Affairs is altered and nothing of moment is imparted to these They are too happy when His Majesty suffers them to pass some idle and tedious Hours at Versailles or to go to the Camp to be kill'd like private Soldiers Not only matters of State are not communicated to them but they are not suffer'd to be Masters even at home nor so much as consulted concerning the Marriage of their own Children 'T is well known after what manner the Duke of Chartres married Mademoiselle de Blois The Prince to preserve an Office and a Government in his Family and to secure the Fortunes of his Children was forc'd to marry them to Bastards whose Mother's Name would not be permitted to be mentioned in any publick Deed. The Prince of Conty is Master of all those excellent Endowments both natural and acquired with which a Person of his Quality ought to be adorn'd But what Treatment does so rare a Merit procure him at the Court He is left without Command Office or Government while the chief Employments are given to to those that are infinitely beneath him I know some Gentlemen who are oftentimes wont to complain that the Princes of the Blood are not more tenderly touch'd with a sence of their own Disgrace and our Miseries But neither is their Power considerable nor do we merit their Assistance The late Prince inspired with a just Indignation against the French Nobility used to say I put the Sword in their Hands I cry'd out against Tyranny and they answered me with Musquet-shot The Consideration of his Misfortunes has taught our Princes Caution And if any one among 'em should have the Generosity to declare himself the Protector of the Common Interest who could assure us that our Country-men would not still be Fools enough to fight against him The Dukes and Peers and Officers of the Crown are likewise by vertue of their Dignity chief Counsellors of State and have a Right to go to the Parliament when they please Ah! vain Shadow of the Glorious Priviledges of the ancient Peers of France No matter of Importance was transacted without their Consent They remain'd unconcern'd Spectators of the Wars that were begun without their Approbation leaving the King to pursue his own private Quarrels and serv'd him only in those Wars which they judg'd necessary for the common good of the Realm Such is the obedience which the present Princes of Germany pay to the Emperor and you know better than I that the Government of France did very much resemble that of Germany before our King 's had remitted to the Crown those great Fiefs that were dismembred from it during the Reign of Hugh Capet When the King acted contrary to the Priviledges of the Nobility or to the good of the People they did not fail to oppose him they appeal'd to the States-General and enter'd into Leagues among themselves and with the principal Cities to prevent the Execution of the unjust attempts of their Prince Philip Sirnam'd the Long had form'd a design to seize on the fifth part of the Estates of his Subjects under the pretext of reforming or New-coining the Money But the Princes and the Prelates says * Abridgement of Mezeray one of our Historians would not suffer the King's Commissaries to Execute his Orders they appeal'd to the States General and enter'd into Confederacies with the Cities which had so good an effect that the Imposition could not be Levied Do you think that these generous Patriots would have suffer'd a King to seize on the fifth part of all the Coin'd Money in the Kingdom twice in less than Four Years by commanding it Arbitrarily to be new Stamp'd And when did we renounce our Right of having recourse to those means which our Ancestors might lawfully make use of for the preservation of their Estates and Liberties No sooner had Lewis XI mounted the Throne but he began to * Abridgement of Mezeray Govern without a Council and for the most part also without Justice and Reason He fancyed himself an abler Politician than his Predecessors and left no means unessay'd to make himself terrible He chose rather to follow the Dictates of his own unruly Humour than to observe the Wise Laws of the Nation He thought he could not make a nobler use of his Authority than by oppressing his Subjects and that the best way to display his Grandeur was by ruining the greatest Families in the Kingdom and advancing the meanest of the People This is what some call says Mezeray to pass the Mon-age of Royalty and to rule without a Tutor but they ought rather to say without Sense or Reason Thus the King by endeavouring to assume an Arbitrary or Despotick Power irritated the Minds of the Princes of the Blood the Nobility and all true Lovers of their Country who resolv'd generously to shake off the Yoke that they were not accustom'd to bear Charles Duke of Orleans and first Prince