industriously to the Deputies of the several Towns and acquainted them with it and that the Terms of the Peace were absolutely consented and agreed between the two Kings that he had brought me orders to go strait to Nimeguen and that I should at my arrival there meet with Letters from my Lord Sunderland the King's Ambassador at Paris with all the particulars concluded between them How this Dispatch by De Cros was gained or by whom I will not pretend to determin but upon my next return for England the Duke told me That He knew nothing of it till it was gone having been a hunting that morning my Lord Treasurer said all that could be to excuse himself of it and I never talked of it to Secretary Williamson but the King indeed told me pleasantly that the Rogue De Cros had out-witted them all The Account I met with at Court was That these Orders were agreed and dispatched one morning in an hours time and in the Dutchess of Portsmouth's Chamber by the intervention and pursuit of Monsieur Borillon However it was and what endeavours soever were made immediately after at our Court to retrieve this Game it never could be done and this one Incident changed the whole Fate of Christendom and with so little seeming ground for any such Council that before De Cros's arrival at the Hague the Swedish Ambassadors at Nimeguen had made the very same Declaration and Instances to the French Ambassadors there that I was posted away from the Hague upon the pretence of persuading them to resolve on When I arrived at Nimeguen there remained but three days of the term fixed by the late Treaty between His Majesty and the States at the Hague either for the French assent to the evacuation of the Towns or for the carrying on of the War in conjunction of England with Holland and consequently the rest of the Confederates I found all Men there perswaded that the Peace would not succeed and indeed all appearances were against it The French Ambassadors had given many Reasons in a formal sort of Manifesto to the Dutch why the King their Master could not consent to it without the previous satisfaction of Sweden whose Interests he esteemed the same with his own but yet declaring he was willing to receive any expedients the States should offer in this matter either by their Ambassadors at Nimeguen or such as they should send to His most Christian Majesty at Saint Quentin or Gant The Dutch gave them an Answer in Writing declaring It was a matter no longer entire since upon the difficulty raised about the Evacuation of the Towns the States their Masters had been induced to sign a Treaty with England from which they could not recede nor from the day therein fixed for determining the Fate of either Peace or War and as there was no time so there could be no use of any Deputation to St. Quentin or Gant nor any other Expedient besides the assent of France to evacuate the Towns After this the French Ambassador had declared to the Dutch That they had found the King their Master was resolved at the desire of the Swedes to retard the Peace no longer upon their consideration and would consent to evacuate the Towns upon condition the States would send their Deputies to treat upon the ways of securing the future satisfaction to Sweden which was by both intended But the Dutch Ambassadors continued peremptory that there could be no deputation made by their Masters and that if the term fixed by the late Treaty with England should elapse there was no remedy but the War must go on To this the French Ambassadors replying that their hands were bound up from proceeding further without such a Deputation the Peace was thereupon esteemed desperate and the more so because at the same time the Duke of Lutzenburg pressed Mons and the Mareschal Scomberg seemed to threaten Colen demanding of them immediate satisfaction of the Money that had been seized during the Assembly there and Brussels it self grew unquiet upon their finding themselves almost surrounded by French Troops so as the Confederate Ministers thought themselves secure of what they had so much and so long desired and aimed at which was a long War in conjunction with England for they neither believed France would yield a point they had so long and so publickly contested nor if they did that the Dutch would suffer their Ambassadors to sign the Peace without Spain and the time was now too near expiring for agreeing the Terms and Draught of a Treaty between the two Crowns which had not yet been in any kind digested In the midst of these Appearances and Dispositions at Nimeguen came the fatal Day agreed by the late Treaty at the Hague for determining whether a sudden Peace or a long War were to be reckoned upon in Christendom when in the morning early Monsieur Boreel who had been sent from Amsterdam to the Dutch Ambassadors at Nimeguen went to the French Ambassadors and after some Conference with them these three Ambassadors went immediately to those of Holland and declared to them they had received Orders to consent to the evacuation of the Towns and thereupon to sign the Peace but that it must be done that very morning Whether the Dutch were surprized or no they seemed to be so and entring into debate upon several of the Articles as well as upon the Interests of Spain this Conference lasted near five hours but ended in agreement upon all the Points both of Peace and Commerce between France and Holland and Orders for writing all fair with the greatest haste that was possible so as the Treaty might be signed that Night About Four in the Afternoon the French Ambassadors having demanded an hour of me and Sir Lionel came to us at my House gave us an account of their agreement with the Dutch Ambassadors upon all Points in difference between them and of the Treaty's being so ordered as that it should be signed that Evening and made us the offer that they would all come and sign it at my House that so we might have the part in it that was due to the Mediators We answered them That having been sent by His Majesty with Instructions only to Mediate a general Peace we could not by our Orders assist at the signing of a particular One and therefore desired them to excuse us from having any part in this Conclusion between them and the Dutch either by the Signing it at our Houses or by using our Names as Mediators in the Treaty The Dutch Ambassadors came to us likewise with the same Communication and Offer and received the same Answer and I observed their Conversation upon this mighty and sudden turn to be a good deal embarassed and something irresolute and not very well agreed between the two Ambassadors themselves Monsieur Beverning complained of the uncertainty of our Conduct in England and the incurable Jealousies that De Cros's Journey had raised in Holland That
degrees this Lord's Favour declin'd the Earl of Danby's encreas'd who succeeded my Lord Clifford in the Treasury which had ever been my Arlington's Ambition This gave him an implacable Envy and Hatred against my Lord Danby and which no Offices of Friends could ever allay He was not well in the Nation for having had such a part in breaking the course of the Triple Alliance and making that with France for the Ruin of Holland and as was commonly thought for some ends more displeasing at home Yet when the ill humour of the Parliament had broken the Designs of the Cabal and made my Lord Schaftsbury shift his Sails and fall into the popular stream My Lord Arlington had gone so far upon the same scene as to join with the Duke of Ormond and Secretary Coventry to perswade the King to remove the Duke wholly from Court and publick business as a means to appease the Discontents of the Parliament upon some jealousies the late Conduct of Affairs had raised among them By this Council my Lord Arlington had very much offended the Duke and finding himself ill with his Royal Highness with the Parliament and every day declining in credit with the King He thought there was no way of retrieving his Game but by making himself the Instrument of some secret and close measures that might be taken between the King and the Prince of Orange He first infused into His Majesty the Necessity and Advantage of such a Negotiation and then that of his being employ'd in it from the Interest his Lady's Friends and Kindred in Holland would be able to give him as well as from the Credit of having been so long in the secret of the King's Affair and so best able to give them such colours as might render the late conduct of them less disagreeable to the Prince Tho he profest great friendship to me yet he represented me as unlikely to be treated with such a confidence from the Prince as was requisite in this Affair for having been so intimate with Monsieur De Witt in my former Ambassy and gave the Prince's unwillingness to see me during the Campagnia as a testimony of his dislike or at least indifferency to me He propos'd going over with all the Auxiliaries that were like to be of any succour in this expedition carrying not only my Lady Arlington but Madam Beverwoert her Sister who had something in her Humour and Conversation very agreeable to the Prince Sir Gabriel Sylvius who took himself to be in great credit in that Court where he had serv'd long and particularly with Monsieur Benting nor was it forgot to carry over Dr. Duril as a Man fit to practice Monsieur Marest a French Minister who was thought to have credit with the Prince and my Lord Ossory was known to have a great part in his kindness and esteem as well from his Marriage into the Beverwoert Family as from his Bravery so much applauded in all Actions where he had been which was a quality lov'd by this Prince tho' imploy'd against him My Lord Danby had been made believe that a Letter from the Prince to Monsieur Odyke then one of the Dutch Ambassadors in England had given occasion for this Journey as if the Prince had desir'd some person there from the King with whom he might enter in the last Confidence but the Prince assur'd me there was no such thing and that Monsieur Ruvigny the French Minister at London had more part in this Journey than he or perhaps any body else and that all the endeavours us'd towards a Peace came from that side However instructed at least thus accompanied my Lord Arlington came to the Hague where he told me at our first meeting that he came over to set right some things between the King and the Prince that he doubted were amiss and settle a perfect kindness and confidence between them for the time to come That to do this he must go to the bottom of the Sore and rake into things past which was an unpleasant work and which I could not do as having no part in the King's business during that time wherein the Prince took his offence at our Concils That the King had chosen him for this Office because he could best justify His Majesty's intentions towards His Highness in the whole course of that Affaiâ—â— That for the Peace tho His Majesty desir'd it yet he would not meddle with it unless the Prince of himself made any overtures about it but would only endeavour to give the Prince what lights he could as to the state of things in general and what he might hope from his Allies as well as from France That if the Prince made no advances to him upon it he would let it fall and leave it in my hands to be pursued by the Orders I should receive That he knew very well such a Commission as his might look unkind if not injurious to another Ambassador and that he would not have come if any other had been here but the King as well as he reckon'd so far upon the Friendship between us that they were both confident of my being easy in it and giving him any assistance he should want from me which he would acquaint me with as the matter proceeded He said besides That after having fought the King's Battel with the Prince he must fight another of his own who did not deserve the coldness his Highness had of late expressed to him and when this was done all his business was ended here and the rest would be only seeing his Friends and finding some diversion from a new Scene That he desired I would according to the Forms bring him and my Lord Ossory the first time to the Prince and after that they would see him no more in Ceremony nor give me that trouble I told his Lordship I was very glad to see him let his business be what it would That I should be gladder yet that the King's business should be done let it be by whom it would but much more that it might be by Him That for setting matters right between the King and Prince I thought it the best Office could be done them both That for the way he mention'd of raking into the Sore and fighting Battels in defence or justification of what was past I knew not what to say to it but would leave it to his own Prudence but from what I knew in particular of the Prince's humour and thoughts whatever he did of that sort I believ'd should be very gentle and not go too deep and for my own part I was always of opinion That Expostulations were very apt to end well between Lovers but ill between Friends That I would send to the Prince for an Hour and when I had brought him to his Highness I would leave him there after the first Entrances were past and desir'd no other part in his Affair than what he thought necessary to give me whenever he did I should
