later, back again in Scotland, collecting men on this occasion for a worthier master, the King of Sweden.22 He was present with him at the taking of Stettin and Damm when they surrendered, and was mainly responsible for the capture of Colberg in Pomerania. In an encounter with the Imperialists who had advanced to its relief, the Swedes, led by an inexperienced officer, fled without firing a shot, and if it had not been for Lord Reay's Scottish musketeers, who were in the van and stood firm, the enemy would have been victorious. In 1631 he returned home, but he was in constant communication with Gustavus regarding the raising of fresh levies. The death of his patron was a great blow to him. Of the large sums of money which he had spent to pay his recruits he received nothing back,23 and he was compelled to denude himself of part of his estates to pay his debts.

When the King of Sweden accepted the Order of the Garter at the hands of King Charles's envoys after the Battle of Dirschau in West Prussia in the autumn of 1627, he made six knights. The ceremony took place in the presence of the whole army in front of the royal tent, and was performed with great triumph. 24 One of the recipients of the honour was Sir Alexander Leslie, and another Sir Patrick Ruthven, who afterwards became Earl of Forth and Brentford.25 Powerfully built and covered with scars, or, as Colonel Robert Monro, the author of the Expedition with the Worthy Scots Regiment puts it, 'carrying the marks of valour on his body,' he was a man of great courage and a trusted leader. In spite of his propensity to hard drinking which earned him the nickname of General Rotwein (red wine), he always kept a cool head.26 Scott probably had him in mind in drawing Dugald Dalgetty, for his hero is said to have acquired in these wars a capacity to bear an exorbitant quantity of strong liquor. Ruthven's career as a soldier began about 1606-9, when his name figures in the lists of Swedish officers, and he was soon appointed captain in a regiment of Scots in Sweden. Thus he joined the army at the same time as Leslie, and he must have served with him under Charles IX.

22 The Book of Mackay, by Angus Mackay, 1906, p. 134.

28 The Scots in Germany, by T. A. Fischer, Edin. 1902, p. 91; The Book of Mackay, p. 136.

24 Ruthven Correspondence, Roxburghe Club, 1858, Introd. p. ix.

25 The Scots Peerage, vol. iv. 1907, p. 104.

26 The Scots in Germany, p. 107.

After his accession in 1611 the attention of Gustavus was first engaged by the war in Denmark, in which Ruthven does not appear to have taken any part. But he was ordered during the Russian war to conduct certain troops to Narva, and was present at the storming of Pleskoff (1615), having in the following year the command of an East Gothland troop of 300 men; and in the campaign against Sigismund III. of Poland he shared in the successful siege of Riga (1621). He held successively the Governorships of Memel, Marienburg and Ulm, and many of his letters to Axel Oxenstiern, commencing in 1629, have been preserved." He urges on the Swedish Chancellor the necessity of rendering Memel safe from the attacks of the enemy. When at Marienburg he defends himself against the charge of having delayed General Wrangel's departure by not supplying him with horses and conveyances. I did command the magistrates,' he writes, 'two days previous to be ready with their horses and carts, but what they furnished was of such miserable description that I put the mayor into prison, and sent him home after a time to provide better horse material.' He thanks Oxenstiern for allowing him the rights of fishing in the neighbourhood, and begs for money to pay his troops. As to this, he complains in one letter, dated August, 1630:-'I and my captains have ever and anon pawned our store of clothes and other things to content the men, but now the well is exhausted and I know of no other means.' Whilst in command of Ulm he succeeded by his vigilance in suppressing two conspiracies and in reducing a number of Catholic towns in the vicinity, although his garrison only amounted to 1200 men. His reward was the Grafschaft or Earldom of Kirchberg, near Ulm, worth about £1800 a year.

In May, 1632, Ruthven was raised to the_rank of majorgeneral, and was given the first command with Duke Bernard of Weimar of 800 men in Swabia, to watch the movements of the Catholic general Ossa, who was threatening Ulm. Seeing that he was engaged with Christian of Birkenfelt at the siege of Landsberg near Frankfort-on-the-Oder, in October, he cannot have been present at the Battle of Lützen in the following month. During 1634-5 he was travelling in Scotland, England and France, but he returned to Germany to take part in the Battle of Nördlingen, so disastrous for the Swedes. Later on he was lieutenant-general with Baner and assisted him in defeating the Catholics at Domitz, 27 The Scots in Sweden, by T. A. Fischer, Edin. 1907, p. 102.

Lützen, Goldberg and Kosen.28 In 1636 Ruthven retired from active service abroad. Clarendon 29 says that he joined King Charles at Shrewsbury, and he was appointed to command as general at Edgehill, succeeding the Earl of Lindsey who fell at this battle. His place was, however, soon taken by Prince Rupert, and the last we hear of him in connection with the country he served so well was in 1649, when he was sent on a royalist mission to Sweden.

The oldest colonel at the great battle of Breitenfeld, near Leipzig, on September 17, 1631, where, in spite of the cowardice of his Saxon allies, the King of Sweden defeated the aged Tilly with the loss of 6000 of his veterans, was Sir James Ramsay, who commanded three regiments of chosen musketeers forming the vanguard.30 They sustained a furious charge by a body of cuirassiers under Pappenheim, the bravest soldier, according to Schiller, Austria possessed, whom they compelled to fall back on their main body by dint of pike and musket. This officer was usually called the Black Colonel of Scots, to distinguish him from Sir James Ramsay the Fair, Governor of Brissac. With a detachment of his countrymen he led the storming party at the capture of Würzburg in Franconia on October 10, and was wounded in the arm. Monro says that this was the greatest exploit performed during the war. The castle was approached by a bridge which had to be repaired under a shower of cannon and musket shot. Gustavus asked the Scots if they were willing to take the place by assault, knowing that if they refused it would be useless to expect any others to go upon such a forlorn hope.32 For these and other conspicuous services Ramsay received a grant of lands in the Duchy of Mecklenburg and the government of Hanau, an important fortress on the river Main near Frankfort.

After the defeat of the Swedes at Nördlingen in 1634 the Imperialists besieged Hanau, which its commander defended with the greatest skill and courage. His sallies from the town were well conducted and generally successful, and, in order to gain time and rest for his worn-out garrison, Ramsay began a series of

28 The Scots Peerage, vol. iv. 1907, p. 104.

29 History of the Rebellion, ed. 1720, vol. ii. pp. 40 and 57.

30 Monro's Expedition, ed. 1637, ii. 63.

31 Life of Sir John Hepburn, by James Grant, 1851, p. 101.

32 An Old Scots Brigade, p. 163: Gustavus Adolphus, by C. R. L. Fletcher, p. 207.

DIED 1651.

From oil painting in Skokloster Castle, Sweden, formerly the seat of General Wrangel.

The correctness of the attribution of this portrait has not been doubted.
See page 48 for another portrait of Patrick Ruthven.