e for them but
what was from England, that family had remained desolate and forsaken
to this day.

But that glorious king, whom I can never mention without some remark
of his extraordinary merit, had left particular instructions with his
chancellor to rescue the Palatinate to its rightful lord, as a proof
of his design to restore the liberty of Germany, and reinstate the
oppressed princes who were subjected to the tyranny of the house of
Austria.

Pursuant to this resolution, the chancellor proceeded very much like
a man of honour; and though the King of Bohemia was dead a little
before, yet he carefully managed the treaty, answered the objections
of several princes, who, in the general ruin of the family, had
reaped private advantages, settled the capitulations for the quota of
contributions very much for their advantage, and fully reinstalled
the Prince Charles in the possession of all his dominions in the Lower
Palatinate, which afterwards was confirmed to him and his posterity by
the peace of Westphalia, where all these bloody wars were finished
in a peace, which has since been the foundation of the Protestants'
liberty, and the best security of the whole empire.

I spent two years rather in wandering up and down than travelling;
for though I had no mind to serve, yet I could not find in my heart to
leave Germany; and I had obtained some so very close intimacies with
the general officers that I was often in the army, and sometimes they
did me the honour to bring me into their councils of war.

Particularly, at that eminent council before the battle of Noerdlingen,
I was invited to the council of war, both by Duke Bernhard of Weimar
and by Gustavus Horn. They were generals of equal worth, and their
courage and experience had been so well, and so often tried, that more
than ordinary regard was always given to what they said. Duke Bernhard
was indeed the younger man, and Gustavus had served longer under our
great schoolmaster the king; but it was hard to judge which was the
better general, since both had experience enough, and shown undeniable
proofs both of their bravery and conduct.

I am obliged, in the course of my relation, so often to mention the
great respect I often received from these great men, that it makes me
sometimes jealous, lest the reader may think I affect it as a vanity.
The truth is, that I am ready to confess, the honours I received, upon
all occasions, from persons of such worth, and who had