In the early part of December HEPBURN'S or the GREEN, and the Blue brigades, were employed in the siege of a strong fort near _Oppenheim_, and while performing this service, these hardy veterans were encamped in the midst of a deep snow. The enemy made a sally in the night, but were repulsed by the Scots pikemen, and on the following morning the fort surrendered. The two brigades afterwards attacked a fort, and also the castle belonging to the town. A party of gallant Scots having stormed the wall between the outward fort and castle, they found the drawbridge down, and, forcing an entrance into the castle, they put the Spanish garrison to the sword; at the same time another party stormed the fort with such fury that nine companies of Italians were soon overpowered and forced to surrender. These Italians afterwards engaged in the Swedish service, and were attached to the GREEN BRIGADE; but they all deserted during the following summer. The King having passed the Rhine with part of his army to attack the town on the other side, the place surrendered. Notwithstanding the severity of the season, the King resolved to continue operations, and one Sunday afternoon, in the early part of December, in tempestuous weather, with frost and snow, the army appeared before _Mentz_. HEPBURN'S SCOTS,[28] or the GREEN BRIGADE, took its post before the town; and the men having prepared the batteries during the night, the fire of the cannon commenced at day-break with such fury that the besieged were dismayed, and they surrendered in the middle of December. The brigade was afterwards placed in garrison in the town, where it continued during the remainder of the winter. [Sidenote: 1632] During the preceding campaign, several additional regiments arrived in Germany from Scotland, namely, Sir James Lumsdell's, the Master of Forbes', Sir Frederick Hamilton's, and Colonel Monro's; also Colonel Austin's English regiment; recruits also arrived for the old regiments; and in the beginning of 1632 there appear to have been thirteen Scots regiments and five English regiments in the service of the King of Sweden. There were also two Scots generals, three major-generals, three brigadier-generals, twenty-seven colonels, fifty-one lieutenant-colonels, and fourteen Scots majors,[29] in the Swedish army: and the FIRST, or ROYAL, REGIMENT OF FOOT, in the British line, being the only one of these eighteen British regiments which has continued to exist to the present time, it is the representative of the whole of this gallant force.