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death_n	word_n	world_n	yoke_n	16	3	8.9791	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A55355	Memoirs of the Sieur De Pontis who served in the army six and fifty years under King Henry IV, Lewis the XIII, and Lewis the XIV containing many remarkable passages relating to the war, the court, and the government of those princes / faithfully Englished by Charles Cotton.	Pontis, Louis, sieur de, 1583-1670.; Cotton, Charles, 1630-1687.	1694 (1694)	Wing P2807; ESTC R33977	425,463	306

with the generous and Christian notions that his pious discourse infused into me as to make me inflexible by any other considerations For he convinced me plainly that the chief rule for deciding Cases of Conscience is to consult the integrity of a mans own heart above any thing else and do nothing but what one can fairly answer to ones own Conscience And if I aim'd at this only I should easily see that since the Hugonots proffer'd more for this place by forty thousand Livres than it was really worth this must be done upon a prospect that at one time or other it might be of some service to them against the Catholick party and then it was plain I could not put it into their hands without betraying the interest of my Religion and the Crown for the sake of my own private advantage And that if I would shew my self as true to God as I had done to the late King I should express my fidelity upon this occasion and take a pleasure in preferring his glory before any thing else I yielded presently to these reasons which I found agreeable to the sense of several very learned persons besides Possibly the infinite mercy of God may remember me one day for this action Tho I look upon it as meer chaff and nothing in comparison of the misdemeanours of six and fifty years spent in the Wars and at Court which I ought to dread as vast Mountains capable of overwhelming me at the day of Judgment and should do so if he had not given us his own word that when we have sincerely endeavoured to give him satisfaction in this Life his Mercy shall set us above his Justice in ●he next In this solitude I feel daily the pleasure of living in a holy quiet and remote from the clutter and vanity of the world without any other business than to prepare for death to make satisfaction to God for my sins and in some measure make up the loss of so many past years Now my own experience hath taught me how much more easie and gentle the yoke of my Saviour is than that of the World how many charms Retirement hath more than Business and how much even that bitterness and hardship undergone by me in the different employments of a laborious life contributes to the recommending the several exercises of a solitary and religious life And now when I compare the service I have paid to several Kings with that which I endeavour to pay at present to the King of Kings and consider the infinite distance between Him and the greatest Princes and the inestimable happiness which beyond all humane appearance I have attained to know the greatness and Glory of God I could employ my self continually in repeating that Hymn in the daily Prayers of the Church Now to the King Eternal the immortal invisible and only wise God be honour and glory for ever and ever Amen And since as I said the thoughts of death at present wholly entertain my thoughts I have taken for my Motto in this retirement the following Verses given me by a friend of mine From Courts and Camps to peaceful shades retire My Soul scorn vain and to true Joys aspire Hence to thy Heaven wing'd with devotion fly Who would for ever live must learn betimes to dye This gallant Souldier after his retirement liv'd with wonderful simplicity and renounc'd all the notions of his own judgment tho that were very great submitting himself entirely to the directions of a person whom he chose to guide him in the methods of this new life upon which he had now entred He was sensible what difference there is between God and the World and wisely concluded that his experience of the one might be a prejudice and hinderance to him in the service of the other Therefore looking upon himself as one that stood in need of a Governour he shew'd himself so easie and so tractable as plainly proved he had brought his mind into a perfect and absolute subjection to God After his retreat he had several tryals and particularly in point of losses as himself hinted which did but teach him better to disengage his affections from the riches of this world Particularly the loss of fourscore thousand Livres at once by the breaking of one who had his Money in his hands This must needs be the more sensible affliction because it was the greatest part of what he had drudged for six and fifty years together And all the world values that more that is of their own getting than that which cost them no pains or descends to them by inheritance And besides his generous nature always made him dread the being burdensome to his friends as several