After the Princes of the Union had made peace with the Emperor, it retreated through Alsace and Lorraine, and along the borders of France to the Netherlands, and was engaged with a Spanish force near _Fleurus_ (30th August, 1622), when Sir James Ramsay and Captains HEPBURN and Hume evinced signal gallantry. The army afterwards proceeded to Holland, and was disbanded; when HEPBURN and his company entered the service of the King of Sweden. About the year 1625, Gustavus Adolphus appointed JOHN HEPBURN Colonel of a Scots regiment, of which the ROYAL REGIMENT OF FOOT is the representative. The King of Sweden renewed hostilities with Poland in 1625, and conquered _Selburg_, _Duneberg_, _Nidorp_, and _Dorpat_; and defeated the Polish army on the plains of _Semigallia_. [Sidenote: 1626] During the succeeding year he captured several places belonging to the Elector of Brandenburg; and in a short time afterwards gained possession of Polish Prussia. Historians have omitted to state the part which the Scots regiments took in these services; but it is recorded that at the relief of _Mew_, a town near the conflux of the river Versa into the Vistula, COLONEL JOHN HEPBURN'S Scots soldiers highly distinguished themselves. These veterans being sent upon a desperate service, climbed a steep and difficult eminence with surprising alacrity to attack the Poles. "When Thurn and Hepburn had gained the summit, which lay near the banks of the Vistula, they found the Polish soldiers entrenching themselves, and fell on them with incredible fury. But as the Poles poured in fresh troops every moment, the fight was maintained for two hours with surprising obstinacy. During this interval Gustavus threw a supply of men and ammunition into the town. And here, once more, it appeared that infantry were able to resist an equal or superior body of cavalry, for the fire of Thurn's soldiers was irresistible, and the pikemen stood immovable, like a wall of brass."[15] The Poles, dismayed at the desperate resolution of their opponents, raised the siege, and Gustavus entered the town on the same evening. [Sidenote: 1627] The King of Sweden made his appearance in Prussia in 1627, at the head of a brave and well-appointed army, of which COLONEL HEPBURN'S regiment formed a part; he took _Kesmark_ by assault, and defeated, on the same day, a division of Polish troops marching to its relief. He afterwards besieged and captured _Marienberg_; and defeated the Poles at _Dirschan_. [Sidenote: 1628]