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Another prominent officer during this period was
Robert Douglas, afterwards Count Douglas. He had
been born in Scotland on the 17th of March, 1611, his
parents being Patrick Douglas and Christina Lesslie, his
wife. Not many officers can boast of having served three
Swedish sovereigns in succession like Douglas. When
young he came to the Court of Gustavus Adolphus as a
page, but soon entered the army. As a colonel he took
part in the events of the Thirty Years’ War during its
closing years. It was in the year 1642 that he, being of
a hot temper, like so many other of his Scotch
brother-officers, became engaged in a violent altercation with an
Austrian colonel of the name of Spiegel, during a
conference with the Imperialists at which the exchange of
Swedish prisoners of war was being debated. Spiegel
raised his pistol and wounded Douglas, but was himself
cut down immediately by the Swedish officers present.
In the following year (1643) Douglas wrote one of those
precatory letters to Oxenstierna that are preserved for
us in such astonishingly large numbers in the archives
of Sweden. He was deeply in debt, and could not satisfy
his creditors; his pay had not been forthcoming ; a sum
of 1300 Thaler is remaining due to him. Three of my
brothers, he continues, have lost their lives in the service
of the Crown ; and then he adds with singular modesty:
u I can in return as little promise any great deeds as I am
able to boast until this date of very great performances,
but I can assure her Majesty and the Government
that they have in me a servant faithful in his duties and
of an unfeigned mind.”1 The Polish War gave the
writer more occasion for “great performances.”
1 Very charming in the German of the original: “ Kann zwar
dahingegen so wenig grosse Thaten versprechen, als ich mich bis dato
grosser Streich zu beriihmen weiss, ausserdem dass Ihre Majestät und
I
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