serve him the best I could in so good an Endeavour and for the rest I should leave the Field free to my Lord Ossory and Him while they stay'd at the Hague as to all that was secret as to the rest I desir'd they would make what use they pleas'd of Me and my House My Lord Arlington took all I said very well and said 'T was not necessary I should leave them after I had introduc'd them to the Prince but in such a manner as I saw he would not dislike it nor have any body thought to have any part in the Successes he expected So next morning I brought them to the Prince and after a quarter of an hour's stay left them together The Prince would have had me stay'd but my Lord Arlington said not a word and I pretended some Letters press'd me and so went away and never saw them together any more while they stay'd at the Hague unless at Dinner or in mix'd and publick Company The truth is I was not the worse entertain'd during the course of this Adventure for my Lord Arlington told me every day what he thought fit of all that pass'd between them and the Prince told me not only the thing but the manner of it which was more important than the matter it self for This had no effect but the Other a great deal and that lasted long My Lord Arlington told me much of his Expostulations and with what good turns of Wit he had justified both the King's Part in the late War and His Own but that upon all he found the Prince dry and sullen or at the best uneasie and as if he wish'd it ended That upon Discourse of the State of Christendom and what related to the War he was engag'd in he made him no Overtures at all nor entred further than That the King might bring him out of it with Honour if he pleased and with Safety to Christendom if not it must go on till the Fortunes of the Parties changing made way for other thoughts than he believ'd either of them had at this time That this might happen after another Campania which none but His Majesty could prevent by inducing France to such terms as He thought just and safe for the rest of Christendom This was the Sum of what my Lord Arlington pretended to have pass'd in three long Conferences after which it grew so uneasy between them that he told me he had absolutely given it over and would not say a word more of business while he was there and attended His Majesty's Orders after the return of his Dispatches but would divert himself in the mean time as well as he could see the Prince as often as he pleased at Dinner or in Company but ask it no more in private unless the Prince of himself desir'd it and upon the whole gave all the signs of being equally disappointed and discontented with the Success of this Undertaking The Prince on the other side told me with what Arrogance and Insolence my Lord Arlington had entred upon all his Expostulations with him both upon the King's Chapter and His Own That it was not only in the Discourses of it as if he pretended to deal with a Child that he could by his Wit make believe what he pleased but in the manner he said all upon that Subject it was as if he had taken Himself for the Prince of Orange and him for my Lord Arlington That all he said was so artificial and giving such false Colours to things every body knew that he that was a plain Man could not bear it and was never so weary of any Conversation in his Life In short all the Prince told me upon it look'd spighted at my Lord Arlington and not very much satisfied with the King's Intentions upon this Errand tho he said he was sure His Majesty never intended he should treat it in the manner he had if he remembred that he was his Nephew tho nothing else After the first Conversations my Lord Arlington staid near six Weeks in Holland either upon contrary Winds to return his Dispatches or to carry him away often at Dinner with the Prince at Court or at Count Waldeck's or Monsieur Odyke's or with Me putting on the best Humour and Countenance affecting the Figure of one that had nothing of business in his Head or in the design of this Journey but at heart weary of his stay in Holland and unwilling to return with no better Account of his Errand and as it prov'd he had reason for both I found the Pensioner and Count Waldeck thought That the bent of my Lord Arlington was To draw the Prince into such Measures of a Peace as France then so much desired Into a discovery of those Persons who had made Advances to the Prince or the States of raising Commotions in England during the late War into secret Measures with the King of assisting him against any Rebels at home as well as Enemies abroad and into the Hopes or Designs of a Match with the Duke's Eldest Daughter Tho they said he found the Prince would not enter at all into the First was obstinate against the Second treated the Third as a disrespect to the King to think he could be so ill belov'd or so imprudent to need it and upon mention made of the last by my Lord Ossory he took no further hold of it then saying His Fortunes were not in a condition for him to think of a Wife Thus ended this Mystical Journey which I have the rather unveil'd because perhaps no other could do it nor I without so many several Lights from so many several Hands and because tho it brought forth no present Fruits yet Seeds were then scattered out of which sprung afterwards some very great Events My Lord Arlington return'd was receiv'd but coldly by the King and ill by the Duke who was angry that any mention had been made of the Lady Mary tho it was done only by my Lord Ossory and whether with Order from the King or no was not known So as never any strain of Court-skill and Contrivance succeeded so unfortunately as this had done and so contrary to all the Ends the Author of it proposed to himself Instead of advancing the Peace he left it desperate instead of establishing a Confidence between the King and the Prince he left all colder than he found it instead of entring into great personal Confidence and Friendship with the Prince he left an Unkindness that lasted ever after instead of retrieving his own Credit at Court which he found waining upon the increase of my Lord Danby's he made an end of all he had left with the King who never after us'd him with any Confidence further than the Forms of his Place and found my Lord Treasurer's Credit with the King more advanced in six weeks he had been away than it had done in many months before Whatever was the occasion France had this Winter an extreme desire of a
for the Treaty in order to it They declar'd their disapproval of the French Pretension rais'd to Lorain which seem'd only to obstruct it and that they would send their Ministers to the Congress whether the French came or no and their Commissary at the Hague so well seconded these new dispositions of his Court that whil'st the Congress look'd desperate by the declar'd obstinacy of both sides upon the Point of Lorain Ships and Passports were dispatch'd by the States with consent of their Allies to fetch the Swedish Ambassador from Gottenburgh into Holland The Confederates were besides much animated in their hopes from the dispositions and humours express'd in a late Session of Parliament in England which grew so high against the French or at least upon that pretence against the present Conduct of his Majesty or his Ministers that the King Prorogu'd them about Christmas before any of the matters projected by the warm Men amongst the House of Commons were brought into form The French were upon their march into Flanders and that King at the Head of a great and brave Army threatning some great Enterprize The Prince was preparing to go away into the Field with resolution and hopes of having the honour of a Battel at the opening of the Campania all thoughts of the Congress meeting before the end of it were laid aside when about the middle of May I was extremely surpriz'd to receive a Packet from Secretary Williamson with the French Passports for the Duke of Lorain's Ministers in the Form and with the Stiles demanded by the Allies And hereupon all difficulties being remov'd the Passports were exchang'd by the end of May. Some days were lost by a new demand of the Allies for Passports likewise for the Duke of Nieuburgh's Ministers who was newly entered into the common Alliance and the same paces were expected likewise from the Duke of Bavaria at least so the Germans flatter'd themselves or their Friends Upon this some of the Ministers of the Allies at the Hague whose Masters were very unwilling the Congress should begin before the campania ended prevail'd with the States to send Deputies to me to demand Passports for the Duke of Nieuburgh and any other Princes that should enter into their Alliance and to declare That if these were refus'd by France they would look upon what had been already granted as void I was something surpris'd at so unexpected a Message from the States and told their Deputies That such a Resolution was unpracticable That His Majesty had undertaken to procure Passports for the Parties engag'd in the War and all the Allies they had nam'd on both sides which was done and thereupon the Congress ready to begin and such a delay as this would occasion was both a disrespect to His Majesty and that could not be consented by France nor the Reciprocal of it by any of the Allies that foresaw the Consequences which might happen upon it That some Allie of France might fall off to the Confederates or some of the Confederates to France and with such Circumstances as it could not be expected either of them should think fit to give Passports or treat with them at the Congress nor was it a thing in any form to demand Passports without naming for whom they should be After several other exceptions the Deputies desir'd me to let them represent my reasons against it to the States and to expect their Answer till the next afternoon and one of them told me as he went out That I had all the reason in the world and that they had been too easie in it upon the instances of some Allies Next day the Deputies came to let me know the States had alter'd their resolution and desir'd only That His Majesty would procure Passports for the Duke of Nieuburgh's Ministers which I easily undertook This Change had not pass'd without violent heats between the States Deputies and the Ministers of some Allies who press'd them so far as one of the Deputies answer'd him Que pretendez vous donc Messieurs de nous faire deschirer par la Canaille Which shows the disposition that run so generally at this time throughout the Trading Provinces towards a Peace There remain'd now but one Preliminary undetermin'd which was To fix some extent of Neutral Countrey about the Place of Congress France would have extended it two leagues round the Allies would have it bounded of one side by the River of the Waal upon which Nimeguen stood and was divided by it from the Betow a part of the Province of Holland and through which lay the strait Road into the rest of that Countrey Both these Proposals were grounded upon the same reason That of France to facilitate the Commerce of their Ambassadors with the Towns of Holland incite the desires and enter into Practices of Peace distinct from the motions of the Congress That of the Allies to prevent or encumber the too easie and undiscover'd passage of the French Emissaries upon this occasion However both were positive in their Opinions so as this matter came not to be determin'd till some time after the Congress began and but lamely then CHAP. II. THE Prince was now ready to go into the Field and told me That before he went he must have some talk with me in private and at leisure and to that purpose desir'd it might be in the Garden of Hounslerdyke We appointed the hour and met accordingly He told me I would easily believe that being the only Son that was left of his Family he was often press'd by his Friends to think of Marrying and had many persons propos'd to him as their several humours led them That for his own part he knew it was a thing to be done at one time or other but that he had hitherto excus'd the thoughts of it otherwise than in general till the War was ended That besides his own Friends the Deputies of the States begun to press him more earnestly every day and the more as they saw the War like to continue and perhaps they had more reason to do it than any others That he had at last promis'd them he would think of it more seriously and particularly and so he had and resolv'd he would marry but the choice of a person he thought more difficult That he found himself inclin'd to no Proposals had been made him out of France or Germany nor indeed to any that had been mention'd upon this occasion by any of his Friends but that of England That before he concluded to make any paces that way he was resolv'd to have my Opinion upon two Points but yet would not ask it unless I promis'd to answer him as a Friend or at least an indifferent Person and not as the King's Ambassador When I told him he should be obey'd he went on and said That he would confess to me during the late War neither the States nor He in particular were without applications made them from several Persons