of the Blood undertook to represent their grievances to His Majesty in the presence of a numerous Assembly of Persons of Quality who were met at the Court. Accordingly he spoke to the King with all the freedom that his Age Reputation and Quality Authorised him to use But these Remonstrances offended His Majesty and were received with Indignation and Scorn adds the same * Abridgement of Mezeray Historian The good Duke Died with Grief two Days after But not long after the King's Brother the Count of Charolois Son of the Duke of Burgundy the Dukes of Bretaign Calabria Bourbon and Alenzon with several other Princes of the Blood the Duke of Vemours the Counts of Armaguac Dunois S. Pol the Mareschal de Lohear the Lords of Albret Bueil and Chaumont-Amboise and almost all the Nobility and old Officers of the Army enter'd into an Association to oppose the pernicious Designs of the King And this Confederacy was call'd the League of the Publick-Good Lewis was then reduc'd to so great an extremity that if the City of Paris had joyn'd with the League they might have easily driven him out of the Kingdom Our flatterers are wont to call this Confederacy an unlawful Rebellion But Philip de Cominees did not think fit to give it so odious a name he was better acquainted with the Rights both of the Subjects and Sovereigns of Europe Far from that he only blames the United Princes for neglecting to secure the Interests of the People when they made their own Peace with the King * l. 1. c. 2 3. c. The Publick Good says he yielded to private Interest †Abridgement of Mezeray A modern Historian adds that it was agreed to nominate Thirty and Six Persons whom they called Notables consisting of an equal number of the Nobility Clergy and Lawyers who should be impowered to consult together and to fall upon proper Methods to ease the People of their Grievances and to redress the disorders of the State This instance gives us a clear view of the ancient
their Subjects the unexhaustible Power of France when manag'd by a skilful Hand the sure Funds that we possess in the Hearts of our Subjects and in their Zeal for the Service of their Sovereign and for the glory of the French Nation These seemingly Fine and studied expressions are very unsutable to the present posture of the King's Affairs They are meer huffing Rhodomontadoes which may cast a Mist before the Eyes of the dull and unthinking croud but they will appear ridiculous to the judicious and considering part of Mankind You will be of the same opinion if you will give your self the trouble to examine with me what all these magnificent expressions can be reasonably suppos'd to signifie What is that Glory of the State which has excited the envy of the Potentates of Europe Might it not be inferr'd from hence that we have enjoy'd so much happiness since the King began to Reign and have liv'd in so great an abundance of all things and in so ptofound a Peace that our Neighbours jealous of the happiness and riches of France had united themselves together against her and were come with a design to lay wast our Provinces set Fire to our Houses and Castles and raise our Cities meerly because they could not endure the vexations and mortifying sight of a People that enjoy'd more freedom and Plenty and liv'd more contentedly than all the other Nations of Europe If this was the case the King might indeed complain and justly too that the glory of his State that is the happiness of all his Subjects had rais'd the envy of the Potentates of Europe and that they had united themselves together to carry on an unjust War against him But besides that our Neighbours are not capable of such base and inhuman designs the King has been very careful not to give them the least occasion to envy the happinsss of those who live under his Dominion England Germany and Holland have seen the Trade of France ruin'd the People over-loaded with Impositions the Provinces drain'd of Men and Money and the King's Subjects force'd to leave their Native Country to seek their Bread in the remotest corners of the Universe But far from envying the happiness and glory of the French Nation our generous Neighbours have damented our misfortunes and to the utmost of their Power assisted those that came to implore their Help and Protection 'T is a great while since we forgot the proper signification of certain words the glory of the State that is according to our modern Phraseology the Pride and Haughtiness of the King to love the Publick good that is to furnish His Majesty with means to satisfie his Luxury and Ambition But can you imagine that the English Germans and Dutch would take such a terrible Alarm at these improvements and alterations of our Language They might indeed laugh at the folly of the French who fancy