravaging, and 
 burning, had penetrated into the heart of his 
 dominions. His first movement was against 
 Olmiitz. Starting from Neisse, on April 27, with 
 vanguard and first division under his own com- 
 mand — Keith, with second division and rearguard, 
 following at a day's march distance, — he silently 
 threaded the mountain villages and upper stream- 
 lets of the Oder and Morawa, and on May 12 
 suddenly debouched in front of Olmiitz, near which 
 (at Leutomischl) Marshal Daun lay entrenched 
 with a strong force. Frederick at once invested 
 Olmiitz, entrusting the general direction of the 
 
232 TPVO FAMOUS BROTHERS 
 
 siege to Keith, who pressed it with unconquerable 
 tenacity ; but was ill served by his engineers, and 
 inadequately supplied with ammunition. The 
 capture of an important convoy by Daun made 
 Frederick's position untenable ; and on July I he 
 ordered Keith to raise the siege, and began his 
 retreat. Keith, who covered the retreat, is acknow- 
 ledged to have behaved with masterly tactical 
 skill He was suffering from asthma at the 
 time, but exhibited his usual vigilance, energy, 
 and judgment, and though upwards of sixty, 
 much of the elasticity and promptitude of youth. 
 The hosts under Loudon made some attacks 
 upon his long column ; he brushed them off 
 quite easily. It was at Holitz, within a march 
 of Konigsgratz, that Loudon struck most heavily, 
 and at one time there was some risk of disaster. 
 But Keith, hearing the brisk artillery combat in 
 front of him, galloped to the scene of action with 
 his cavalry, and by a series of skilful manoeuvres 
 drove back the enemy in confusion. " A man fiery 
 enough," says Carlyle, " and prompt with his stroke 
 when wanted, though commonly so quiet. ' Tell 
 Monsieur,' — some general who seemed too stupid 
 or too languid on this occasion, — ' Tell Monsieur 
 from me,' said Keith to his aide-de-camp, * he 
 may be a very pretty thing, but he is not a man 
 {^q7Cil petit etre une bonne chose, mats qu'il n^est pas 
 7^n komine!^). The excellent vernacular Keith 
 — still a tine breadth of accent in him, one 
 perceives ! " 
 
 Frederick now marched to encounter the Rus- 
 
FIELD-MARSHAL JAMES KEITH 233 
 
 sians, and gave them battle, on August 25, at 
 Zorndorf, near Frankfort-on-the-Oder. The fight 
 was " long and bloody," but it ended in a great 
 victory for the Prussians and their King. The 
 Russian loss amounted to eight thousand killed, 
 and thirteen thousand five hundred wounded and 
 taken prisoners. The Prussian loss was about 
 half, namely three thousand six hundred and eighty 
 killed, and seven thousand seven hundred wounded 
 or missing. Zorndorf was the bloodiest field of 
 the Seven Years' War, and one of the most furious 
 recorded in military annals. On both sides men 
 were animated by a feeling of personal hate ; and 
 the sight of the ravages committed by the ruthless 
 invaders had filled the breast of every Prussian 
 with an insatiable thirst of vengeance. 
 
 Having thus disposed of his enemies from the 
 east, the indefatigable Frederick swept round 
 against the Austrians, who, under the command 
 of the two most brilliant Imperialist generals, Daun 
 and Loudon, were advancing into Saxony. As 
 Frederick approached, Daun drew back, and en- 
 camped at Stolpen, one of the strongest posts in 
 Germany, with Pirna on his left, and Loudon's 
 division on his right, barring the road to Bautzen, 
 which was Frederick's objective. By a series of 
 skilful manoeuvres Frederick passed Loudon, and 
 got round to Bautzen, where he pushed forward 
 on the road to Weissenberef, but findingr that Daun 
 was again ahead of him, he halted at Hochkirch, 
 and posted his troops on a low range of hills 
 
234 TJVO FAMOUS BROTHERS 
 
 directly opposite to the Austrian camp. But 
 Frederick, unwisely contemptuous of the Austrian 
 commander, had allowed his army to slip into a 
 dangerous position. " The Austrian generals deserve 
 to be hanged," cried Keith, " if they don't attack 
 us here ! " They did attack them there ! During 
 the night of Friday, October 13, Daun, dexterously 
 manoeuvring, and helped by a thick fog, drew his 
 ninety thousand men in a silent circle round the 
 Prussian camp, and at five o'clock next morning, 
 fell suddenly on the astonished Prussians, under 
 cover of a tremendous fire. Though taken by 
 surprise, they made an obstinate resistance ; and 
 Frederick exercising all his genius for war, they 
 contrived to extricate themselves from what seemed 
 certain destruction, though not without defeat and 
 carnage. 
 
 About six, or half-past, Keith, who had command 
 of the right wing, ascertained that his main battery 
 had been captured, and prepared to recover it. 
 Mounting his horse in hot haste, he assembled a 
 couple of battalions, and through the heavy mist 
 which obscured the battle-field, led them forward. 
 After a sharp struggle, the battery was retaken. 
 But fresh Austrian troops came upon the ground, 
 and Keith began to look round him anxiously for 
 assistance. " Where are my aides-de-camp t " he 
 repeatedly inquired ; but obtaining neither reply 
 nor reinforcement, was at length compelled to fall 
 back, his men clearing the way with levelled 
 bayonets. Suddenly he stopped short, and, with 
 
FIELD-MARSHAL /AMES KEITH 235 
 
 a bullet through the heart, dropped dead into the 
 arms of his groom, John Tebay, thus closing, amid 
 the gloom and clang of the fight, his adventurous 
 career. 
 
 Tebay endeavoured to carry off his body, but 
 failed ; and the Austrians conveyed it into Hoch- 
 kirch church, where, on the morrow, the Field- 
 Marshal was honourably buried. Four months 
 after, his remains were removed, by Frederick's 
 order, to Berlin, and interred with full military 
 honours in the Garnison Kirche — where they still 
 lie, far from the bonnie glades of Inverugie and 
 the ruins of Dunnottar. A statue of him was 
 erected (about 1780) on the Wilhelm Platz. He 
 has also a memorial in Hochkirch church ; an 
 urn of black marble on a pedestal of grey ; with 
 an inscription which records how he " Dum in 
 praelio non procul hinc, inclinatam suorum aciem, 
 mente manu voce et exemplo restituebat, pugnans 
 ut heros decet, occubuit." 
 
 That he was no mere soldier of fortune — no un- 
 scrupulous mercenary, intent on selling his sword 
 to the highest bidder — is proved by the record of 
 his career. " My brother," said the aged Earl 
 Marshal,^ '' leaves me a noble legacy ; last year 
 
 1 " Old Lord Marischal — George, ' Marechal d'Ecosse,' as 
 he always signs himself — was by this time seventy-two ; 
 King's Governor of Neufchatel, for a good while past and 
 to come (1754 — 1763). In 'James,' the junior, but much the 
 stronger and more solid, he has lost, as it were, a father and 
 younger brother at once ; father, under beautiful conditions ; 
 
2:;6 TJ^W FAMOUS BROTHERS 
 
 -J 
 
 he had Bohemia under ransom ; and his personal 
 estate is seventy ducats." Yes ; that was the 
 fortune he left behind him — about twenty-five 
 pounds — the result of so many years of adventure 
 and so much gallant service. 
 
 and the tears of the old man are natural and affecting. Ten 
 years older than his brother, and survived him still twenty 
 years. An excellent, cheery old soul, he too." 
 
 THE END 
 
 Richard Clay ^ Sons, Limited, London ^ Bungay. 
 
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