wholly upon England for any resource in their Affairs after Holland had deserted them as they thought by such precipitate terms of a Peace that many of the chief Ministers at Nimeguen left that place as of no more use to the Treaty it was designed for and went into England where they thought the whole scene of that Affair then lay among whom was Count Antoine the Danish Ambassador and soon after Monsieur Olivecrantz the Swedish with the Elector of Brandenburgh's Envoy and several others However the Negotiation continued there between the French Ambassadors and Monsieur Beverning till he was sent to the French Camp where he concluded the Terms of the Peace towards the end of June and a Cessation from all Hostilities in Flanders for six weeks which was given to the Dutch to endeavour the Spaniards entring into the Peace upon the Terms they had proposed for them And in the whole Course of this Negotiation France seemed to have no regards but for Holland and for them so much that the most Christian King assured the States That tho' Spain should not agree yet he had such care of their satisfaction that he would always provide such a Barriere in Flanders should be left as they thought necessary for their safety and that after the Peace should be made and the ancient Amity restored he would be ready to enter into such Engagements and Measures with them as should for ever secure their Repose and their Liberty This was by all interpreted an invidious word put in on purpose to cajole the Enemies of the Prince who ever pretended the suspicions of his affecting more Authority than they desired and thereby kept up a Popular Party in the State the chief of whom had been the chief promoters of the present Peace and indeed the Prince was not at all reserved in the Endeavours of opposing it but used all that was possible and agreeable to the Forms of the State yet all in vain the humour having spread so far at first in Holland and from thence into the other Provinces that it was no longer to be opposed or diverted by the Prince In the mean time England was grown pretty indifferent in the matter of the Peace and Spain seemed well inclined to accept their part of it But the Emperor the King of Denmark and Elector of Brandenburgh fell into the highest Declarations and Reproaches against the States that could be well invented ripping up all they had ventured and suffered in a War they had begun only for the preservation of Holland how they were now abandoned by them in pretending to conclude Imperious and Arbitrary terms of a Peace upon them without their consent That they were willing to treat with France and make a Peace upon any safe and reasonable Conditions but would never endure to have them imposed as from a Conqueror and would venture all rather than accept them especially those for the Duke of Lorain whose case was the worst treated tho' the most favoured in appearance by all the Confederates and the least contested by France Notwithstanding all these storms from their Allies the Dutch were little mov'd and held on their course having small regard to any of their satisfaction besides that of Spain in what concern'd the Safety of Flanders and the necessities of that Crown made them easie tho' as little contented as the rest So as the Peace was upon the point of signing by the French and Dutch Ambassadors when an unexpected Incident fell in which had like to have overturn'd this whole Fabrick and to have renew'd the War with greater Heats and more equal Forces by engaging England to a share of it in favour of the Confederates which they had been long practising without Success and now without Hopes In the Conditions which Holland had made for the French restoring the six Towns in Flanders to Spain there was no particular mention made of the time of that Restitution the Dutch understanding as well as the Spaniards That it was to be upon the Ratifications of the Peace with Spain and Holland whether any of the other Allies on each side were included or no. But when the Dutch Treaty was near signing the Marquess de Balbaces either found or made some occasion of enquiring more particularly of the French Intentions upon this Point The French Ambassadors made no difficulty of declaring That the King their Master being obliged to see an entire Restitution made to the Swedes of all they had lost in the War could not evacuate the Towns in Flanders till those to the Swedes were likewise restored and that this detention of places was the only means to induce the Princes of the North to accept of the Peace Monsieur Beverning gave Account to his Masters of this new pretence and the States order'd him to let the French Ambassadors know he could not sign the Peace without the Restitution of the Places in Flanders upon the Ratification of the Treaty The French Ambassadors were firm on t'other side and said Their Orders were positive to insist upon the Restitution of Sweden The States hereupon sent to Monsieur Van Lewen to acquaint his Majesty with this unexpected Incident and to know his Opinion and Resolution upon a point of so great moment to the Peace of Christendom on the one side and to the Safety of Flanders on the other The King was difficult at first to believe it but sending to the French Ambassador at London to know the Truth of it and finding him own his Master's intention not to evacuate the Towns till the General Peace was concluded and Sweden satisfied He was both surpriz'd and angry at this proceeding of France and next morning sent for me to the Foreign Committee and there declar'd his resolution of sending me immediately into Holland with Commission to sign a Treaty with the States by which they should be obliged to carry on the War and His Majesty to enter into it in case France should not consent within a certain time limited to evacuate the Towns The Duke fell into this Counsel with great warmth and said at the Committee That it was plain by this pace that France was not sincere in the business of the Peace That they aim'd at the Universal Monarchy and that none but His Majesty could hinder them from it in the Posture that Christendom stood All the Lords of the Committee agreed with so general a concurrence that it was hard to imagin this should not prove a steddy Resolution how little soever we had been given to any such His Majesty took the pains to press Van Lewen to go over with me to perswade the States of the sincereness and constancy of his resolution to pursue this Measure with the utmost of his Power and took upon himself to excuse to the States his Masters the making this Journey without Their consent Upon this Dispatch Mr. Godolphin who had been so lately in Holland told me That if I brought the States to
the Treaty His Majesty propos'd upon this occasion he would move the Parliament to have my Statue set up the Success whereof may deserve a further Remark in its due place Monsieur Van Lewen and I went over in July 1678. in two several Yatchs but met soon at the Hague where upon my first Conference with the Commissioners of Secret Affairs one of them made me the handsomest Dutch Compliment I had met with That they esteemed my coming into Holland like that of the Swallow's which brought fair Weather always with it The Prince received me with the greatest joy in the World hoping by my Errand and the Success of it either to continue the War or recover such Conditions of the Peace for his Allies as had been wrested out of his hands by force of a Faction begun at Amsterdam and spread since into the rest of the Provinces To make way for this Negotiation I concerted with Monsieur Van Lewen to dine at his Country-house with Monsieur Hoeft of Amsterdam Van Tielt of Harlem Patz of Rotterdam and two or three more of the Chief Burgomasters who had promoted the Peace or rather precipitated it upon the French Conditions After Dinner we entred into long Conferences in which Monsieur Van Lewen assur'd them with great confidence of the King's sincereness in the resolutions he had taken and seconded very effectually all I had to say upon that Subject which had the more credit from one who had gone as far as any of them in pursuit and acceptance of the Peace The Prince was impatient to know what had passed in this Meeting which made me go to him that evening and I told him what I was very confident to have found That Monsieur Patz was incurable and not otherwise to be dealt with but that all the rest were good and well meaning persons to their Countrey abused first by Jealousies of His Highness's Match in England by apprehensions of Our Court being wholly in the Measures of France and by the plausible Offers of France towards such a Peace as they could desire for themselves That they were something enlightned by the late refusal of delivering up the Spanish Towns till the satisfaction of Sweden and would I doubted not awaken their several Towns so as to make them receive favourably His Majesty's Proposition upon this Conjuncture It happen'd accordingly for Monsieur Hoeft proposing at Amsterdam to make a tryal and judgment of the sincerity of France upon the whole proceeding of the Peace by their evacuating the Spanish Towns and without it to continue the War he carried his Point there in spight of Valkeneer and the same followed in all the rest of the Towns So that when I fell into this Negotiation I concluded the Treaty in six days by which France was obliged to declare within fourteen after the date thereof That they would evacuate the Spanish Towns or in case of their refusal Holland was engag'd to go on with the War and England immediately to declare it against France in conjunction with Holland and the rest of the Confederates It is hardly to be imagined what a new life this gave to the Authority and Fortunes of the Prince of Orange who was now owned by the States to have made a truer judgment than they had done of the measures they were to expect both from France and England the last having proceeded so resolutely to the offers of entring into the War which was never believed in Holland and France after raising so important a difficulty in the Peace having proceeded in the War so far as to Block up Mons one of the best Frontiers remaining to Flanders which was expected to fall into their hands before the Term fixed for the conclusion or rupture of the Peace should expire Preparations were made with the greatest vigour imaginable for his Highness's Expedition to relieve Mons and about Ten thousand English already arrived in Flanders were ordered to March that way and joyn the Prince He went into the Field with a firm belief that the War would certainly go on since France seemed too far engaged in Honour to yield the Evacuation of the Towns and tho' they should yet Spain could not be ready to Agree and Sign the Peace within the Term limited And he thought that he left the States resolved not to conclude otherwise than in conjunction with that Crown And besides he hoped to engage the French Army before the term for Signing the Peace should expire and resolved to relieve Mons or dye in the attempt whether the Peace succeeded or no so as the continuance of the War seemed inevitable But no man since Solomon ever enough considered how subject all things are to Time and Chance nor how poor Diviners the wisest men are of future Events how plainly soever all things may seem laid towards the producing them nor upon how small accidents the greatest Counsels and Revolutions turn which was never more proved than by the course and event of this Affair After the Treaty concluded and signified to France all the Arts that could be were on that side imployed to elude it by drawing this matter into Treaty or into greater length which had succeeded so well in England They offered to treat upon it at St. Quintin then at Gant where the King Himself would meet such Ambassadors as the Dutch should send to either of those Towns But the States were firm not to recede from their late Treaty concluded with His Majesty and so continued till about five days before the term was to expire Then arrived from England one De Cros formerly a French Monk who some time since had left his Frock for a Petticoat and insinuated himself so far in the Swedish Court as to procure a Commission or Credence at least for a certain petty Agency in England At London he had devoted himself wholly to Monsieur Barillon the French Ambassador tho' pretending to pursue the Interests of Sweden About a Week after I had sent a Secretary into England with the Treaty Signed This man brought me a Packet from Court Commanding me to go immediately away to Nimeguen and there to endeavour all I could and from His Majesty to perswade the Swedish Ambassadors to let the French there know That they would for the good of Christendom consent and even desire the King of France no longer to defer the Evacuation of the Towns and consequently the Peace upon the sole regard and interest of the Crown of Swden I was likewise Commanded to assure the said Ambassadors that after this Peace His Majesty would use all the most effectual Endeavours he could for restitution of the Towns and Countries the Swedes had lost in the War It was not easie for any man to be more surprized than I was by this Dispatch but the Pensioner Fagel was stunned who came and told me the whole Contents of it before I had mentioned it to any man and that De Cros had gone about most
since the King still desired the Peace his Masters had nothing to do but to conclude it and that They the Ambassadors took themselves to be so instructed as that they must Sign the Peace upon the offers made by the French to evacuate the Towns Monsieur Haâ—en did not seem to me so clear in point of their Orders and I never could learn whether upon de Cros's Arrival and Discourses at the Hague the States Deputies there had sent Orders to their Ambassadors at Nimeguen to Sign the Peace even without the Spaniards in case of the French assenting to the evacuation of the Towns before the day appointed for that purpose should expire or whether only the Town of Amsterdam had by Boreel sent that advice to Monsieur Beverning with assurances to bear him out in what he did where his Orders might receive a doubtful Sense or Interpretation However it were Monsieur Beverning was bent upon giving this sudden end to the War and such a quick dispatch to the draught of the Treaty that it was agreed in all Articles and written out fair so as to be signed between Eleven and Twelve at Night And thus were eluded all the effects of the late Treaty concluded at the Hague and the hopes conceived by the Confederates of the War 's going on which so provoked several of their Ministers as to engage them in sharp and violent Protestations against the Dutch Ambassadors by which they hoped to deter them from signing the Peace without new Orders from their Masters But all was to no purpose Beverning was unmoved and the thing was done The day after the Peace was signed came an Express to me from Court with the Ratifications of the late Treaty between His Majesty and the States and Orders to me immediately to proceed to the exchange of them which was such a counterpace to the Dispatch I had received by De Cros and to the consequences of it which had ended in the conclusion of the Peace and thereby rendred the late Treaty of no farther use that the ratification seemed now as unnecessary as it had been at first unresolved at our Court and unexpected from us by the Dutch However I went away immediately upon this Express and next day after my arrival at the Hague made an exchange of the Ratifications according to the Orders I had received I found the Pensioner and several other of the Deputies very much unsatisfied with the Peace and more with the Precipitation of Monsieur Beverning to sign it upon the sudden offer of the French Ambassadors to evacuate the Towns before he had acquainted the States with it and received new Orders upon it They said his Instructions could not warrant him they talked of calling him in question for it and of disavowing what he had done and thereupon of having recourse to the Treaty with