pass●ges in his Memoirs shew and this very temper it was that kept him back from the highest preferments But which is a further commendation of his worth in this respect this very fear which this loss and some others that threatned him gave so just occasion for could not prevail with him to accept a considerable summ for his Government in Dauphine when he was told it could not be taken without injuring his Conscience From whence we may well conclude that tho he exprest some dissatisfaction upon occasions concerning his Estate and the wants he was reduced to yet he at last submitted all that worldly Wisdom to the strictest rules of Religion and disinterested Piety In the beginning of his retreat he happen'd into a very dangerous business by which Providence sure intended to shew what he was to such as did not yet know him throughly that after having been Eye-witnesses of his great courage presence of mind and wise conduct they might be the more edified by that great change which they saw had brought down so great a Soul and prevailed with so much Wisdom to be govern'd by the directions of another A person of quality being upon a Journey into the Country in the time of the second Paris War desir'd him and some other friends to bear him company because the Countrey was full of Troops and parties of Souldiers One of the company with more heat than discretion and utterly unskilful in all matters relating to War seeing some Horse-men upon the Road a good way off spu●r'd on and without saying one word to any of his own company rode full speed up to them crying Who are you for Who are you for A Cornet of Horse that was there who understood the trade a great deal better presented his Musquetoon and cry'd Nay who are you for Come on alight and down with your arms The Gentleman much confounded that he had advanc'd too far and left those at a distance that should have born him out and not used to fire and fighting was lighting from his Horse but both being in a passion the quarrel grew so hot that the Cornet was just going to let fly his Musquetoon at him The Sieur de Pontis who assoon as ever he saw this Gentleman ride off from

same and therefore as far as I was able to judge durst be responsible to his Majesty that there was not any reason to suspect their fidelity which was all I had to say according to the present condition I left them in To which the King made answer that it was enough and as much as he desir'd bidding me stay without and attend him at Dinner XI I took care to be there accordingly but there was so much Company the King could not speak to me and therefore deferr'd it till Supper where there happening to be but a few I had a convenient Audience After Supper the King took me into his Closet and Marquis Grimant only being by said thus to me I have sent for you to let you see I am mindful of you and willing to acknowledge the services you have done me and therefore I give you your choice either of a Company in the old Body or a Lieutenancy in my Guards choose which you had rather have I leave you at full liberty I confess this proposal a little surpriz'd me for to speak truth I expected something more and was of opinion that the services I had done after having refused a Company in the Regiment of Champagne deserved a higher recompence than that of a Command no better than what I had formerly refused However I was forc'd to set a good face upon the matter and acknowledge it a great thing that his Majesty had done me the honour to think of me Wherefore I made answer with all imaginable humility that since his Majesty was pleased to do so much in my favour I humbly begg'd he would make it compleat by pointing out to me himself the choice I ought to make protesting at the same time that what pleas'd his Majesty would by most acceptable to me so great was the passion I had to serve him in any Post he thought fit to assign me I thought said the King how I should find you affected and had a mind to try which of the two Commands you had a greater inclination to Whereupon Monsieur Grima●t who pretty well knew the King's intention took the liberty to say to him methinks Sir you had better give him a Lieutenancy in the Guards for by that means you will be sure to have him constantly near your person That is what I desire reply'd the King and do you do so too said he speaking to me I have already told your Majesty said I that I have no other choice to make than what your Majesty directs me to and I am fixt in that resolution as I ought to be But I know your Majesty's goodness is so great that you will not be displeas'd if I put you in mind that you did me the favo●r to promise me a Company This was modestly to ask a Company in the Guards and the King who understood my meaning well enough presently interrupted me and said True but it was in an old Body and I am now ready to do it though I give you my word that if the Company of which I now make you Lieutenant comes to be vacant either by the death of the Captain or any