Perhaps it might be my mistake, but
I fancied my hero, the King of Sweden, would have carried it sword in
hand, in half the time.
However it was, I did not like it; so in the latter end of the year I
came to the Hague, and took shipping for England, where I arrived, to
the great satisfaction of my father and all my friends.
My father was then in London, and carried me to kiss the king's hand.
His Majesty was pleased to receive me very well, and to say a great
many very obliging things to my father upon my account.
I spent my time very retired from court, for I was almost wholly in
the country; and it being so much different from my genius, which
hankered after a warmer sport than hunting among our Welsh mountains,
I could not but be peeping in all the foreign accounts from Germany,
to see who and who was together. There I could never hear of a battle,
and the Germans being beaten, but I began to wish myself there.
But when an account came of the progress of John Baner, the Swedish
general in Saxony, and of the constant victories he had there over the
Saxons, I could no longer contain myself, but told my father this life
was very disagreeable to me; that I lost my time here, and might to
much more advantage go into Germany, where I was sure I might make my
fortune upon my own terms; that, as young as I was, I might have been
a general officer by this time, if I had not laid down my commission;
that General Baner, or the Marshal Horn, had either of them so much
respect for me, that I was sure I might have anything of them; and
that if he pleased to give me leave, I would go for Germany again.
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