Selected quad for the lemma: enemy_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
enemy_n	arm_n	force_n	king_n	1,070	5	3.3673	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A64290	The history of the negotiation of the ambassadors sent to the Duke of Savoy by the Protestant cantons of Switzerland concerning the Vaudois translated from the original copy printed in Switzerland.; Histoire l'ambassade envoyée en 1686 par les Suisses au duc de Savoye. English	Teissier, Antoine, 1632-1715.	1690 (1690)	Wing T621; ESTC R10139	48,318	70

is due to their Character The Ambassadors being entred into the Vallies acquainted all the Comminalty with their Arrival who dispacth'd immediately two Deputies and two Ministers to them to whom they represented That they had employed all their utmost endeavours to make the Edict of the 31st day of January to be revoked but that all their Reasons and Instances had been unsuccessful That it had been given them to understand that his Royal Highness was so much engaged with one of the most powerful Monarchs of the whole Universe That it was impossible for him to break it And that he was resolved to do all his endeavours to unite his Subjects in the same Religion as he had promised him Therefore there were no hopes left of obtaining the revoking the Orders that had been given against them That their Sovereign Lords had commanded them that in case his Royal Highness should persist in his resolution to execute his Edict they should demand his permission to give them leave to retreat out of his Territories and to dispose of their goods But that they had not been willing to enter into any Negotiation upon this Article without being first informed about their intentions about it That therefore they should assemble to deliberate seriously about so important a business and to acquaint them afterwards with what they desired of them in the present Junctures The Deputies and Ministers having conference together about this Proposition before they resolved upon any thing they pray'd the Ambassadors to assist them with their wise Advice and prudent Council But the Ambassadors did refuse to advise them in so intricate a business telling them they were better acquainted with their own Forces with the scituation of the Places where they did intend to retrench themselves with their Ammunitition and Provisions than those to whom they did address themselves to know their Sentiments and that therefore they themselves could take the best measures about it Nevertheless not being able to defend themselves against their ardent desires and thinking that they were obliged In charity to assist them in so slippery a passage they at last granted them their desires But to be able to advise them with a full cognisance of the causes they did inform themselves exacty of the number of those that were able to bear Arms in the Valies of the experience vallour and conduct of their Officers of their passages of and avennues to their Countrey of their Ammunition and of the quality and goodness of their Arms they asked them above all if the Inhabitants of the Vallies were well united and having been informed that they all were not above 2500 fighting men that there were amongst them more than 12000 mouths only fit to consume that in some places Provisions begun already to fall short that the Troops of France and Savoy had shut up all the Passages through which they might expect Recruits that they had no hopes of any Succours that it was not very difficult either to starve them or to reduce them by force of Arms that they could not retreat to their Neighbours as in the precedent War That the French King who did formerly protect them was their greatest Enemy that with few men they were to defend a large Countrey that being separated one from another they could not speedily assist those should stand in need of it that in the very Vallies there were some Roman-Catholicks that had an eye upon their Actions and that gave advice to the Court of all their Transactions and which was worst that two great Princes were joined to their destruction They told them that they were much afraid that considering their condition they should not be able to resist so many Forces that were about to fall upon them and that it would be more advantagious for them to think of a retreat out of their Countrey provided leave could be got to sell their Goods and to carry along with them what they were able to save out of the Shipwrack that they were not positively informed of his Royal Highness's intention about it but notwithstanding he had refused it to the Inhabitants of the Vallies when they did ask it in the third Petition they presented to their Prince after his last Edict yet they were in hopes that it would be granted them in consideration of their Sovereign Lords The Ministers and Deputies having heard this advice desire the Ambassadors to grant them leave to consult together about it before they gave them their Answer and having left them they did debate about it for three hours without coming to any resolution every Party maintaining their Sentiments with very great heat Some of them were of an Opinion that they ought not to leave their Countrey but on the contrary they ought to hazard their Lives in maintaining the Privileges had been granted them in so authentical a manner saying It would be the greatest cowardize imaginable to forfeit their Courage in a Cause wererein the honour of God and their Religion was concerned They added that the favour they were to expect would be of no use to those that had nothing to defray the charges of their journey that indeed they might find some purchasers of their Estates scituate in the Plains but that no body would be willing to buy those upon the Mountains that there were no security for them during their departure that there might happen some change in the Affairs of Europo that would render their condition better than it was at present and that perhaps France that did not think they would be capable of the least resistance finding they did defend themselves with much vigor and that they did destroy a part of her Troops might recal the remainder in order to preserve them for some more considerable exploits that they were in expectation both of money and men that were to be sent to them by Captain Janavel and that they could never want provisions for making sallies from time to time they could oblige their Neighbours to furnish them with necessary Provisions Those that were of a contrary Opinion answered all their Reasons in the following manner That it is true that both Reason and Piety do oblige us to hazard our Lives in the Defence of our Liberty and the Exercise of our Religion when we have some hopes to do it with success but that when the danger is unavoidable and our Ruin certain it is Madness and Despair to precipitate our Destruction and that to take up Arms against those whom it is impossible to overcome what efforts soever we are able to make is to be our own Enemies and Destroyers that they had amongst them but few Persons capable of Defence and that how resolute and brave soever they were it was visible they could not very long Resist two Puissant Armies that were going to fall upon them from all sides that it was to feed our selves up with vain Imaginations to think that the Juncture of Affairs might change that

