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designs may be compassed, and that great Captains must
make use of the least advantages ; and they are not to be
called little, that tend to their glory and triumphs. And fur-
ther, how pernicious excess and riot is to military discipline,
and a presage of ruine. The General gave order to the storm,
tho' a great part of his forces were absent upon another occa-
sion, (of which you shall hear presently) a very bold exploit,
but usual with him, at first to despise, and then to destroy his
enemy. A General that is fearful, and not well assured of
victory, will not make many conquests, nor keep them that
follow him in great courage. Sept. 1. both hors& and foot
fell on, and after a short, but sharp resistance, he mastered
the town, and in it the Governor himself was slain, and some
others. The soldiers plundered the town of all its former
and newly deposited wealth, which amounted to vast sums.
Nothing but plate and money was regarded. But see the
just judgment of God, that most of the wealth being shipt, to
be transported to Leith and Edinbargh, upon several vessels
that were taken in the harbour, (there being 60 of all sorts
taken), the ships were cast away within sight of the town, aud
tbat great wealth perished, without any extraordinary storm.
The same I have read of the pillage of the Swedes in Ger-
many, which being shipped for transportation into their own
country, in these narrow seas, between Sweden and Germany,
were shipwrecked ; a just judgment, which teaches us, that
tho' the laws of war may approve of these outrages and plun-
derings, yet Divine Justice does not at all allow, but rather
chastises them. Now the burden of salt returned whence it
came. — III got, soon lust. — He that's possessed of plunder and
sacrilegious goods, like Tholouse' gold, and Seius his horse,
rides post to ruine and poverty. A man may rob God with a
jest, but shall be plagued in earnest. In the time of this siege,
the Committee of Estates and of the Kirk were mett together
at Alyth, in the county of Perth, near the Highlands, with
other Lords, Gentlemen, and Ministers, to use their endea-
vours to raise the siege of Dundee, whither the General dis-
patched Morgan and Alured, with most of his horse and dra-
goons, to surprise them, which was effectually performed.
The soldiers that took them had as good a market as the
others in Dundee, many of them getting ^400 or £500
a-piece, and all of them very considerable sums. There were
taken, the Earl Marshall, the Earl of Crawford, with many
of the Nobility, especially the old General Leslie. Besides
these, there were Mr Robert Douglas, Mr Mungo Law. with

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