[142] Hexham.
[143] The capture of Wesel was the occasion of rejoicing; and the details of the description leads me to infer that the feu de joie was a novelty.
[144] "I was once made to stand at the Louvre Gate in Paris, being then in the King's regiment of guards passing my prenticeship, for sleeping in the morning when I ought to have been at my exercise. For punishment I was made to stand from eleven before noon to eight o'clock of the night sentry, with corselet, headpiece, braselets, being iron to the teeth, in a hot summer's day, till I was weary of my life."—Munro's Expedition, p. 45.
[145] But poor Dunbar and his four companies were to have little part in it. Shortly after he again defied the whole of Tilly's army, and after a desperate resistance the eight hundred men were annihilated, seven or eight alone escaping to tell the tale.
[146] There were only two "orders" in the Swedish army: Open order for parade, which meant six feet from man to man, outstretched hand to outstretched hand; and Battle order, three feet from man to man, elbow to elbow.
[147] A file in those days consisted, of course, of six men, not as now of two. So a corporalship of pikes would be eighteen, and of musketeers twenty-four men.
[148] The rottmeisters were fifteen in number, the six corporals bringing up the total to the necessary twenty-one.
[149] See Monro, vol. ii. p. 65.
[150] Stress has been laid upon the fact that Gustavus always led the cavalry in person. Doubtless he was fond of his Horse, but since at that period cavalry was always stationed in the wings, and the right wing was the post of honour, this does not count for very much.
[151] They were called after their inventor by the name of "Sandy's stoups," and were used by the Scots at the battle of Newburn in 1640.