We will be as little trouble to you as we can, and our two soldier servants will do all that we need." Farquhar spoke in German, for so large a number of Germans were serving among the Swedes that the Scottish officers had all learned to speak that language and Swedish, German being absolutely necessary for their intercourse with the country people.

This was the more easy as the two languages were akin to each other, and were less broadly separated from English in those days than they are now.
It was nearly a year since Farquhar and Malcolm had landed on the shores of the Baltic, and living as they had done among Swedes and Germans, they had had no difficulty in learning to speak both languages fluently..