Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	affair_n	great_a	king_n	2,752	5	3.4774	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A34770	The memoirs of the Count de Rochefort containing an account of what past most memorable, under the ministry of Cardinal Richelieu and Cardinal Mazarin, with many particular passages of the reign of Lewis the Great / made English from the French.; Mémoires de Mr. L. C. D. R. English	Courtilz de Sandras, Gatien, 1644-1712.; Rochefort, Charles-César, comte de.	1696 (1696)	Wing C6600; ESTC R20997	329,891	458

judg'd by you you are a Soldier and you shall say whether this should be so or no This Gentleman who is quarter'd at my House after having eat and drank what he pleas'd will needs have me let him lye with the Cook now what would he have me to do Or what does he take me for Don't you know me to be a Man of Honour I profess to you tho I came down stairs mighty seriously this story made me laugh and seeing the man had got a great Rabble about the House already I desir'd him to quiet them and I would go and accommodate every thing for him I had much ado to perswade him he telling me I had to do with a Devil that would but laugh at me but bidding him not fear I made him go into his House where we found the Count who had lockt himself in with one of the Kitchen Wenches and would force her to lye with him I call'd to him to open the door and told him my Name but 't was to no purpose at last I was forc'd to tell him that I came by Orders from Mr. de Turenne which he would know better when he saw me I took all this care that he might not suspect me to deceive him and when he heard that he durst not make any farther resistance I told him Monsieur de Turenne knew nothing of what had happen'd yet but he would soon if the uproar continu'd and I would leave it to him to imagine how he would resent such a disorder he who we knew was a sworn enemy to all such irregularities that they said he would needs have a Cook Wench why he might have twenty by to morrow if he was put to such hard shift but to force a Man of Honour to furnish him for his Debauch was a thing no man would take and the best construction the World could put on such an action must be to say he was drunk and that it was an ill extremity to be forc'd to excuse one folly by another I desir'd him to reflect on these things now while he had time for it lest when 't was too late he should come to repent it The Count d' Isle hearing me discourse at this rate grew a little mild however it being the humour of those people that tho they are in an error will never acknowledge it he told me that for my sake he would relinquish his right but that I knew well enough it was his due This discourse was so ridiculous it had like to have renew'd the quarrel if I had not stopt his Host who was just rising up again and having pray'd them both to be peaceable and live quietly since it was but for so short a time I made them shake hands and promise to drink a Glass together the next day His Host who was an honest man told us with all his Heart and he would give us a Breakfast and the Count d' Isle who pretended to stand upon his honour again told us he would consent provided he might treat us again at Night These civilities between them left me no room to question but they were both thoroughly reconcil'd so I e'en went to Bed again and there had never been a word made of it if some body had not foolishly told the story among the Souldiers which made the poor Count be most horribly banter'd in the Army and when he went by they would say There goes our Friend that would have kist the Cookmaid Would it not have madded any body to have been so disappointed And for me they told me that truly I had done very ill to spoil sport in that manner and to prevent me for the future they would have a Law made that I should mind my own affairs and not meddle with them The Count d' Isle saw himself so rally'd with this sort of talk that there being Troops to be detach'd to Catalonia he procur'd an Order from Monsieur de Louvois to be sent thither out of the way The Spaniard was by this time come into the Confederacy and to prevent the ruine of Holland attempted to give us some diversion and in order to that had form'd a design upon Charleroy in which they were assisted by all the Dutch Forces but they fail'd in the attempt which might have led them to consider how unfit a match they were for so powerful an Enemy The Count d' Isle thought by this means to have avoided the raillery of the story we have told but instead of that he carry'd into his own Country a character which perhaps would not have reacht so far had he continu'd where he was In the mean time we were preparing for the War in Germany the Emperor having now effectually declar'd upon us and as Alsatia was like to be the Scene on which the first appearances were to be acted Mr. de Turenne gave orders for the fortifying Saverne and Hagenaw besides Brisac where several new works were made to strengthen the place The Souldiers rejoyc'd at these great preparations and they were in the right of it for they were safe now from being disbanded which otherwise would certainly have follow'd if the Peace had been made with Holland for me I was too old to expect making my fortune by the War and therefore was far enough from pleasing my self at the news but on the contrary was really griev●d for the People who had been deliver'd from the calamity of a ruinous Campaign if they had pleas'd to have us'd the Hollanders a little gentler upon the Propositions of Peace but they carry'd it so high with them that contrary to the Genius of that Nation they joyn'd with the Inclination of the Prince of Orange who prest them to the War and was resolv'd to prosecute it whatsoever it cost him having built all his hopes upon the success of it The King who knew very well he had no General so fit to command in Germany as the Viscount de Turenne continu'd him there tho he wanted him elsewhere having great affairs upon his hands For the English who at the beginning of the War was on our side had left us in the lurch the King of England having deserted us and pretended he could not help it on some reasons of State which had oblig'd him to it In the mean time our Coasts were expos'd to the Descents of the Hollanders and we who being all along assisted by the whole Naval Force of England and durst do nothing to them at Sea were not such Fools to stand in their way now In this extremity the King was forc'd to summon the Ban and Arriereban of the Kingdom of whom he sent a Party into Lorrain lest the Duke who the King had long ago devested of his Principality should take this opportunity to recover the Possession Seeing such a bloody War at hand I was sorry I was no younger and whatever obligation I had to the Memory of the Cardinal de Richlieu I reflected a little on