that the Power of a King that oppresses them is the glory of their State and Nation But I durst swear that they were never jealous of our pretended happiness so long as the King continued to place all his Glory and that of the Nation in making Versailles the most magnificent Palace in the World in burying several Millions in that proud Structure in squandering away his Treasures on Cascades and Water-works in throwing away the lives of a prodigious number of his best Soldiers to alter the course of the River Eure and in reducing the Noblemen that were in his Service to Beggery by a forc'd extravagancy in Cloths Horses and Equipage So long I say as the King's Ambition aspir'd not to higher objects than these 't is very probable that his Neighboring Potentates might condemn his Pride bewail the blindness of the Lords and Gentlemen of France who consum'd their Fortunes to so little purpose and pity those Wretches that were starv'd to maintain so extravagant a Luxury but I am confident that they had not the least intentions to combine together against France Thus far I dare undertake for those Princes but no farther For without doubt they were otherwise affected than I have represented them hitherto when they beheld the taking of Strasburg with several other Places of importance and the pretended Acquisition of Casal to the prejudice of the lawful Heirs of the House of Muntua when they saw Fort Lewis and the Citadel of Hunningen built to curb the Swiss Cantons and several Princes of Germany a project laid to enslave England and render it dependant on the Court of France Sovereigns treated with the utmost contempt the Empire Spain and the United Provinces chain'd at the feet of a Statue which was erected at Paris by an extravagant flatterer and above a Hundred and fifty thousand Men ready upon the first occasion either to attack Germany or seize on the rest of the Netherlands This Sir is that pretended glory of the State that has excited not the Envy but the indignation and just Revenge of the Potentates of Europe The States General of the United Provinces had for several Years been justly esteem'd the most Potent Republick in Europe They enjoy'd all the blessings of a profound Peace Arts flourish'd among them their Trade furnish'd them with great abundance of Money and of all the conveniencies of Life and the People were so highly satisfied with the easiness of the Government that the saying of * Rem difficillimam assecuti sunt ut illis ne voto quidem opâ—s sit Tacit. de moribus Germanorum Tacitus concerning the ancient Germans might have been apply'd to them Even their best Friends could not have made a wish to their advantage and they had nothing to desire of God but that he would suffer them long to enjoy so blest and peaceful a Life The glory of their State was Real and Solid glory Denmark ow'd its Liberty to them and they had stopt the Kings Progress in the Spanish Netherlands by Negotiating that Triple-League which mortified France so effectually All Europe own'd that they had Reason to secure their own Liberty by keeping so troublesom and Ambitious a Neighbour at a distance from their Frontiers and praised their generousity for protecting a Minor Prince against the unjust Attacks of so Potent an Enemy There needed no more to incense the King against them nor could his Wrath be appeas'd without declaring a War under pretext of the ill satisfaction which the States had given to the Court of France These are the very words which the King makes use of in a Letter which he wrote to them a little before All the World was surpriz'd at the strangeness of a Phrase which they had never heard before These two Words were perfect strangers to one another and People could not forbear laughing at the odd figure which they made at their first meeting But whence proceeded this ill satisfaction We are told that it was caus'd by I know not what Medal which bore the following Inscription Assertis Legibus
necessary to resolve on the Conquest of Ireland Velut é conspectu libertas tolleretur Tacit. in Agric. least the Ancient Britons by seeing a free Nation so near them should be tempted to recover their own lost Liberty Is it not probable that our Court is acted by the same Principles Are not these the Maxims that oblige her to endeavour with so much obstinacy to make the English and Dutch our Companions in Slavery She cannot bear the Neighbourhood of a Nation that has always asserted its Priviledges with a great deal of Vigor nor is she less prejudic'd against another that had the Courage to shake of its Fetters Who knows whether the French may not at last fall in love with the Constitution of the English Government and settle one like to it at Home which after all will be only our own Ancient form of