His Majesty which they now saw ratified and of continuing the War in conjuction with England and the rather because they saw France had no mind to venture it but had chosen to stoop from those high flights they had so long made in all transactions with their Neighbours either of War or Peace But others of the Deputies especially those of Amsterdam declared their satisfaction in this conclusion at Nimeguen argued that the weakness of their Confederates especially Spain and the unsteaddiness or irresolution of England had made the Peace of absolute necessity to Holland and excused any precipitation of their Ambassadors in signing that day or without clear and positive Orders upon the emergency being so sudden and surprizing and the time so critical that the delay of sending to the Hague must of necessity have engaged the States in their obligations of the late Treaty with England and thereby in a necessity of continuing the War The truth is I never observed either in what I had seen or read any Negotiation managed with greater Address and Skill than this had been by the French in the whole course of this Affair especially since the Prince of Orange's Match which was thought to have given them so great a blow and by force of Conduct was turned so much to their advantage 'T is certain and plain they never intended to continue the War if England should fall with such weight into the scale of the Confederates as the force of that Kingdom and humour of the People would have given to such a Conjunction and consequently that His Majesty might have prescribed what Terms He pleased of the Peace during the whole course of His Mediation For besides the respect which the French have for our Troops both Horse and Foot more than any others especially since the Services and Advantages they received from them in all their Actions against the Germans besides the terrour of a Conjuction between our Naval Forces and the Dutch and of descents upon their Coasts with the dangerous influences that might make upon the Discontents of their People They wisely foresaw another Consequence of our falling into this Confederacy which must unavoidable have proved more mortal to them than all the rest in two years time for whereas the Wealth of France which makes their Greatness arises from the infinite Consumption made by so many neighbouring Countries of so many and rich Commodities as the Native Soil and Climate or ingenuity of the People produces in France In case this War had gone on with England engaged in it all these veins of such infinite Treasure had been seized at once or at least left open only to some parts of Italy which neither takes off their Wines their Salts nor their Modes in Habit or Equipage that draw so vast expences upon all the Provinces almost of Europe which lie Northward of France and drains such vast Sums of Money from all their Neighbours into that Fruitful and Noble Kingdom more favoured by Nature in my opinion than any other in the World But the loss of this Advantage upon the Necessity Folly or Luxury of others must in two or three years time reduce them to such weakness in those Sinews of War by so general a Poverty and Misery among their People that there would need no other effect of such a general Confederacy to consume the Strength and Force of that Nation This they very prudently foresaw and never intended to venture but having reason to apprehend it from the Prince of Orange's Match in England they took it without Resentment nay improved it rather into new Kindness than Quarrel making use of the King 's good Nature to engage him in a Prorogation of the Parliament immediately after which made it appear both at home and abroad that they had still the Ascendant upon our Court. They eluded the effect of the Message sent them by Lord Duras with His Majesty's Scheme of the Peace by drawing it out into Expostulations of Kindness and so into Treaty During this Amusement of our Court they plyed their business in Holland yet with greater Art and Industry poysoned the
upon her back carryed him cross two Rooms set him down at the bottom of the Stairs pull'd off his Shoes put him on a pair of Slippers that stood there and all this without saying a word but when she had done told him He might go up to her Mistress who was in her Chamber I am very glad to have a little divertion with such pleasantries as these the thoughts of the busie Scene I was so deep engaged in that I will confess the very remembrance of it and all the strange surprizing turns of it began to renew those cruel Motions they had raised both in my head and heart whilst I had so great and so sensible a part in them But to return where I left the thread of these Affairs After the Peace of Holland and France the Ministers of the Confederates especially those of Denmark and Brandenbargh employed their last Efforts to prevent the Spaniards agreeing to their part of the Peace as accepted for them by the Dutch They exclaimed at their breach of Honour and Interest That what was left the Spaniards in Flanders by those Terms was indefensible and could serve but to exhaust their Men and Treasures to no purpose That the Design of France was only to break this present Confederacy by these separate Treaties and so leave the Spaniards abandoned by their Allies upon the next Invasion which they would have reason to expect if Spain should use them with as little regard of their Honour and Treaties as the Dutch Ambassadors seemed to design These themselves also met with some difficulties in their Mediation by a Pretension raised in France upon the County of Beaumont and Town of Bovigues which they did not find to have been mentioned in what had passed between the French and Dutch upon the score of Spain before the Peace was signed All these Circumstances began to make it look uncertain what would at length be determined by the States as to their Ratifications which were like to be delayed till Spain had concluded their Treaty though those of France had been dispatched so as to arrive at Nimeguen the twenty second of this Month and Monsieur d' Avaux commanded from thence to the Hague in quality of Ambassador Extraordinary to the States and the French Army had retired into France at the same time the Dutch return'd from before Mons. So that all seemed on the French side resolved to pursue the Peace on the side of the Empire and Princes of the North to carry on the War On the Spaniards very irresolute whether or no to accept the Peace the Dutch had mediated for them And in Holland 't was doubtful whether to ratifie that their Ambassadors had signed and whether at least before the Treaty of Spain should be agreed Whilst the minds of men were busied with different reasonings and presages as well as wishes upon this Conjuncture About the end of August Mr. Hyde arrived at the Hague from England without the least intimation given me of his Journey or his Errand so that I was surprized both to see him and to hear the design of such a sudden dispatch The substance of it was to acquaint the States how much the King had been surprized at the news of their Ambassadors having signed a particular Treaty with France even without the inclusion of Spain and without any Guaranty given for the evacution of the Towns within the time requisit To complain of this Precipitation of the States and at the same time of the new Pretensions that Franee had advanced upon the County of Beaumont and the Town of Bovigues which had retarded the Peace of Spain and hindred it from being concluded at the same time with that of Holland which His Majesty understood always to have been the Intention of the States as well as His own That for these Reasons he understood and believed that the late Treaty of July between His Majesty and the States ought to take effect the case being fallen out against which that was provided and both Parties being thereby obliged to enter jointly into the War against France That if the States would hereupon refuse to ratify the Treaty their Ministers had signed at Nimeguen His Majesty offered to declare War immediately against France and carry it on in all points according to the Articles and Obligations of the said Treaty with the States Tho' Mr. Hyde did not know or did not tell me the true spring of this resolute pace that was made by our Court so different from all the rest in the whole course of this Affair yet he assured me they were both in earnest and very warm upon the scent and desired nothing so much as to enter immediately and vigorously into the War in case Holland would be perswaded to continue it and that no time nor endeavours were to be neglected in pursuing the Commission he brought over which was given jointly to us both and recommended to me particularly from Court with all the instances and earnestness that could be When I carried him that very Evening to the Prince at Hounslerdike and he acquainted his Highness with the whole extent of his Errand and Instructions The Prince received it very coldly and only advised him to give in a Memorial to the States and ask Commissioners to treat by whom he would find what the Mind of the States was like to be upon this Affair and at which he would at present make no conjecture After a short Audience Mr. Hyde went to the Princess and left me alone with the Prince who as soon as he was gone lift up his Hands two or three times and said Was ever any thing so hot and so cold as this Court of yours Will the King that is so often at Sea never learn a Word that I shall never forget since my last passage When in a great Storm the Captain was all Night crying out to the Man at the Helm Steddy Steddy Steddy if this Dispatch had come twenty days ago it had changed the Face of Affairs in Christendom and the War might have been carried on till France had yielded to the Treaty of the Pyrenees and left the World in quiet for the rest of our lives As it comes now it will have no effect at all at least that is my opinion tho I would not say so to Mr. Hyde After this he ask'd me what I could imagin was at the bottom of this new heat in our Court and what could make it break out so mal a propos after the dissatisfaction they had expressed upon the late Treaty when it was first sent over and the Dispatch of De Cros so contrary to the design of it I told him very truly That I was perfectly ignorant of the whole matter and could give no guess at the motions of it And so I continued till some Months after when I was advised That the business of the Plot which has since made so much noise in the World was just
That if a King could engage them in his designs he had no more to do for the Peasants having no Land were as insignificant in the Government as the Women and Children are here That on the contrary the great bulk of Land in England lies in the hands of the Yeomanry or lower Gentry and their hearts are high by ease and plenty as those of the French Peasantry are wholly dispirited by labour and want That the Kings of France are very great in possessions of Lands and in dependances by such vast numbers of Offices both Military and Civil as well as Ecclesiastical whereas those of England having few Offices to bestow having parted with their Lands their Court of Wards and Knights Service have no means to raise or keep Armies on foot but by supplies from their Parliaments nor Revenues to maintain any foreign War by other ways That if they had an Army on Foot yet if compos'd of English they would never serve ends that the People hated and fear'd That the Roman Catholicks in England were not the hundredth part of the Nation and in Scotland not the two hundredth and it seem'd against all common sense to think by one part to govern Ninety nine that were of contrary minds and humours That for foreign Troops if they were few they would signifie nothing but to raise hatred and discontent and how to raise to bring over at once and to maintain many was very hard to imagin That the Force seeming necessary to subdue the Liberties and Spirits of this Nation could not be esteem'd less than an Army of Threescore thousand men since the Romans were forced to keep Twelve Legions to that purpose the Norman to institute Sixty two thousand Knights Fees and Cromwell left an Army of near Eighty thousand men That I never knew but one Foreigner that understood England well which was Gourville whom I knew the King esteem'd the soundest Head of any Frenchman he had ever seen That when I was at Brussels in the first Dutch War and he heard the Parliament grew weary of it he said The King had nothing to do but to make the Peace That he had been long enough in England seen enough of our Court and People Parliaments to conclude Qu'un Roy d' Angleterre qui veut estree l'homme de son peuple est le plus grand Roy du monde mais s'il veut estre quelque chose d'advantage par Dieu il n'est plus rien The King heard me all very attentively but seem'd a little impatient at first Yet at last he said I had reason in all and so had Gourville and laying his hand upon mine he added Et je veux estre l'homme de mon peuple My Ambassy extraordinary to Holland was declar'd in May and my Dispatches finish'd at the Treasury as well as the Secretary's Office so as I went away in July My instructions were in general To assure the States of His Majesty's Friendship and firm Resolution to observe his Treaties with them then to offer his Mediation in the present War which both They and almost all Christendom were engag'd in and after their acceptance of it to endeavour it likewise with all their Allies and to that end to engage the Offices and Intervention of the States But immediately after my arrival at the Hague to repair to the Prince of Orange give him part of His Majesties Intentions in all this Affair and assurance of his kindness and engage His Highness as far as could be to second His Majesty's desires in promoting a General Peace wherein the Vnited Provinces seem'd to have the greatest Interest After my arrival at the Hague in July 1674. and a deliveâ—y of my Credentials to the President of the Week and a Visit to the Pensioner wherein I discover'd a strong inclination in the States to a Peace as far