he did not overburden his
people by it, no objection could be made. Those who served him also,
did it of their own free will; they might engage themselves to other
Sovereigns at home or abroad, who were obliged to keep the agreements
they made with them. If the country were in danger from external
enemies, the states granted the Sovereign money or a special
contribution for these soldiers, for it was well known that they had
more military capacity than the militia. Thus it was in Prussia under
the great Elector, and so it remained in the greater part of Germany
till late in the eighteenth century.

But this private army which the Sovereign had levied for himself had
also acquired a new constitution.

Till the end of the Thirty Years' War the enlistment, in most of the
German armies, had taken place according to Landsknecht custom, at the
risk of the Colonels. The Colonel concluded a contract with the Prince;
he filled and sold the captains' commissions; the Prince paid the
Colonel the money contributed by the district. Thus the regiments were
essentially dependent on the Colonel, and this was a power which might
be used against the Prince. The discipline was loose; the officers'
places occupied by creatures of the Colonel, and at his death the
regiment was dissolved. The rogueries of Colonels and leaders of
companies, which were already complained of in 1600 by the military
writers, had attained a certain virtuosoship in their development.
Seldom were all the men whose names stood on the rolls, really under
the banner. The officers drew the pay for numbers who were not there,
who were called "_Passevolants_," or "_Blinde_," and they appointed
their grooms and sutlers, from the baggage-waggons, to be
non-commissioned officers. In the Imperial army, also, complaints were
endless of the most reckless selfishness from the highest to the
lowest. In the midst of peace the officers plundered the hereditary
States in which they were quartered; they fished and hunted in the
environs, and claimed a portion of the city tolls; they caused beasts
to be killed and sold; and set up wine and beer taverns. In like manner
as the officers robbed, the soldiers stole. This continued still in
1677; and this plague of the country threatened to become lasting. The
enlisting of recruits was still little organised in this early period;
and the rogueries, which could not fail to accompany it, were at least
unsanctioned by the highest authoritie