Government restor'd And * l. 5. c. 18. Philip de Cormines assures us with his usual sincerity that he knows not a Countrey in the World where the Common-wealth is better manag'd and the Subjects suffer less violence then in England I am of the same opinion with you that the King wishes with all his Heart he could continue the War without imposing a General Poll-Tax that Method is certainly too odious to be chosen without necessity and how hard and pitiless soever we have found our Masters to be I believe they would not willingly encrease the Murmurings and Dissatisfaction of the People But what can we expect from Men that know not what course to take We have seen enough more than once to perswade us that our Ministers of State do not now begin to be gravel'd The Intelligencers have no more Memoirs to present On what then would you have them lay a new Imposition Would you have them Tax the Air that we breath For that is the only Element now remains free to us Give me leave Sir to put you in mind of an Observation which you that have past so often through the Gates of Paris have doubtless made as well as I. You know that many of them bear this magnificent Inscription * The happiness of the City under Lewis the Great Sub Ludovico Magno Felicitas Urbis But if you cast your Eye on the adjacent buildings you shall find a vast number of Toll-gatherers Houses on which are written in no less conspicuous Characters the Names of Offices and Courts for such a prodigious variety of Imposts If you can advance further into the City you shall scarce find a Street without an Office or Court of Audit for some ridiculous and hitherto unheard of Taxaation Such is the happiness of the French Nation under the long Reign of the great Prince for whom they have erected so many Statues We have not seen a Week these Six Years that has not produc'd at least One or Two new Edicts or Declarations and at length the Invention of the subtlest Finances is drain'd as well as our Purses 'T is not so easy now as 't was formerly to find out Methods to furnish the King with Ten Twenty or Thirty Millions and a General Poll Tax is the last refuge I know not whether the very noise of so surprising a Project has not already alarm'd some of the Confederates 'T is but natural for those who are not well acquainted with the deplorable condition of a Countrey that was once so Rich and Flourishing to imagine that this new Imposition will make the King Master of a sufficient Fund to carry on the War for several Years And I do not at all doubt but that the Court flatters it self with the hopes of terrifying its Enemies by the intended Declaration Its Emissaries in Holland and England will not fail to give out that France is inexhaustible and that we are as able and willing to part with our Money as the English and Dutch are to part with theirs I am confirm'd in this Opinion by what I heard yesterday from one of my Friends who inform'd me that the subject of those Verses that are to be made in praise of the King to obtain the Prize that is propos'd to be given by the French Acad my on St. Lewis's Day is appointed to be this Proposition That the King is no less terrible to his Enemies by the love of his Subjects than by the force of his Arms. For I 'm satisfi'd that this cannot be done without a design But who will be impos'd upon by so obvious a trick or regard so base and ridiculous a piece of flattery Are the Confederates ignorant of the general Dissatisfaction of the Nobility Gentry and Third Estate which is so apparent in Paris and all the Towns in the Kingdom Have they not heard in England and Holland that the King's Revenues are considerably diminished And thô the Truth of this were not so publickly known it would not require a very great stock of Sagacity to Divine that they who have not Money to buy Bread cannot be supposed to consume much Wine either at Home or at the Tavern and that consequently the Entries at Paris and in the other Cities of France do not now amount to such great Sums as they did heretofore The Peasants are generally so miserable that they are not able to fetch Salt from the Garner from whence 't is likewise plain that the King's Coffers are not so well fill'd by the Gabels as formerly they were The Fields lie until'd and are almost turn'd to Desarts An infinite number of People are Dead of Hunger Misery and other Epidemical Distempers Those Towns which we have seen in a flourishing condition and well Peopled are ruin'd and abandon'd by their Inhabitants and most of the Labourers and Tradesmen are reduc'd to Beggery wonder not then that the King is forc'd to Tax the Princes Gentry Clergy and Inhabitants of free Cities since there are so few others left to be Tax'd Uut you will perhaps tell me that we do not now