NARVA 87

to the assistance of Riga, which was beleaguered by the
Saxons and Poles, and of Narva, against which city the
Russians had made several unsuccessful assaults. Without
losing an hour the king crossed to Malmoe. ‘The troops
there were ordered to embark immediately in the vessels in
the harbour. ‘They then sailed to Revel, where the Swedish
commander, Welling, had retired from the neighbourhood
of Riga, his force being too small to meet the enemy in
the open field. No sooner had the troops landed than the
king reviewed them, and General Welling was ordered at
once to march so as to place himself between the enemy
and Wesenberg, where a large amount of provisions and
stores for the use of the army had been collected.

The two lieutenants in the company of Captain Jervoise
were young Scotchmen of good family, who had three
months before come over and obtained commissions, and
both had at the colonel’s request been transferred to his
regiment and promoted to the rank of lieutenants. Cap-
tain Jervoise and his four officers messed together, and were
a very cheerful party; indeed their commander, to the sur-
prise both of his son and Charlie, had quite shaken off his
quiet and somewhat gloomy manner, and seemed to have
become quite another man, in the active and bracing life
in which he was now embarked. Cunningham and Forbes
were both active young men, full of life and energy, while
the boys thoroughly enjoyed roughing it, and the excite-
ment and animation of their daily work.

Sometimes they slept in the open air, sometimes on the
floor of a cottage. ‘Their meals were rough but plentiful.
The king’s orders against plundering were very severe, and
even when in Denmark, the country people, having nothing
to complain of, had brought in supplies regularly. Here
in Linovia they were in Swedish dominions, but there was
little to be purchased, for the peasantry had been brought
to ruin by the foraging parties of the Russians and Poles.