other accident you shall have it I am willing too to acquaint you at first that I am desirous to restore one thing in my Guards and to begin to do it by you which is that you neither practise nor give any Orders in the Company but what come first from me In extraordinary cases I mean and not in things of course and common use and that you never go off your Guard nor out of your Quarters when 't is your turn to command This I resolve to have done that I may restore discipline in the body which at present is quite lost among them and also with a design to have you always near my Person I answer'd That as he was my Master and my Prince and had done me the particular favour to command me nearer to him I hop●d by my conduct to let his Majesty see that my greatest desire was to obey and serve him all my life Then he ordered Monsieur Grimant to see my Commission dispatch'd presently by which I was to be made Lieutenant to Count Saligny's Company XII But though I set a good face upon the matter as I thought my self oblig'd to do yet I return'd very little satisfy'd with my fortune and thinking very seriously of the conditions propos'd to me which appear'd very burdensom and difficult I look'd upon my self from this time forward as entring into a dreadful slavery so that I confess I could have wish'd had I dar'd to deny the King that I had not been so unseasonably complemental and had made choice rather of a Company in an old Body But I was now engag'd over head and ears and had no retreat left nor any remedy but to see my mistake and make it an useful example to other people Monsieur Saligny's Company was one of the first in the Regiment and his younger Brother was Ensign of it which I knew nothing of before Custom and Order seem●d to require that he should succeed as Lieutenant especially in his own Brother's Company I found my self a little perplex'd so soon as I was inform'd of this But still that inconvenience must be encounter'd too and so I resolv'd to pay all imaginable civility to Monsienr Saligny and going to wait upon him I said That had I understood sooner that his Brother was Ensign in that Company I should have begg'd the King●s excuse for accepting the Lieutenancy and being plac'd between two Brothers who by Order of War as well as Birth ought not to have been separated upon this occasion But that I but just then had come to the knowledge of it and all left in my power to do having already accepted the Commission was to express my concern This complement succeeded very well and I can say that the two Brothers did me the honour to testify so particular a Friendship for me that as oft as any little coldness happened beween them I was always the Mediator and chosen for the Umpire of their differences After having been received at the head of the Regiment it being necessary to have my self admitted by the Duke of Espernon too who was Collonel of the Infantry I resolv'd to incline his favour to me by a complement that I knew would please him very well and gratify the ambition so natural to all great men The day that I was to mount the Guard I marched at the head of the Company without a Corslet directly to his House where causing my men to halt in a corner some twenty paces from it so that they kept out of sight and going by my self I desir'd to speak with him As soon as I came into his presence after the first salutes I told him that the King having honoured me with the Command of Lieutenant to Monsieur Saligny and sealed my Commission I had been the day before receiv'd at the head of

the World always set those great fortunes to which I might have some pretensions at a distance from me and by an effect of his infinite mercy that I did not then discern let me be crost in the designs of my whole life because he had another design upon me much more advantagious than all I could wish for then The more diligent I was in my Command and the more faithful in all parts of my duty the less I advanced in my fortune The King whom I serv'd with incredible zeal shew'd a particular affection for me as several passages in these Memoirs declare but then his keeping me always about his own person hindred him from raising me to considerable Commands that might have given me greater liberty to retire and he was not over-hasty in doing any great matters for me in the condition I then was that so he might keep me to a more absolute dependance upon him alone XIV There happen'd to me about this time as I was upon the Guard at the Louvre a rencounter pleasant enough in it self but untoward for the consequence it might have had and the quality of the person concern'd in it The King had given me command to lye upon the Guard contrary to what other Officers used to do desiring to have me extraordinary obsequious to him and fixt to his person knowing me particularly faithful and affectionate in his Service The Duke of Orleans who then lay in the Louvre coming home on foot one night very late resolv'd to surprize the Guard in a jest which had