begin to be Tax'd for you 'll say we contributed to pay all those Taxations which were exacted from our Farmers and Labourers since we might have let out our Lands to better Advantage if our Tenants had not been Tax'd And consequently the Priviledges of the Nobility Clergy and Inhabitants of Paris and other Cities are no more than imaginary Titles What then Sir Did not the King become the most glorious and powerful Monarch in the World by imposing only the * That which was paid by the Farmers Real Taxation upon us And shall we grudge to Pay a Personal Tax for the Preservation of all that Glory and Power which he has so justly acquir'd at the Charge of his good Subjects Alas Sir shall we suffer all these fine Inscriptions to be defac'd with which the Place de Viatoire and the Gates of St. Denis and St. Martin are adorn'd But this is not a time for Mirth If our King 's assume a Power to impose a General Poll-Tax as often as the fancy
takes them you may assure your self that it will take them oftner then we desire This is the most certain mark of our Servitude the French Nation has lost both its Honour and its Liberty neither can I think of any Remedy for so cruel a Disaster Let us try the Virtue of those Maxims that we find in our dear Tacitus * Ulterior a mirari praesentiae s qui. Tacit. Histor l. 4. A Wise Man says he may admire the Happiness of former Ages but he bears present Misfortunes with Patience †Bonos Imperatores volo expetere qualescunque tolerare Idem We ought to wish for good Princes but must bear with such as we have ¶ Ut Steriltatem â—imios Imbres caetera Naturae mala ita Luxum vel Avaritiam Dominantium tolerate 8. d neque haec con inua meliorum interventu pensantur Idem The Reign of a bad Prince is like a Year of Dearth and Famine and our Miseries in this World are not Eternal For as the next good Year makes amends for our former losses so a Tyrant is sometimes succeeded by a good Prince Thus we may comfort our selves with hopes of better times under the Dauphin these Maxims I confess are not very proper to satisfie Men in our circumstances but they are the best that I am able to suggest to you Shall we entreat the King to call a general Meeting of the Estates of the Realm But who will undertake to present our Petition to him Shall the Princes of the Blood There is not one among them that durst offer the least Remonstrance to His Majesty shall the Dukes and Peers of France or the Officers of the Crown They might expect to be immediatly rewarded with a lodging in the Bastile and there are too many base compliers with the Times who would offer their Service to drag them thither Shall those of the First Order in the Church The Court has found out a way to make sure of them the Clergy has contributed already vast Sums and 't is said that several Millions more will be demanded of them shortly Should the Parliament of Paris deliver our Address they would instantly be interdicted and the Heads of that Assembly would be punished as seditious Traytors should it be presented by the Inhabitants of Paris and the rest of the great Cities we should see Gibbets erected in every corner of the Streets and the Troops of the Houshold sent to devour 'em Our Poor and Ill-paid Officers would barbarously pillage the Houses of those Persons who could be accus'd of no other Crime than of endeavouring to preserve that little remainder of Liberty which they seem still to enjoy I had the fortune some Days ago to be in a Company where they talk'd variously concerning the late Revolution in England A Man of Sense who is perfectly well acquainted with the Ancient and Modern History of France demonstrated plainly that our Government was formerly like to that of England and that the Sovereign Authority was properly lodg'd in the Meeting of the Estates There Laws were made there the most important Cases were decided and such Subsidies as were judg'd necessary for the Defence of the Kingdom were granted the King had no more Power than what was sufficient to enable him to cause the Decrees of those Assemblies te be put in Execution and to attend diligently to the Security and Preservation of the State These are obvious Remarks which every one that reads our Ancient Histories thô but with a very moderate degree of Application cannot fail to observe Such were in effect the inviolable Maxims of the Gauls and of the Northern Nations from whom both we and the English are descended * Servirent Syria Asiaque suetus Regibus Oriens multos adhuc in Gallia vivere ante tributa genitos Tacit. Hist l. 4. Let the People of the East who are accustom'd to the Despotic Government of their Kings submit to the Roman Yoke said a great Man among our Gauls we will not follow their Example We can still remember a time when we paid no