I had by this time letters from my father, in which, though with some
reluctance, he left me at liberty to enter into arms if I thought fit,
always obliging me to be directed, and, as he said, commanded by
Sir John Hepburn. At the same time he wrote to Sir John Hepburn,
commending his son's fortunes, as he called it, to his care, which
letters Sir John showed the king unknown to me.

I took care always to acquaint my father of every circumstance, and
forgot not to mention his Majesty's extraordinary favour, which so
affected my father, that he obtained a very honourable mention of it
in a letter from King Charles to the King of Sweden, written by his
own hand.

I had waited on his Majesty, with Sir John Hepburn, to give him thanks
for his magnificent present, and was received with his usual goodness,
and after that I was every day among the gentlemen of his ordinary
attendance. And if his Majesty went out on a party, as he would
often do, or to view the country, I always attended him among the
volunteers, of whom a great many always followed him; and he would
often call me out, talk with me, send me upon messages to towns, to
princes, free cities, and the like, upon extraordinary occasions.

The first piece of service he put me upon had like to have embroiled
me with one of his favourite colonels. The king was marching through
the Bergstraet, a low country on the edge of the Rhine, and, as all
men thought, was going to besiege Heidelberg, but on a sudden orders
a party of his guards, with five companies of Scots, to be drawn out;
while they were drawing out this detachment the king calls me to him,
"Ho, cavalier," says he, that was his usual word, "you shall command