The princes or landgraves of Hesse had the honour of originating this profitable line of business in the person of Landgrave William V., who fought on the Swedish side under the great Gustavus during the Thirty Years' War, and got himself into very hot water with his superiors of the German empire. William VIII., father of Frederick II., lent his forces to the British during what is known as the "Seven Years' War," thereby enriching his purse and impoverishing his dominions to a great extent. William, indeed, always fought with his own men, exposed to much the same hardships and dangers, and won honour as a brave and skilful soldier. But Landgrave Frederick had no notion of running any such foolish risks. He liked his ease too well—his hunting-expeditions and concert-rooms and collections of pictures and other elegant amusements. Moreover, he was very busy learning a new religion. Ever since the days of his ancestor Philip I., surnamed the Generous, who came to the throne in 1509, Hesse-Cassel and its dependencies had been mostly Protestant. But Frederick took it into his wise head to become a Roman Catholic, and a very devout one, though it is but just to say that he never interfered with the religion of his subjects. So he stayed quietly at home and patronized art, while thousands of his subjects, farmers, labourers, artisans, miners, and so forth, the best of the nation, were carried away across the seas to fight for a people they did not know against a people who had done them no harm. If the men had gone with their own consent, it would not have been so bad, but in many cases they had been kidnapped—carried off from their farms and workshops, from market and church, without being allowed to set their affairs in order or bid their families farewell. Three millions of pounds—seven pounds four and fourpence for each man, and as much more for every one killed—did the landgrave receive from the British king. He spent the money, as I have said, in keeping up a splendid court, but meantime in many places the fields lay unfilled because there were none but boys and old men to plough them; the wolves and bears increased and grew bolder and bolder.