Some of their anecdotes and adventures were very remarkable.
Raynold Cheyne, of Dundargle, when quite a youth had served as a cuirassier, under the famous Raymond, Count de Montecuculi, in after years the rival of the great Turenne. Once, when on the march through Germany, the Count had given orders that, on pain of death, no soldier or cavalier under his command, should tread down ripened corn. A soldier who rode a wild and unmanageable horse, spurred it recklessly through a field of yellow grain near Leipzig; and then Montecuculi ordered the Provost-Marshal to hang him without ceremony at the first halting-place; but the soldier advanced to Count Raymond and resolutely pleaded his innocence, laying the whole blame upon his horse.
'Silence, sir!' said the Count, haughtily; 'the Provost-Marshal shall do his duty. Away with him!'
'Count Raymond,' exclaimed the cuirassier, full of rage and vengeance, 'I was guiltless before; but shall no longer be so!' and levelling his arquebuse, before he could be disarmed, he fired a bullet through his colonel's plume.
'Thou art a brave fellow!' said the Count, with a sudden admiration of his heedless daring; 'I pardon thee—give me thy hand; and, in the charge to-morrow, let us see who will go furthest among the Swedish ranks—thou or I.'
Next day was fought the great battle of Leipzig; where the furious ardour of the Count de Montecuculi carried him so far among the ranks of the victorious Swedes, that he was taken prisoner. One soldier, who attempted to rescue him, was also taken. He was the hero of the cornfield adventure—Raynold Cheyne, of Dundargle—who thereafter left the Imperial service and joined the Scottish Guard.
'Have you seen the house that the Comte de Treville, captain of the Musketeers, has built for Ninon de l'Enclos?' asked the Marechal de Logis, after the foregoing anecdote.
'Ninon,' murmured, the chevalier; 'the beautiful Ninon—no.'
''Tis quite a Palais Royale!' said Cheyne.
'How—has he left Marion de l'Orme?'