as their Honour and Engagâ—ments to their Allies would allow them and was assur'd of the States accepting His Majesty's Mediation I went away to Antwerp in hopes to have found the Prince at his Camp there between Antwerp and Lovain where he had lain some time attending the Advance of the Confederate Troops with whom he had concerted to joyn his Army upon their arrival in Flanders But two days before I came to Antwerp the Army was march'd beyond Lovain so as I was forc'd to go to Brussels and there desire a Guard to convey me to the Camp The Punctilio's of my Character would not suffer me to see the Count Montery tho I had for some Years liv'd at Brussels in particular Friendship and Conversation with him Few Strangers had perhaps ever been better us'd than I during three years Residence at Brussels by all Persons of Quality and indeed of all Ranks there so that it was very surprizing to me to meet such a dry and cold Treatment from the Governor and such an Affectation of the Persons of Quality not so much as to visit me for I do not remember one that did it besides Count d' Egmont who was then not very well at Court either in Spain or Flanders Others true I met in the Streets or the Park though they came with open arms to embrace me yet never came at me but contented themselves with saying They intended it When I sent my Secretary to the Count Montery with my Compliments and Desires of a Guard to the Prince of Orange who was then not above six Leagues off he return'd the first very coldly and the other with Excuses that amounted to a Refusal he said The Way was so dangerous by stragling Parties of the Army that he could not advise me to venture with a small Guard and he had drawn out so many of the Spanish Troops into the Field that he could not give me a great one I sent again to desire what he could spare me let the number be what it would for though I would not expose the King's Character nor his Business by any Accident I might prevent yet when I had endeavour'd it by my Application to his Excellence I would take my fortune tho he sent me but six of his Guards He replied That he could not possibly spare any of them but that next morning he expected a Troop of Horse to come into Town and that as soon as it arriv'd the Captain should have order to attend me Next morning was put off till night and night to the morning following when the Count finding I was resolv'd to go though without Convoy rather than to expect longer sent me a Spanish Captain with about Forty Horse to convey me to Lovain The truth was that the Spaniards were grown so jealous of His Majesty's Mediation offer'd at the Hague of the States and Peoples violent humour to a Peace in Holland and of the Offices they thought I might use to slacken the Prince of Orange in the vigorous Prosecution of their present Hopes and Designs that I found it was resolv'd to
my own part I can say nothing of it with certainty having never seen the Prince while it was upon the Anvil no discours'd with him upon this Subject either before or after but if it were an ambition bent upon the Soveraignty of the rest of the Provinces as well as Gelderland it was a design very different from all his proceedings in the course of the War when France had propos'd it to him with all the advantages and support that could be and as different from what he had ever seem'd to understand and to be as much perswaded of as any Man That a Soveraign Prince in Holland would certainly and soon ruin the Trade and consequently the Riches and Greatness of that State and leave a Prince of it without power or consideration in the world whereas the Princes of Orange in the Post they have held for four Generations have enter'd into Wars and Treaties with a regard and weight equal to most of the Kings of Christendom For young Councellors that were thought to have engag'd the Prince in this adventure I cannot speak with more certainty than of the intention but I am sure if they were in it they were not alone for none doubts of Monsieur Fagel's having been for it and Monsieur Beverning who was ever thought as stanch a Patriot as any Man among them told me himself that he had advis'd the Prince to accept it which I believe he would not have done if he had foreseen any danger from it to his Countrey But whether the Prince or his Friends had the part that was commonly thought in the first overture 't is certain an Interest of the Deputies and Magistrates as well as Nobles of Gelderland had a share in it too For whereas this is the first Province in the Union and abounds with Nobles more than all the rest yet by reason of their Poverty from a barran Soil and want of Trade they are less consider'd than several other Provinces and their Voice has been in a manner swallow'd up by that of Holland who by their Trade and Riches have a great influence upon those of Gelderland The Deputies of this Province finding themselves yet less considerable in the Union than they were before the War which had extreamly impoverish'd their Countrey during the French Conquests thought there was no way of recovering such a consideration in the State as suited with the rank and dignity they held but devolving the Soveraignty of their Province upon the Prince of Orange Besides many of the Nobles there having pretences for themselves or their Friends in the Military imployments thought to make their Court to the Prince upon whom those Charges depended by advancing such a proposition and this was certainly a great ingredient into the first conception of it but whether conniv'd at or seconded by the Prince or his Friends or with what Aims or Instructions I cannot say and so leave it as a Mushroom that grew up suddenly and as suddenly wither'd and left no sign where it had grown At the Prince's return to the Hague in March 1675. I receiv'd a Letter from His Majesty's own hand telling me of some advices given him That the Prince intended to come over into England against the approaching Session of Parliament and Commanding me to hinder it as if His Majesty believ'd the thing I adventur'd to assure the King there could be nothing of it before I saw the Prince but when I did I pretended not to have had it from His Majesty but that I heard such a thing had been whisper'd to him He said yes and he believ'd by the Lord Arlington who had some times talk'd of that Journey after the Peace should be made However it came he was sorry the King should believe it That he was His Majesty's Servant and if he could do him no service he would at least do him no harm But if the King would be otherwise possest he could not help it yet desired me to assure him there had never been any ground for such a report In the Afternoon the Prince came to me and told me in great heat he had since he saw me receiv'd the most impertinent Letter from Lord Arlington that ever was upon that Subject treating it as a resolution certain and intended for raising heats in the Parliament and commotions in the Kingdom telling him 'T was like to prove but an ill friendship between the King and him if it was to be made A coup de bastons and putting him in mind Qu'il y a de ployes chez vous qui saigneront encore si l'on y met la main The Prince said he knew well enough what Lord Arlington meant by that expression for he had told Monsieur Read in England when he went over upon the first motions of the last Peace That the King could make the Prince be serv'd as De Witt was if he would set himself about it Upon this he fell into the greatest rage that ever I saw him against my Lord Arlington calling this proceeding malicious and insolent saying He would write to him what he deserv'd but never have any thing more to do with him beyond common forms That since he knew not how to trust the King's Ministers He would write to the King himself and desir'd me to convey his Letters so as they might come to no other hand Soon after Count Waldeek went to Vienna to concert the Actions of the next Campagnia where Count Montecuculi was appointed to command the Imperial Forces instead of Duke Bornonville and the Count Souches was sent away into a Government in Hungary In March the Elector of Brandenburgh came to Cleve upon the same concert where he was met by the Prince of Orange and the Marquess De Grana the Emperor's Minister but the main point debated here was thought to be the Defence necessary to be made in Pomerania against the Swede who began now to throw off the mask to Ravage the Countrey and to attack some places necessary for their Quarters The Moneys likewise paid that Court from France at Hamburgh had been so publick and so avow'd that none further doubted of a sudden and open Rupture from that Crown Whereupon the States sent to Monsieur Ehernstein then Swedish Ambassador at the Hague and who would have kept still the Figure of a Mediator to put in no more Memorials to the States upon that occasion since they could not receive them from a Minister of a Prince who had openly and without cause Attacqu'd one of their Allies At this time arriv'd an Ambassador from Denmark at the Hague to try what advantages his Master could make of this Present Conjuncture by Terms of entring into the Alliance with France and Sweden And all things being thus in the highest Fermentation a sudden damp fell upon the whole mass of these great affairs by the Sickness of the Prince of Orange which show'd him to be the Spring that gave motion to all
so enrag'd at the Growth of my Lord Treasurer's Credit upon the Fall of His Own that he fell in with the common humour of the Parliament in fomenting those Jealousies and Practices in the House of Commons which center'd in a Measure agreed among the most considerable of them Not to consent to give the King any Money whil'st the present Lord Treasurer continued Upon these occasions or dispositions they grew very high in pursuing the Lord Lauderdale the only remainder of the Cabal that had now any credit left at Court and they pressed the King very earnestly to recal all the English Troops in the French Service tho there was a greater number in the Dutch But besides they fell into so great dissentions between the Two Houses rais'd upon punctilious disputes and deductions of their several Priviledges in opposition to one another that about the end of June the King Prorogued them Upon my arrival soon after His Majesty telling me the several reasons that had mov'd him to it said That he doubted much while the War lasted abroad it would give occasion or pretence for these heats that had of late appeared in the Parliament and make him very uneasie in his Revenue which so much needed their assistance That some of the warm Leaders in both Houses had a mind to engage him in a War with France which they should not do for many reasons and among the rest because he was sure if they did they would leave him in it and make use of it to ruin his Ministers and make him depend upon Them more than he intended or any King would desire But besides all this he doubted an impertinent quarrel between my Lord Treasurer and Lord Chamberlain did him more disservice in the Parliament than I could imagin for the last did not care what harm he did His business there so he could hope to ruin my Lord Treasurer and had perswaded a great many in the House of Commons that this would certainly be compass'd if they were stanch and declar'd in giving no Money during his Ministry That he knew they were both my Friends and therefore desir'd I would try to reconcile them while I stay'd in England I endeavour'd it but fail'd my Lord Danby was very inclinable being so posted as to desire only to continue where he was and that the King's business might go well in his hands but my Lord Arlington was so uneasie in the posture he stood which he attributed chiefly to my Lord Treasurer's present Greatness that he was untreatable upon this Subject So when I found the Wound was too much wrankled to be cur'd I gave it over telling each of them That since I could not make them Friends I would at least live with them both as if they were so and desir'd them not to expect I should sacrifice one Friend to another My Lord Treasurer was content with this frankness but Lord Arlington could not bear this neither grew dry from this time and stiff in all that pass'd between us still mingling little reproaches or touches of my greatness with the other and grew so weary of the Scene at Court where he found himself left out that he went into the Countrey for the rest of the Summer Thus the seeds of discontents that had been sown in the Parliament under the Councels of the Cabal began to spring fast and root deep after their Power and Influence was wholly at an end and those Heats were under other covers fomented by two of the chief that composs'd that Ministry and with help of time and accident grew to such flames as have since appear'd But whatever began or increas'd them 't is certain these agitations in England had great effect upon those of the War and Peace abroad For the Confederates were confident That the humour of the Parliament and People would at last engage the King in their quarrel which they knew would force France to such a Peace as they desir'd and Spain was so presuming That England would not suffer the loss of Flanders that they grew careless of its Defence or of those Orders and Supplies that were necessary to it trusting for the present to the Dutch to preserve it and to the King hereafter whenever he should find it more in danger And these Considerations made the Allies less inclinable to a Peace which they might have had cheaper the following Winter than ever it fell afterwards to their share by Revolutions that were not foreseen but yet such as were suspected at this time by those that knew the weakness of the Spaniards and divisions of the Imperial Court While I stay'd in England which was about six weeks the News came of a great Insurrection in Bretanny which with the Numbers and Rage it began might have prov'd of ill consequence to the French Affairs if it had met with a Head answerable to the Body but being compos'd of a scum of the mean People that hated and spoil'd the Nobles of the Province it was by fair means partly and by foul in a little time appeas'd The Blow which was much more considerable to France than the loss of Provinces would have been was the death of Monsieur Turenne the News whereof came to Court about the same time This great Captain had for three months together kept the Imperial Army at a bay on t'other side the Rhine resolv'd not to fight unless with the greatest advantage his Point being to hinder the German Forces from besieging Philipsburgh from posting themselves in the Towns of Alsace but chiefly from entring into Lorain or the County of Burgundy All these he perform'd but being press'd by the Imperialists and straitned in his Quarters he suffered much by want of Provisions and found his Army diminish'd by Sickness and Desertion which use to follow that condition At last being necessitated for want of Forage to force a Post of the Enemies that straitned him most a warm Skirmish began and with loss to the French that were gall'd with two Pieces of Cannon rais'd upon an Eminence and playing upon them with advantage Monsieur Turenne resolv'd to raise a Battery to dismount them and going with Saint Hilaire a Lieutenant General to chuse a place the most convenient for it the two small Pieces from the Imperial side fir'd at them almost together one of the Bullets wounded Saint Hilaire in the Shoulder and t'other after two or three bounds upon the ground struck Monsieur Turenne upon the Breast and without any apparent Wound more than the Contusion laid him Dead upon the place and by such a Death as Caesar us'd to wish for unexpected sudden and without pain The astonishment was unspeakable in the French Camp upon the loss of such a General the presumption as great in That of the Imperialists who reckon'd upon themselves as Masters of the whole French Army that was straitned between Them and the Rhine in want diseas'd and above all discourag'd by the loss of their Captain All
