“I read with a great deal of satisfaction the account you give of the great and extraordinary conquests of the King of Sweden, and with more his Majesty’s singular favour to you; I hope you will be careful to value and deserve so much honour.  I am glad you rather chose to serve as a volunteer at your own charge, than to take any command, which, for want of experience, you might misbehave in.

“I have obtained of the king that he will particularly thank his Majesty of Sweden for the honour he has done you, and if his Majesty gives you so much freedom, I could be glad you should in the humblest manner thank his Majesty in the name of an old broken soldier.

“If you think yourself officer enough to command them, and his Majesty pleased to accept them, I would have you offer to raise his Majesty a regiment of horse, which, I think, I may near complete in our neighbourhood with some of your old acquaintance, who are very willing to see the world.  If his Majesty gives you the word, they shall receive his commands in the Maes, the king having promised me to give them arms, and transport them for that service into Holland; and I hope they may do his Majesty such service as may be for your honour and the advantage of his Majesty’s interest and glory.”

“YOUR LOVING FATHER.”

“’Tis an offer like a gentleman and like a soldier,” says the king,” and I’ll accept of it on two conditions:  first,” says the king, “that I will pay your father the advance money for the raising the regiment; and next, that they shall be landed in the Weser or the Elbe; for which, if the King of England will not, I will pay the passage; for if they land in Holland, it may prove very difficult to get them to us when the army shall be marched out of this part of the country.”

I returned this answer to my father, and sent my man George into England to order that regiment, and made him quartermaster.  I sent blank commissions for the officers, signed by the king, to be filled up as my father should think fit; and when I had the king’s order for the commissions, the secretary told me I must go back to the king with them.  Accordingly I went back to the king, who, opening the packet, laid all the commissions but one upon a table before him, and bade me take them, and keeping that one still in his hand, “Now,” says he, “you are one of my soldiers,” and therewith gave me his commission, as colonel of horse in present pay.  I took the commission kneeling, and humbly thanked his Majesty.  “But,” says the king, “there is one article-of-war I expect of you more than of others.”  “Your Majesty can expect nothing of me which I shall not willingly comply with,” said I, “as soon as I have the honour to understand what it is.”  “Why, it is,” says the king, “that you shall never fight but when you have orders, for I shall not be willing to lose my colonel before I have the regiment.”  “I shall be ready at all times, sir,” returned I, “to obey your Majesty’s orders.”