By the way, Americans generally don't know the true nature of the
Hessian "mercenaries".  Nowadays, a mercenary is a highly-paid
"soldier of fortune", who fights for someone voluntarily.

I am told that the "Hessian mercenaries" who fought for the British
in the American Revolution were actually drafted by the prince who ran
Hesse at the time, and rented to the British!  So it was an entirely
different thing from the point of view of the soldier.  Apparently the
guy running Hesse liked to gamble, and this was how he took care of
his gambling debts.