State but he and Lord Arlington were soon satisfied to how good purpose he came over for the Prince who is the sincerest Man in the World hating all tricks and those that use them gave him no mark of the least confidence while he stayed and sent him away with a very plain one of the contrary by trusting another hand with all he writ of consequence into England before he went into the Field The truth is the Prince took this Journey of his to have been design'd by my Lord Arlington both out of spight to me and to give jealousies to the Confederates by the suspicion of something in agitation between the King and the Prince that I was not thought fit to be trusted with and indeed several of their Ministers at the Hague were apt to fall into such surmises But Monsieur de Lyra a Spanish Minister a person much credited in his own Court and much in the Prince's Confidence was ever firm in the belief of His Highnesses Honour and Constancy which he us'd to say his Master trusted to more than to any Treaties and so help'd to prevent all such impressions In the mean time all motions necessary towards forming the Congress at Nimeguen began to be made by the several Parties and gave appearances of the Ambassadors meeting suddenly there The great obstruction hitherto had been the point of Prince William of Furstenberg's Liberty which France had absolutely insisted on before they sent their Ambassadors and the Emperor had been induced to promise only upon conclusion of the Treaty But an Expedient was found out to salve the Honour of France upon this point rather than the Treaty should be hinder'd which was at that time thought necessary for their Affairs The Bishop of Strasburg made a formal request to the King of France That no Private Interests or Respects of his Brother might delay the Treaty of a Peace which was of so much consequence to all Christendom and this Request being at this time easily receiv'd and granted no further difficulty was made upon this point His Majesty thereupon invited all the Princes concern'd in the War to hasten away their Ministers to the place of Congress and acquainted them with his having order'd his own to repair immediately thither and having some Months before appointed the Lord Berkly then Ambassador at Paris Sir William Temple and Sir Lionel Jenkins His Ambassadors Mediators and Plenipotentiaries for the Treaty of Nimeguen Sir Lionel was accordingly dispatch'd away and arriv'd at the Hague towards the end of January 1676. and brought with him our instructions for that Ambassy and after some few days stay at the Hague went away for Nimeguen But the Expedition of the Pasports from and to all the Ministers of the several Parties having been for some time under my care and many of them come to my hands tho' others were entangled still in some difficulty or other we both concluded it necessary for me to continue at the Hague till this was dispatch'd whilst Sir Lionel should go upon the place of Congress and by the presence of a Mediator invite the rest to make more haste than many of them seem'd dispos'd to at this time The French Ambassadors were already come to Charleville where they stayed for their Pasports only to go on with their Journey and upon Sir Lionel's arrival at the Hague the Dutch Ambassadors came to us to acquaint us with the States Orders for their immediate repair to Nimeguen and for the Magistrates of that City which they now consider'd as a Neutral Town to receive all Orders from us the Mediators and particularly any we pleas'd to give about our reception upon our arrival there We told them His Majesty's thoughts were upon the successes of the Treaty and that nothing could more obstruct it than the Ceremonies which used to attend those Meetings and therefore he order'd us to introduce as much as we could the method of all the Ambassadors living there as much like private men as could consist with the Honour of their Characters and to this end that we should make no publick Entries and give thereby an example to those that came after us To avoid all punctilio's about the time of the several Parties dispatching the Passports it was agreed that all should be sent to the Hague from the several Courts and there should be put into my hands to the end that when I found my self possess'd I should make the distribution reciprocally to both Parties at the same time Those of France were early with me but short in some points of those from the Confederates the chief whereof was the omission of Liberty granted to the Ambassadors to dispatch Couriers to their Masters Courts upon Passports of the respective Ambassadors which was thought necessary for the progress of the Treaty Another was the omission of Passports for the Duke of Lorain's Ministers in the form usual and expected for whereas the Crown of France had always treated the former Dukes of Lorain with the Titles of Duke and Appellations of Brother their Passports now treated the new Duke only with Cousin and Prince Charles of Lorain the rest were minute differences or mistakes of words which are not worth the mention and were easily surmounted Of all these his Majesty had early notice and imploy'd his Offices towards France for some months without answer upon that of Lorain and with positive refusal of inserting the Clause for liberty of Pasports tho Monsieur Van Beuningham several times during this pause writ to the States That the King often assur'd him their Ambassador at London That there should be no difficulty in the business of Loroin About the beginning of February this year 1676. I receiv'd a Letter from Monsieur Pompone then Secretary for the Foreign Affairs in France to tell me That his Master having been acquainted from His Majesty with the difficulties occurr'd in forming the Congress had order'd him to let me know his Reasons upon them As to that of Couriers That he thought it not fit to have his Countries and Towns lie open to his Enemies Observations and Discoveries upon pretext of such Couriers frequent passage That the inconvenience would be the same to the Confederates and that he ask'd no more than he gave As to the Point of Lorain That his Master could not give Passports with the stile of Duke which carried that of Brother pretending that Dutchy belong'd to His Most Christian Majesty by the Treaty in 1662. between Him and the last Duke Not many days after I receiv'd notice from Secretary Williamson of the same Account having been given His Majesty by Monsieur Ruvigny with order to acquaint the States with it which I had not done upon Monsieur Pompone's Letter as not thinking fit to make any paces in these matters without Orders from His Majesty The States and all their Allies were very much surpris'd with this pretence of Lorain which France had never before advanc'd or so much as
and considerable in England who would fain have engag'd them to Head the Discontents that were rais'd by the Conduct of the Court in that whole War which he knew was begun and carried on quite contrary to the humour of the Nation and might perhaps have prov'd very dangerous to the Crown if it had not ended as it did That all these persons who pretended to be much his Friends were extreamly against any thoughts of his marrying in England Their Reasons were That he would by it lose all the Esteem and Interest he had there and be believed to have run wholly into the dispositions and designs of the Court which were generally thought so different from those of the Nation especially upon the Point of Religion that his Friends there did not believe the Government could be long without some great Disturbance unless they chang'd their Measures which was not esteem'd very likely to be done and upon this he desir'd my thoughts as a Friend The next was upon the Person and Dispositions of the Young Lady for tho' it would not pass in the World for a Prince to seem concern'd in those particulars yet for himself he would tell me without any sort of affectation that he was so and in such a degree that no Circumstances of Fortune or Interest would engage him without those of the Person especially those of Humour and Dispositions That he might perhaps be not very easie for a Wife to live with he was sure he should not to such Wives as were generally in the Courts of this Age. That if he should meet with one to give him trouble at home 't was what he should not be able to bear who was like to have enough abroad in the course of his Life and that after the manner he was resolv'd to live with a Wife which should be the best he could He would have one that he thought likely to live well with him which he thought chiefly depended upon their Disposition and Education and if I knew any thing particular of the Lady Mary in these points he desir'd me to tell him freely I answer'd his Highness That I was very glad to find he was resolv'd to Marry being what he owed his Family and Friends That I was much more pleas'd that his inclination led him to endeavour it in England That I thought it as much for his interest as others of his English Friends thought it was against it That the King and his Highness would ever be able to do one another more good and more harm than any other Princes could do either of them by being Friends or Enemies That it was a great step to be one degree nearer the Crown and in all appearance the next That for his Friends as they pretended in England they must see much further than I did to believe the King in any such dangers or difficulties as they imagin'd That the Crown of England stood upon surer foundations than ever it had done in former times and the more for what had pass'd in the last Reign and that I believ'd the people would be found better Subjects than perhaps the King himself believ'd them That it was however in his power to be as well with them as he pleas'd and to make as short turns to such an end if not yet with the help of a little good husbandry he might pass his Reign in Peace tho' not perhaps with so much ease at home or glory abroad as if he fell into the vein of his pople That if the Court were of sentiments different from those of His Highness yet his Advâ—â—ers would make him a greater Compliment in believing him as likely to induce the Court to his as in concluding they would bring him to theirs and if that should happen the most seditious men in England would be hard put to it to find an ill side in such a Match That for the other point I could say nothing to it but that I had always heard my Wife and my Sister speak with all the advantage that could be of what they could discern in a Princess so young and more from what they had been told by the Governess with whom they had a particular friendship and who they were sure took all the care that could be in so much of Education as fell to her share After two hours discourse upon this subject the Prince concluded he would enter upon this pursuit and in order to it would write both to the King and the Duke to beg their favour to him in it and their leave that he might go over into England at the end of the Campania That my Wife who was then going over upon my private Affairs should carry and deliver both his Letters and during her stay there should endeavour to inform her self the most particularly she could of all that concern'd the Person Humour and Dispositions of the young Princess in which he seem'd so much concern'd Within two or three days after these Discourses the Prince brought his Letters to my Wife and went immediately to the Army and she went suddenly after into England with those Dispatches and left me preparing for my Journey to Nimeguen where the Dutch first and after them the French Ambassadors were arriv'd and consequently those of the two principal Parties in the War Before I went Du Moulin met my Chaplain in the Forhaut and told him He was so ill that he knew he had not long to live and that he could not die in quiet without asking my Pardon for so many false and injurious things as he confess'd to have said of me since my last Ambassy there tho' he had before had all the esteem that could be for me He desir'd my Chaplain since I had always refus'd to see him that he would do this Office for him and ask my Pardon as from a dying Man This Moulin after having been much imploy'd and favour'd by my Lord Arlington during the Councels and Vogue of of the Triple Alliance and disgrac'd by him after the change of those Measures in England went over into Holland was entertain'd by the Prince as one of his Secretaries grew into great favour and confidence during the War was made use of by the Discontents of England in their Applications at the Hague was thought worth all my Lord Arlington's instances and endeavours when he was at the Hague to remove him from the Prince's Service I receiv'd afterwards Commands to the same purpose and compass'd it not without time and difficulty he had not been long laid aside when this happen'd and whether that or the knowledge of the Prince's late resolution to pursue the Match in England help'd to break his heart or whether it were a Consumption as his Friends gave out I know not but he died soon after and with him the Intrigues of that Party in England that had for some time imployed him and busied his Friends in Holland After many delays in the Dispatch and exchange of