Tribute †Libertatem Naturâ mutis Animalibus datam virtutem proprium hominum bonum Idem ibid. Nature made the Beasts free as well as Men with this only difference That Men are endued with Virtue and Courage to preserve their Liberty The Hollanders have not yet forgot the Heroical sentiments of their Country-man but we alas lose the Memory of 'em Dayly * Nec Regibus infinita aut libera potestas Tacit. de moribus Germanorum The Northern Nations never suffer'd their King 's to assume an Arbitrary and unlimited Power †Auctoritate suadendi magis quam jubenâ—i potestate Idem ibid. their Princes govern rather by Perswasion than Force ¶ Regnantur paulo addictius quam ceterae Germanorum gentes nondum tamen supra libertatem Idem ibid. And even such of those Nations as were under the severest Government did still enjoy a great deal of Liberty To all these Observations my Friend added one more that since we have not like the Danes renounc'd our Liberty we may lawfully endeavour to shake off the Yoke that is imposed upon us For there is no just Prescription against the fundamental Laws of a State But how reasonable soever these Remarks be they appear so new and so surprising to certain Persons that they imagine it to be no less ridiculous to talk of assembling the Estates at this time of the Day than it would be to perswade them to resume the Ruff and Bonets that were used in the time of Francis the First These are obsolete Stories say they and we do not so much as remember that ever there were Estates in France 'T is true replied one of our Friends angrily we forgot that we are French-men and we shall forget too e'er long that we are reasonable Men. The Romans said one of their own Emperors * Nec totam servitutem pati possunt nec totam libertatem Tacit. Hist lib. 1. are no longer capable of enjoying a full and entire Liberty thô they were again put in possession of it nor will they bear too heavy a Yoke is it possible that we should be already more accustom'd to Slavery than a People that had serv'd such Masters as Tiberius Caligula and Nero I 'm perswaded the King will never give such advice to the Dauphin as Galba did to him whom he thought to make his Successor No care will be taken to sweeten our Bondage we are such tame Slaves that Policy would be lost upon us The Princes of the Blood are by their Birth chief Counsellors of State their Advice ought to be taken on all occasions that relate to the Interest of the Kingdom such as the making of War and Peace entering into Leagues raising of Subsidies and the like It were easy to prove this by our Histories and by the Edicts of our King 's But now the Face of
Sacris defensis exteris Regibus vindicatâ per orbem Christianum Marium libertate Egregiâ Pace virtute armorum partâ You know what a pother the Court made about this Inscription How insolent they are ory'd our flatterers Could the Romans have spoken otherwise after the Destruction of Numantium and Carthage But after all I profess I cannot see the least Reason that could provoke them to make such a hideous noise For there is nothing express'd by these words but what is undeniably true Had not the States General of the United Provinces oblig'd Spain to conclude a Peace with them Had they not asserted their Laws and Religion by force of Arms And had they not preserv'd Liberty of Trade and of Navigation The Inscription of this Medal is infinitely more modest and exactly true than any of those that are to be seen at Verseilles the Town-House the Place des Victoires the Gates of Paris and those Citadels that have been built in Flanders and elsewhere But suppose that there had been really some fault in the Inscription could that be a sufficient Reason for the King to set all Europe on Fire to destroy above Two hundred thousand Men to lay waste more than Fifty Leagues of Land and to ruin his own Subjects Confess with me Sir that the King had more Reason to complain of the indiscretion of his Secretaries for giving him ill satisfaction when they made him say That the glory of France has Excited the envy of the Allies since it may be very easily prov'd that the King himself was jealous of the true and solid glory of a Neighbouring Republick and that his Vexation and Spite excited him to kindle a bloody War which his brace of Historians by their own confession are not able to justifie Quis tuler it Gracchos de seditone querentes However in the opinion of our flatterers it cannot be deny'd that Heaven has blest the King's Reign with such an uninterrupted course of Prosperity that his Neighbours have been mov'd with Jealousy These words Prosperity and the blessings of Heaven are very equivocal and their true meaning is not unfrequently mistaken A happy crime usurps the name of Prosperity and the Fortunate