These German troops played a notable part in the war.

The despotic princes of the lesser German states were accustomed to sell the services of their troops.

Despotic Russia, too, was a likely field for such enterprise.

When, however, it was proposed to the Empress Catherine II that she should furnish twenty thousand men for service in America she retorted with the sage advice that it was England's true interest to settle the quarrel in America without war.

Germany was left as the recruiting field.