the Passports I got loose from the Hague about the beginning of July 1676. upon my journey to Nimeguen where the French and Dutch Ambassadors being already arriv'd prest very much for my coming in regard Sir Lionel Jenkins excus'd himself from performing any acts or Offices of the Mediation till my arrival and contented himself to pass only the usual Visits The dispositions I observ'd in the several Parties towards the success of this Congress when I went in order to the opening of it were very different and very unlikely to draw it to any sudden issue but only to attend and be Govern'd by the Successes of the several Armies in the Field and the events expected from the Actions of the Campania The French had given all the facility they could for some Months past to the forming of the Congress and made all the haste they could for their Ambassadors to be upon the place desiring no better Peace than upon the present Plan of Affairs and hoping by their forwardness and the great backwardness of some of the Allies to make way for some separate Treaties with those among them who began to be impatient for the Peace The House of Austria was sullen as losers use to be and so were very slow and testy in all their paces towards this Treaty The Germans hoping for great successes of their Arms in this Campania and the Spaniards flattering themselves with the Interests His Majesty had in the preservation of Flanders and with the part which the Parliament in England seem'd of late to have taken in their Affairs and both were in hopes that something might arise from one of these sides to make room for pretensions that could not be in countenance as things stood at present The Swede was very earnest for a Peace as having more hopes of recovering himself that way than by the course of a War Denmark and Brandenburgh were violent for continuing the War finding the Swedes weak divided and unrelievable by France any otherwise than with their Moneys and hoping to drive them this Summer out of Germany The States were very desirous of the Peace having no pretences of their own but to get well out of a War that ruin'd their Trade and drain'd their Money but they durst not break from their Confederates not trusting England enough nor France at all so as to leave themselves in a condition of depending upon either of them after the Peace should be made One general Thread run through the Councils on both sides on the French to break the confidence and union of the Confederacy by different paces and advances to the several Parties in the course of the Treaty on the Confederates to preserve the same confidence and union with which they had carried on the War even after the Peace should be made His Majesty tho' he was offer'd by some of the Parties to be Arbiter as well as Mediator in the present differences and was known by them all to have it in his power to make that figure as he pleas'd yet chose the other and gave us orders accordingly only to perform the Offices of a bare Mediation and to avoid the Parties submitting their differences to his determination so that upon the whole it was easie to foresee the Congress would only prove a business of form and proceed no otherwise than as it should be mov'd or rather govern'd by the events of the Field However the opening of it might well be call'd the dawn of a Peace which put me in mind of the only Prophecy of this sort that I had ever thought worth taking notice of nor should I have done so but that Monsieur Colbert show'd it me at my coming to Nimeguen and made me remember to have seen it in my Lord Arlington's hands in the year 1668. who told me it was very old and had been found in some Abby of Germany It was in these terms Lilium intrabit in terram Leonis feras in brachiis gerens Aquila movebit alas in auxilium veniet filius hominis ab Austro tunc erit ingens bellum per totum terrarum orbem sed post quatuor annos pax elucescet salus erit filio hominis unde exitium putabatur Those that have a mind to give credit to such Prophesies from the course of events must allow the Leopards the Ancient Arms of England to be meant by Feras the King of Spain by filius hominis the Congress at Nimeguen four years after the War began by the Dawn of Peace and Spain's having been sav'd by the States or the Prince of Orange by those from whom their ruin was expected But I easily believe that as most Prophecies that run the World arise from the Contrivances of Crafty or the Dreams of Enthusiastical Heads and the Sense of them where there is any lies wrapt up in mystical or incoherent expressions fit to receive many sorts of Interpretations and some perhaps from the leisure of great Wits that are ill entertain'd and seek diversion to themselves by writing things at random with the scornful thought of amuzing the World about nothing so others of them are broach'd for old either after events happen or when they are so probable as to be easily conjectur'd by fore-seeing men And it seems strange that of the first kind being so many no more happen to be fulfill'd with the help of so much inclination to credit as well as so much invention to wrest the meaning of words to the sense pretended But whether this I mention may not have been one of the last kind is uncertain for in that very year it was produc'd and given my Lord Arlington by a French Man as he told me the design of this War was not only laying but well advanc'd by the Practices of Monsieur Colbert upon the Ministers of our Court where he was then Ambassador and by the violent humour of my Lord Clifford to enter the Leagues then projected by France so that the very day the Parliament gave his Majesty a mighty sum of Money to Compliment him upon so applauded a Councel and Success as that of the Triple Alliance in the Year 1668. That Lord coming out of the House of Commons where he was then a Member could not hold saying to a Friend of mine who came out with him That for all this great joy it must not be long before we have another War with Holland And which of these two Prophesies were the more to be consider'd or the better ininspir'd I leave it to every one to guess as they please Nimeguen is seated upon the side of a Hill which is the last of Germany and stoops upon the River Woal that washes the lower part of the Town and divides it from the Betow an Island lying all upon flat low Ground between the Woal and the old Rhine which was the ancient Seat of those the Romans call'd Batavians and for their Bravery and love of Liberty took into their Confederacy
should fall into it with the greatest Regret that could be yet he did not see what else was to be done and did not know one Man in Holland that was not of the same Mind That he did not talk with me as an Ambassador but a Friend whose Opinion he esteem'd and desir'd That he told me freely Leur fort leur soible and would be glad to know what else I thought they could do upon all these Circumstances Et dans accablement de leur Estat par une si longue guerre I return'd his Compliment but excus'd my self from giving my Opinion to a Person so well able to take Measures that were the fittest for the States Conduct or his own but desir'd to know what He reckon'd would become of Flanders after the Dutch had made their Separate Peace because the Fate of that Countrey was that wherein the rest of their Neighbours were concern'd as well as they He answer'd It would be lost in one Summer or in two but more probably in one That he believ'd Cambray Valenciennes Namur and Mons might be lost in one Summer That after their Loss the great Towns within would not offer at defending themselves excepting Antwerp and Ostend for which they might perhaps take some Measures with France as I knew the French had offer'd Monsieur de Witt upon their first Invasion in 1667. I ask'd him how he reckon'd this State was to live with France after the Loss of Flanders And if he thought it could be otherwise than at Discretion He desir'd me to believe that if they would hope to save Flanders by the War they would not think of a Separate Peace but if it must be lost they had rather it should be by the last which would less exhaust their Country and dishonour the Prince That after Flanders was lost they must live so with France as would make them find it their Interest rather to preserve their State than to destroy it That it was not to be chosen but to be swallow'd like a desperate Remedy That he had hop'd for some Resource from better Conduct in the Spanish Affairs or that some great Impression of the German Armies upon that side of France might have brought the Peace to some reasonable Terms That for his own part he had ever believ'd that England it self would cry Halt at one step or other that France was making and that if we would be content to see half Flanders lost yet we would not all nor Sicily neither for the Interest of our Trade in the Mediterranean That the King had the Peace in his Hands for these two Years past might have made it when he pleas'd and upon such Conditions as he should think fit of Justice and Safety to the rest of his Neighbours as well as himself That all Men knew France was not in a condition to refuse whatever Terms His Majesty resolv'd on or to venture a War with England in Conjunction with the rest of the Allies That the least show of it if at all credited in France was enough to make the Peace That they had long represented all this in England by Monsieur Van Beuninghen and offer'd His Majesty to be the Arbiter of it and to fall into the Terms he should prescribe but not a Word in Answer and all received with such a Coldness as never was though other People thought we had reason to be a little more concern'd That this put him more upon thinking a separate Peace necessary than all the rest That he confes'd Cuncta prius tentanda till he found at last 't was immedicabile vulnus That for their living with France after Flanders was lost he knew well enough what I meant by asking but after that the Aims of France would be more upon Italy or Germany or perhaps upon us than them That it could not be the Interest of Franco to Destroy or Conquer this State but to preserve it in a Dependance upon that Crown That they could make better Use of the Dutch Fleets than of a few poor Fisher Towns that they should be reduc'd to if any Violation were made either upon their Liberties or Religion That the King of France had seen their Country and knew it and understood it so and said upon all Occasions That he had rather have them for his Friends than his Subjects But if after all I concluded their State must fall in four and twenty Hours yet it were better for them to defer it to the last Hour and that it should happen at Night rather than at Noon This was discours'd with such Vehemence and Warmth that he was not able to go on and having said It was not a Matter to be resolv'd between us Two I left him after wishing him Health enough to go through the Thoughts and Businesses of so great a Conjuncture Next Morning I went to the Prince and after some common Talk told him what had past in my Visit to the Pensioner and ask'd His Highness If he had seen him since or knew any thing of it He said No and so I told him the Detail of it and upon Conclusion That he said he saw nothing else to be done but to make a separate Peace and that he knew not a Man in Holland who was not of his Mind The Prince interrupted me saying Yes I am sure I know one and that is My Self and I will hinder it as long as I can but if any thing should happen to me I know it would be done in two days time I ask'd him Whether he was of the Pensioner's Mind as to what he thought likely to happen the next Campania He said The Appearance were ill but Campania's did not always end as they began That Accidents might happen which no Man could fore-see and that if they came to one fair Battel none could answer for the Event That the King might make the Peace if he pleas'd before it began but if we were so indifferent as to let this Season pass for his part he must go on and take his Fortune That he had seen that Morning a poor old Man tugging alone in a little Boat with his Oars against the Eddy of a Sluce upon a Canal that when with the last Endeavours he was just got up to the Place intended Force of the Eddy carried him quite back again but he turn'd his Boat as soon as he could and fell to his Oars again and thus three or four times while the Prince saw him and concluded this old Man's Business and His were too like one another and that he ought however to do just as the old Man did without knowing what would succeed any more than what did in the poor Man's Case All that pass'd upon these Discourses I represented very particularly to the Court the first Part immediately to the King the rest to the Secretaries of State and added my own Opinion That if His Majesty continued to interpose no further than by