like to have cost both him and us very dear He being always well attended some of his Train had got within eight or ten paces of the Centinel and then threw themselves so nimbly upon him that they wrapt him up in a Cloak and stopt his mouth with a handkerchief to hinder his crying out Then they came all together to the Guard and began to cry Kill kill I was laid down upon the Mattrice and most of the Souldiers were asleep but we were soon rouzed and I surpriz'd to see my self so prest on a sudden ran out of door with my Sword crying To me To me I call'd the Pikes and Musquets and began to push our assailants very vigorously whose shoulders were well cudgell'd with bangs of Pikes distributed very liberally and finding such warm entertainment they cry'd out The Duke of Orleans and he himself cry'd out Gascon Gascon But the more they cry'd the more I laid on without hearkning to any thing they said till at last we enclosed them all in the Guard-room and were about to use them very scurvily But knowing the Duke I cry'd out Oh my Lord what have you done you have hazarded your own and all our lives I got him presently into my Chamber and with much ado appeas'd the tumult the Souldiers being heated and much enrag●d for having suffer'd themselves to be so surpriz'd There were no lives lost because it was done all on the sudden and the Souldiers had not time to recollect themselves or come into a posture for doing mischief I came afterward to the Duke of Orleans and told him I was at my wits end for what had happen●d but his Highness ought to pardon us since we could not do otherwise than we had done not knowing who they were and that we had all been lost had we suffer'd our selves to be forc'd To which the Duke answer●d Go go it was only a frolick and if you say nothing we have no great reason to brag of it I could not take this for a jest though and apprehended some disgrace from it The Duke of Orleans protested that he pardon'd me with all his heart and gave me the assurance of it by looking graciously upon me Never was Prince in such a fright his Jest having succeeded so ill and seeing himself so vigorously attack'd by his own fault and ready to be knock't o' th' head by those whose duty it was to defend him It was very fortunate both for him and us that he came off with life since otherwise we had all been lost without remedy though it was but the performance of our duty It is ill playing such pranks unworthy not only of a Prince but of the meanest Gentleman I attended him to his Apartment where he caus'd himself immediately to be let blood I reprov'd the Centinel severely who was a brave Cadet and more unfortunate than faulty though according to the Rules of War he deserv'd to have been punish'd In the morning I was at the King 's rising not daring to conceal this affair from him which he must needs have heard from others He took me into his Cabinet and I gave him an account of all that past He askt whether his Brother were hurt and understanding that he was not he only laught and said I perceive they were well beaten but 't is no matter they deserv'd it But fearing still lest the Duke of Orleans might resent this affront I took the liberty to beseech his Majesty to make my peace with him which he promis'd to do He sent one of the Gentlemen of the Chamber to see how he did without taking notice of any thing The Duke who had no great mind to divulge what had befallen him sent word he was well but had been let blood for a slight indisposition And coming a little after to the King his Majesty took him into into his Cabinet where after having intimated that he had heard of the business and rattled him soundly for his rashness in exposing his person so he call'd me in and said to the Duke Here is Pontis in great confusion about your matter To which the Duke immediately made answer That he did not take any thing I had done the least ill but was ready to serve me upon all occasions And indeed he resented it so little that when I desir'd a little after a Colours for one of my Souldiers his Royal Highness gave it me at first word The End of the First Volume MEMOIRS OF THE Sieur De PONTIS PART II. BOOK I. The King sends Cardinal Richelieu with a powerful Army to the Relief of the Duke of Mantua The Death of Monsieur de Canaples Cazal besieg'd by the Enemies and the Siege rais'd An Interview of the French and Spanish Generals when the Peace was concluded The Cardinal Mazarine saves the French Army and the Sieur de Pontis afterwards brings them off from a great danger I. THE Duke of Savoy seeing the King at a distance and now gone back to Paris thought his honour concern'd to break that Treaty with him the making of which had been indeed the effect of necessity more than choice To this purpose he sought the alliance of the King of Spain and of the Emperour who had sent the grand Colalto with a strong force to invest the Duke of Mantua in his Capital City The King conceiving a just indignation at this breach of Faith in the Duke of