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

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

The king had taken notice of our small party of volunteers, and though
I thought he had not seen me, yet he sent the next morning for Sir
John Hepburn, and asked him if I were not come to the army? "Yes,"
says Sir John, "he has been here two or three days." And