of this Edict had no effect did think that they ought to employ some extraordinary ones Accordingly they writ a Letter immediately to the Duke of Savoy desiring him that he might be pleased to maintain his Subjects of the Valleys in the Privileges which were granted them by his Predecessors and finding that this Prince made no great haste to send them an Answer but that on the contrary he was in a readiness to execute his Edict by force they resolved in a Diet at Baden in the month of February 1686. to dispatch him two Ambassadors in order to endeavour to obtain by their Representations what they could not obtain by their Letters The persons that were pitch'd upon were Caspar de Muratt and Bernard de Muratt Councellors of State the first of Zurich and the other of Bern that had both all the necessary qualities to acquit themselves worthily in this Employ in regard of their Vertue and Piety as well as their Prudence and Capacity These Ambassadors were charged to employ their utmost endeavours to oblige the Duke of Savoy to revoke the Edict he had published against the Churches of the Valleys and because there was some reason of fear that His Royal Highness might persist in his design to execute it in all its Points the Evangelical Cantons after having well considered the condition of those that composed those Churches as also the Alliance and Forces of that Prince that was resolved entirely to extirpate them in case they refused to submit to his Will thought that in case their Ambassadors could by no means obtain the revoking of that Edict it would be expedient that they should employ themselves to procure those miserable wretches the liberty to retreat into some other Country to sell their Goods and to carry along with them what they should be able to save out of their shattered Fortunes The Lords that were of this Assembly were too wise and too judicious to think upon other means than these They saw at one hand the little number of those that were able to carry Arms in the Valleys for they were at the most but 2500 Men for the most part ill Arm'd that had no Head that were ill provided with Ammunition and Provisions that had no hopes of Succours from any place and that those that were their Commanders in the years 1655 and 1664. were not alive But on the other hand when they did consider the Forces of that Prince who was resolved to abolish their Religion they found that they far exceeded those of His Subjects that were of a contrary Persuasion for the Duke of Savoy had enjoy'd a very long Peace he had a great number of good Troops brave Captains and experienc'd Generals He had nothing to fear either from his Neighbours or any other Prince of Europe And so much the more because the Troops of the Duke of Savoy were joyn'd by the Forces of the French King so dreadful at that time that his very Name made most Princes of Europe tremble instead that formerly the Subjects of this Monarch fought jointly with those of the Vallies to secure them from the Oppression of their Sovereign and that notwithstanding the Succours they had from other hands they were driven out of their Vallies and were not able to defend themselves against the only Forces of their Prince Moreover they considered that if by an unlook'd-for Success the Inhabitants of the Vallies should gain some Advantage over their Enemies that at last they would be forced to give way to the great Number of their Enemies whose Losses might be easily redressed by some fresh Troops but that on the contrary the Vaudois would have no means to make Recruits instead of those that would be lost in their several Fights to which they would be exposed Besides that having to deal with the French King who is the proudest Prince in the World and who at that time was not troubled with any Enemy he would rather have armed against them all the Inhabitants of his Kingdom than to have run the hazard of desisting from an Enterprize which he lookt upon as one of the most Glorious he ever undertook and which he thought should acquire him an eminent place amongst the greatest Saints in Paradice And whereas they had before their Eyes those Hugonots of France that were shelter'd in their Territories they did compare their Condition with that of their Brethren in Piemont and they found that considering the great Extremity these last were reduced to if they could get Liberty to leave their Country they would be much happier than the other that were forced not only to leave their Houses Goods and Native Country but that could not buy their Exile but with the hazard of their Lives and Liberties In fine they thought they could do nothing more advantagious for the Piemontese than to obtain what they had themselves desired in the Age past as well as in this when they were troubled about the Exercise of their Religion for in those times they humbly Petition'd their Prince to grant them leave to Retreat into some other Countries The Ambassadors having received their Instructions went for Piemont and presently after their arrival at Turin being introduced to His Royal Highness's Audience they did represent to him That whereas the Intercession of the Protestant Cantons their Lords in favour of His Royal Highness's Subjects of the Valleys making Profession of the Reformed Religion had always been agreeable to him and produced such an Effect as they could have wish'd for their Sovereign Lords having with great Grief understood that His Royal Highness had form'd a Design to deprive his said Subjects of their Liberty of Conscience and of the Exercise of their Religion which they had enjoy'd during several Ages had been moved by a Christian Charity by a strict Union which they are join'd with to those of their Communion and by a Confidence of His Royal Highness's Clemency and Justice to intercede in their Letters of Recommendation in favour of their Brethren in the Valleys But having received no Answer they had charged them with this Embassy in order to demonstrate the great Consideration they have for His Royal Highness and at the same time to shew how sensibly they were touch'd by the last Edict which he had published against His poor Subjects of the Vallies and had given them order to assure him of their strict Adherency to his Interest and to desire him afterwards instantly that he would be pleased to maintain the Inhabitants of the Valleys in a perpetual and peaceful Enjoyment of the Exercise of their Religion and in that Liberty of Conscience which was granted them by his Predecessors upon the Interceding and Recommendation of several Protestant Princes and States and particularly of their Sovereign Lords and that the reason which gave them some hopes to obtain what they desired was that His Subjects had done nothing that could render them unworthy of the Favour and Affection of their