but be very prodigal of my favours to them all some of them came from the very further end of Berry whom I had never seen nor heard of ●eizing me every hour with their Genealogy making it out very plainly that they were my Cousins in the third degree and therefore hop'd I would use my Interest to procure them some preferment I made short with them and told them I had as good a will to serve them as any man in the world but it was not in my power which they might easily see for that I had got nothing yet for my Brothers who being in the first degree 't was but reasonable should be first regarded and that then I had some Relations in the second Degree who pretended to some priviledge before them that when I had preferr'd them all then they might depend upon me that I should do them all the service I could They understood me well enough and so getting rid of them they left me in quiet At last the happy hour was come which I had so long wisht for when I should lay down the office of a Page with which I was never very well pleas'd the Cardinal gave me two hundred Pistoles to buy me Clothes and told me I should be one of his Gentlemen I had hopes now he would have done some great thing for me however I did not continue long idle but went over into England and into Scotland with Letters written in Cyphers and those Countries being in Arms I was seiz'd by a Party of the King of England's Army whom I was as much afraid of as of those of the Parliaments They immediately searcht me but found nothing about me for I had put my Letters into my Post-horses Saddle the Plates of which I had made on purpose at Paris being of double Iron contriv'd to hold the Letters in the inside and unless they broke them they did nothing They ransackt the very Pummels of the Saddle but to no purpose for they could not find my Packet Then they askt me whence I came whither I was going and a thousand impertinent questions and I answer'd them all as I found proper being prepar'd to meet with such like interruptions telling them I was a young Gentleman that was travelling But this gave them the more suspicion finding my Equipage did not agree with the Character I gave my self so they stopt me four or five days at which I was very uneasie for I carry'd along with me if I am not very much mistaken business of no small consequence such as if I should be discovered with I knew my fate but what comforted me was that my Letters were perfect Magick and written in such a character that the Devil could not have read them They had no regular Alphabet as is customary in such cases but the same stroke or dash would signify twenty different words that it was impossible but for them that had the key to make any thing of it as for example you must know it was agreed that one stroke should signify an entire word of a Line in St. Austin and to know which it was the figure of the Page was put under the stroke and the number of the line and the number of the word in the line and to make it the plainer the mark or stroke was to be the first letter of the word As to explain it suppose the word was Have and that this word was to be found in the 10th Page of St. Austin the 10th line the 5th word in the line the cypher would have been thus This being so contriv'd I leave any one to judge if 't was possible without conjuring to have found out my Errand and yet I trembled every joynt of me for I knew if they found out my Letters the more difficulty they had in discovering the Contents the worse I might expect to be handled by them But it being my good fortune not only to secure my Packet but also that they believ'd me too young to be capable of such sort of Negotiations they let me go and I deliver'd my dispatches and return'd safe with an answer I was very well paid for this Journey for I had an order to the Financier for two thousand Crowns and one of the Pay-masters demanding a consideration of me for prompt payment was turn'd out of his place upon my complaint to the Cardinal I know not whether the Genius of the English Subject to take up Arms on every light occasion or this Voyage of mine wrought the effects that follow'd but those three Kingdoms who as I said were disturb'd before immediately upon this broke out into confusion insomuch that the King of England who had given us no great marks of his good will in several cases found his hands so full at home that there was no great fear of his being troublesom to us And what makes me think we had a deeper hand in this affair than others is something that happen'd to me three months after my return being one morning as I seldom mist at the Cardinals Leve● he whisper'd me and bid me go to the Fauxbourg St. Marceau over against the Conduit to the sign of a Woman without a Head and to go up two pair of stairs where I should find a man lying on a Bed with yellow Curtains whom I should order to be at Madam D' Eguillons at Eleven a Clock at night without fail I deliver'd my message immediately and being not forbidden to see this mans face as in other cases I call'd to mind that I had seen him in Scotland and I believe he knew me too for I observ'd that he lookt earnestly at me as if he would have recollected who I was we neither of us said any thing of what we thought only that he told me he would not fail the appointment At the time aforesaid I was order'd to stay for him at the door to introduce him into the Cardinals Closet he came disguis'd like one that crys Wafers in the Streets and I hearing a man cry Wafers was far enough from imagining that 't was he but he knowing me and discovering himself I brought him to the Cardinal with whom he was shut up till four a clock the next morning all the Cardinals men had orders to go home which gave further occasion to the talk that was made of him and of his Neice Madam D. Eguillon no body imagining he had any business to keep him there all night but to lye with her besides they had taken out the Keys that they might go out when they pleas'd and this made the Ladys Servants be as forward as any in the report I don't say this to affirm that there was no privacies between them but to shew as I said that all the times he staid there were not the effects of an Amour The conference being over my Wafer-merchant comes out of the Closet at the door whereof I had waited by the Cardinals order his Eminence made me lend