unjustly fancy themselves to be the favourites of Heaven 'T is the Language of Constantinople that the Prosperity with which Heaven had blest the Ottoman Empire excited the Envy of the Christian Potentates that join'd together to carry on an unjust War against the Grand Signior What is the meaning of all this but that God in his just Anger against his People has suffered those Infidels to take advantage of our Divisions and of the weakness of Christian Princes and to lay waste the best Provinces in Europe Those who are call'd Conquerors are usually but the Rods of God whom he makes use of to scourge both their Subjects and their Neighbours He blesses their Reign as he blest of old the Reigns of Sennacherib Nebucbadnezzar Mahomet II and Solyman But the Day of the Lord will come when he shall visit the Pride of the stout Hearts of the Kings of Assur and Babylon He will also raise up a new Warriour and send forth his Anointed and his Shepherd who shall deliver and gather together his disperst People and break to pieces the Rod which God took up in the Day of his Indignation to punish our Sins and scourge us for our back-slidings Be not afraid Sir I beseech you that I intend to turn Prophet Only give me leave to say that we may then and not till then conclude that God has truly blest the King's Reign when we shall see that God has taken him by the Hand to destroy the Nations of the Infidels and to disarm the Enemies of the name of Christ when we shall perceive that the Almighty marches at the head of our Armies to make the King the restorer of Jerusalem and repairer of the Ruins of the Temple of God The Preachers of the Gospel to the shame of our Age be it spoken are the King 's greatest flatterers and but too often have the baseness to tell the King to his Face that he is what he ought and we wish him to be But we have the pleasure to see them publickly contradicted by the Popes themselves 'T is well known that at Rome they are so far from believing the King to be a Prince whom God has wonderfully rais'd up for the Honour and Deliverance of his Church that they speak there of the Wars which he has kindled as they do at Vienna and Madrid and Thank God for his Conquests and Victories no otherwise than they do at London and at the Hague Do the King's Ministers imagine that we are ignorant of the true sentiments of the Pope and Court of Rome and have they not made the King a publick Jest to all the World by making him say with so much confidence that God has blest his Reign and Crown'd him with his greatest favours But we ought to do Justice to all Mankind let us therefore acknowledge to the Honour of the Emperor that God does visibly protect that Prince and that he has lately wrought signal Miracles for him The Turks had besieged his Capital City and he saw himself within an ace of losing the greatest part of his Hereditary Provinces We all trembled for him but God struck the Visier with a Spirit of Infatuation The King of Poland and the Duke of Lorrain had time to come to the relief of Vienna with a Potent Army the Turk lost his best Troops and the Emperor in less than Five Years regain'd almost all that which had cost the Turks above an Age to Conquer in the Kingdom of Hungary What was the countenance of our Court during the siege of Vienna you were asham'd of it as well as I and you spoke of it with Indignation They appear'd very well pleas'd with the Emperors misfortunes they expected impatiently the return of the Courrier who they hop'd would bring the good News of the Surrender of that City and were even making Preparations for the Reception of the Deputies of the Germans who they concluded would come to implore the King's Assistance The King had an Army ready to march into Germany and thought to make himself Master of that Countrey under pretext of assisting it But the raising of the Siege of Vienna at once broke the measures of the Court and of the Divan and overthrew all their Projects And those well-appointed Troops that were design'd for Germany were imploy'd on the Projects of Maintenon where the greatest part of them lost their lives God continued still more and more to bless the Justice of the Emperor 's Arms. He made great Progresses in the Turkish part of Hungary He retook Belgrade and advanc'd even as far as Nicopoli Is it not clear beyond exception that this remarkable course of Prosperity excited the Envy of the King which engag'd him in an unjust War against a Prince that was busied in
