Selected quad for the lemma: enemy_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
enemy_n	advantage_n	fight_v	great_a	1,170	5	3.0086	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A48266	Letters written by a French gentleman, giving a faithful and particular account of the transactions at the court of France, relating to the publick interest of Europe with historical and political reflexions on the ancient and present state of that kingdom / communicated by Monsieur Vassor.	Le Vassor, Michel, 1646-1718.	1695 (1695)	Wing L1795; ESTC R12280	36,438	62

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