common and so full of Glory that it will be the greatest Embellishment of the History of this Age and the admiration of all that shall succeed it Lewis the Great took Forty Cities and made himself Master of Maestricht after a Siege of Thirteen Days but what was the fruit of all his Victories and what did he retain of so many Conquests but an exhausted Kingdom Peopled with Beggars Is not this the only instance of a Prince that was Honoured with Triumphal Arches for ruining his own Subjects The taking of Valenciennes Ypres and Cambray were Actions that had a juster Title to the proud name of Conquests The Empire Spain and the States General of the United Provinces had form'd a Confederacy against the King and had often alarm'd him with Potent Armies Let us do justice to the Merit and Experience of the late Prince and of the Mareschal de Turenne who were only able to preserve us in such an Extremity They alone merited the Honour of Statues and Triumphal Arches and to have their Names inscrib'd on our Medals The pretended Glory of Lewis the Great is only a reflected Splendor which he ows to the Valour and Experience of his ill rewarded Generals and to the Skill and Dexterity of his Two Ministers one of which made it his business to find out ways to squeeze Money out of miserable Wretches while the other provided well-stor'd Magazines that the King's Army might be in a condition to enter upon Action before that of the Enemies could be drawn out of their Winter-quarters It was certainly a very prudent Advice that of M. de Turenne to keep all things in a readiness for the early opening of the Campagn And 't was by a careful observance of this Maxim that France broke the measures of the Confederates and obtain'd an advantageous Peace But I maintain that a Prince who aggrandizes himself meerly by such Politicks does not deserve the name of a Conqueror The Alexanders Scipios Pompeys and Caesars of those celebrated Glories of Antiquity took other Methods to acquire Honour than those that are now in fashion among our Heroes of all Seasons This is one of those splendid Titles that the Sappho of our Age bestows on the King And you know this thought was esteem'd very ingenious and fine Did ever any of those Summer Heroes which are plac'd so far beneath the Heroes of all Seasons content themselves with seizing on a Town that could not be reliev'd did ever any of them forsake their Arms immediatly after such an inglorious Expedition or Post back to their Mistresses as soon as the Enemies began to appear and leave the care of engaging with them to others Let the Gentlemen of the French-Academy rack their mercenary Fancies to embellish their fulsom Panegyricks with new Hyberboles it will be for ever acknowledg'd by those who are willing to do Justice to true Merit that the Duke of Orleans acquir'd more solid Glory of the Siege of St. Omer and the Battel of Cassel than the King by the taking of Cambray Ypres and Valenciennes and if you please to add Mons and Namur By coming out of his Lines meeting the Enemy gaining a Battle and afterwards taking the Besieg'd Town he merited far greater Honour than the King by all that he perform'd before Mons and Namur Instead of advancing to meet the Confederate Forces that appear'd towards the end of the Siege of Mons which they could not possibly relieve the King with all his jolly Troop made haste back to his dear Verfailles and arriv'd there with Men and Horses that were as fresh and unfatigu'd as those that had not begun to march The taking of this important Place was a Blessing from Heaven on the Providence of M. Louvois and skill of M. de Vauban rather than on the Valour of the King or the Justice of his Arms. The next Year he took Namur in sight of the Confederate Army but he was cover'd by an Army greater than theirs during the Siege of the Castle which was an advantage that the Duke of Orleans had not at the Siege of St. Omer He was forced to come out of his Lines and Fight the Enemy An instance that cannot be pararel'd in all the glorious Life of Lewis the Great Where shall we find a Homer to celebrate our new Achilles But we may trust that care to himself he will not suffer future Ages to lose so great an Example he has hir'd his Chroniclers already and carries them always about with him that they may be Eye-witnesses of all his Glorious Exploits But all in vain our Posterity will easily discover the Truth and pull of the disguising Vizard of Flattery And perhaps some Historian may luck in a Garret that will inform them after what manner Lewis the Great took so many Towns and gain'd all his Victories And even I am very much afraid that they will Read the Histories of the King as we Read the Books of those infamous flatterers who prais'd Tiberius and Nero and that they will have the same regard to all our Medals and Triumphal Arches that we have to those which remain of certain Ptinces whose Vanity we mock and despise I have not time to send you my Reflexions on the present Was but you may expect them by the next occasion Adieu Paris Jan. 23 1695. FINIS