marqueray au moins a fin de te faire pendre Voice nor Action Treats nor Example could give Courage to Men that had already lost it and so the Prince was forced to yield to the Stream that carri'd him back to the rest of his Troops which yet stood firm with whom and what he could gather of those that had been routed he made a Retreat that wanted little of the Honour of a Victory and will by the confession of his Enemies make a part of that great Character they so justly allow him The safety of the Dutch Army upon this Misfortune was by them wholly own'd to His Highness's Conduct as well as Bravery in the course of this Action after which both St. Omer and the Cittadel of Cambray were surrendred to the French about the 20 th of April by which the Spaniards lost the main Strength of their Frontier of Flanders on that side as they had done that on the other side by Aeth and Charleroy in the former War and all the Hopes of raising any Contributions in France which was a great part of the Subsistence of the Spanish Troops so as there now remain'd nothing of Frontier considerable besides Namur and Mons to the Land Ostend and Nieuport to the Sea and the rest of the Spanish Netherlands consisted only of great Towns by which no resistance could be hop'd for whenever the French should think fit to attacque them and could spare Men enough to garison them when they should be taken For the Greatness of those Towns and Multitude of Inhabitants and their inveterates Hatred to the French Government was such as without very great Garisons they could not be held unless upon one sudden Conquest and great Revolution the whole Spanish Netherlands should become French and thereby be made a new Frontier towards the Dutch and Germans and like a new Conquest the Seat of their Armies This the Spaniards thought would never be suffer'd neither by England nor Holland and so they seem'd to have abandon'd the Fate of Flanders to their Care with a Resignation that became good Christians rather than good Reasoners For I have long observ'd from all I have seen or heard or read in story that nothing is so fallacious as to reason upon the Counsels or Conduct of Princes or States from what one conceives to be the true Interest of their Countries for there is in all places an Interest of those that Govern and another of those that are Govern'd nay among these there is an Interest of quiet Men that desire only to keep what they have and another of unquiet Men who desire to acquire what they have not and by violent if they cannot by lawful means therefore I never could find a better way of judging the Resolutions of a State than by the personal Temper and Understanding or Passions and Humours of the Princes or Chief Ministers that were for the time at the Head of Affairs But the Spaniards reason'd only from what they thought the Interest of each Countrey They knew Holland would save Flanders if they could and England they were sure could if they would and believ'd would be brought to it at last by the Increase of the Danger and Force of their own Interest and the Humour of the People In this Hope or Presumption they were a great deal flatter'd by their Ministers then in England Don Bernard de Salinas Envoy from Spain and Fonseca Consul there who did indeed very industriously foment the Heats that began about this time to appear in the Parliament upon the Apprehensions of the French Conquests both in Flanders and Sicily which moved them about the End of March to make an Address to the King representing the Progresses of France and desiring His Majesty to put a stop to them before they grew dangerous to England as well as to their Neighbours Don Bernard de Salinas told some of the Commons That the King was very angry at this Address and had said upon it That the Authors of it were a Company of Rogues which made a great Noise in the House of Commons The King resented it as a piece of Malice in Salinas or at least as a Design to inflame the House and thereupon order'd him to depart the Kingdom within certain Days Yet about a Month after the Parliament made another Address upon the same Occasion desiring his Majesty to make a League Offensive and Defensive with the States General for opposing the Progress of the French Conquests This His Majesty received as an Invasion of his Prerogative made them an angry Answer and Prorogued the Parliament till the Winter following However France had so much Regard to the Jealousies raised both in England and Holland of their designing an intire Conquest of Flanders that after having gained those three important Frontier Towns so early in the Spring and dispers'd his Army after that Expedition that King return'd home writ to his Majesty That to shew he had no Intention to conquer Flanders but only to make a General Peace he was contented notwithstanding the great Advantages and Forces he had at present to make a General Truce in case his Allies the Swedes would agree to it which he desir'd His Majesty to inform himself of since he had not Convenience of doing it for want of Liberty of Couriers into Sweden The Contents of this Letter was proved by the French Ambassadors at Nimeguen among the several Ministers there till they found it had an effect contrary to what was intended and was taken by all for too gross an Artifice It passed very ill with Monsieur Beverning himself who of all others there was the most passionately bent upon the Peace But he said openly upon this That the French were to be commended who never neglected any thing of Importance nor so much as of amusement that France had given their Blow and would now hinder the Allies from giving Theirs That the reserve of Sweden's Consent was an easy way of avoiding the Truce if the Allies should accept it That this it self could not be done because Flanders would be left so open as to be easily swallowed up by the next Invasion having no Frontier on either side That the Towns now possessed by France would in the time of a Truce grow absolutely French and so the harder to be restored by a Peace or a War That for his part he desir'd the Peace contrary to the Politicks of Monsieur Van Beuninghen and the other Ministers of the Allies in England affirming always That notwithstanding all their Intrigues and Intelligences there He Monsieur Beverning was assured That his Majesty would not enter into the War to save the last Town in Flanders This Confidence made him pursue all the Ways towards a Peace and by Paces which some thought forwarder than his Commission and very ill concerted with those of his Allies About the middle of April he brought us the Project of a Treaty of Commerce both for France
and Sweden and desir'd we would make the Communication of them which we did for form though we knew that those Ministers had been before possessed of them from the Dutch Ambassadors themselves And some few Days after they entred into Conferences upon this Project at the French Ambassadors Houses whom they found very easy in the Terms the Dutch insisted on for their Commerce which was all that could make any Difficulty between them 1677. About the end of April the Ministers of the Allies came and presented us their several Answers in Writing to the French Propositions which they offered to leave with us whenever we should assure them that the French and Swedes were ready with theirs Upon this Communication given to the French they were positive to give no Answer in writing nor to receive any alledging both Reason and Example for their Opinion this from the Practice of the Munster Treaty that from the Danger of the invective Stile or Language that is apt to enter into the Writings of each Party upon such Occasions The Allies were for some time as peremptory in their Resolution of delivering their Answer in writing but both at last agreed upon the Expedient we proposed of dictating to us what they intended should be said to the other Party of our setting the Substance down in Writing and reading it over to them first who dictated to us so as they might be Judges whether we had rightly apprehended and expressed their meaning and yet the thing might go in our Stile and not in theirs by which all Sharpness and Provocation would be avoided About the middle of May arrived President Canon Envoy from the Duke of Lorrain and put his Master's Pretensions into our Hands upon which the Allies expected a return of those from France upon that Duke no room being now left for delaying them from the want of a Minister upon the Place but the French said very plainly It was a Matter they were not instructed in which the Allies received with great Stomach and perpetual Complaints to us the Mediators all professing they were resolved not to proceed in the Treaty without carrying on the Interests of that Duke an equal Pace with their own About the End of May arrived the Pope's Nuncio whereupon the Swedish and Danish Ambassadors resorted immediately to us desiring to know how we intended to carry our selves in what regarded that Minister professing themselves to be much in pain being of one side very much pressed the Swedes by the French and the Danes by the Imperialists and Spaniards to the enterchange at least of common Ceremonies and Civilities with a Minister for whom they all with emulation professed so great Respect and Deference On t'other side the Swedes and Danes pretended neither to have Instruction or Example from their respective Courts to determin them in this Matter but said they were resolved to observe and consider the steps that should be made by us We cut the Business very short and declared to them our Resolution to have no sort of Commerce with the Pope's Nuncio either in the Affairs of our Function or in matters of Ceremony and told them our Orders from Court were so precise in this Point that they would admit of no Debate The next Day Monsieur Colbert and d'Avaux came formally to give us part of the Nuncio's Arrival and of his Desire to make us his first Comments if he might know they would be received Our Answer to them was the same we had made to the Swedes and Danes and soon after all the Ministers of Protestant Princes at Nimeguen resolved to follow our Example and to have no Commerce at all with the Nuncio About the same time after many Messages carried by us between the Parties they were perswaded at last into the Agreement of delivering and exchanging by our Hands their Answers to each others Propositions in writing tho without pretending to pursue that Method in the succeeding Paces of the Negotiation Nor was there need of that Caution for this I take to have been the last Pace of any free and general Negotiation between the Parties engaged in the War and in the Treaty nor were the Answers any thing nearer agreeing than the first Propositions The last Day of May arrived the Marquess de Balbaces first Ambassador from Spain and about the same time my Lord Berkly returned into England where he languished out the rest of the Summer and died About the seventh of June the Dutch Ambassadors brought us the Project of a Treaty between them and France digested and extended in all its Forms and Articles and told us soon after They had in a Conference upon it with the French Ambassadors agreed in a manner all the Points of it at least that there remained but two which concerned Commerce only undetermined between them which they doubted not would be agreed likewise upon return of the French Dispatches to Court That after their Business was ended they would perform the best Offices they could between their Allies and the French and indeed by the Beginning of July all Points were accordingly agreed between the French and Dutch and Monsieur Beverning began to play the part of something more than a Mediator pressing on his Allies towards a Peace with Paces very earnest and something rough and as some believed more than he had Order for from his Masters who yet pretended to hold Hands with their Allies But Monsieur Beverning professed to believe that their Friends at the Hague were imposed upon by Van Beuninghen and the Spanish Ministers at London who still animated them with Hopes of the King 's entring into the War or at least prescribing a Plan of the Peace to be received by all parties which Beverning believed neither one nor t'other of and pretended to be morally assur'd of his Opinion and thereupon grounded the absolute Necessity of a Peace In this Month the Duke of Zell began to make a Difficulty of sending the five thousand Men he had promised to the Allies without some new Stipulations And the French offered a Guaranty to the House of Lunenburgh of all their Conquests on the Swede in Bremen upon a Neutrality to be declared by those Dukes which began to give great Umbrages to the Allies as well as the Swedes of some separate Measures like to be concluded between France and the whole House of Brunswick The Dutch Ambassadors were likewise in Pain upon new Intelligence both from Vienna and Madrid about a separate Peace being Treated between Don John and the French with an Exchange of the Spanish Netherlands for what should be restored them in Roussillon and Sicily The Ministers of the Confederates made great Instances in England That His Majesty would recal his Troops that were in the French Service attributing most of their Successes in Germany to the Bravery of those English Regiments But His Majesty excused it upon the Equality of a Mediator since there were English Troops of greater number in
the Service of the Allies Who took this Answer however for an ill Sign of that Prosecution which they hoped from His Majesty for the Relief of their Languishing Affairs The Hopes of those great Actions promised by the Imperialists this Summer on the Rhine began to Flat Their Troops finding no Subsistence in those Countries which had been wholly desolated by the French in the Beginning of the Year to prevent their March The Prince of Orange observing all these Circumstances and foreseeing no resource for the Interests of the Allies unless from his Majesty and that it was likely to prove an unactive Summer in Flanders the French resolving not to come to a Battel and he not able to form a Siege and oppose a French Army that should come to relieve it he sent Monsieur Bentinck over into England about the beginning of June to desire his Majesty's leave that he might make a Journey thither so soon as the Campania ended He received a civil Answer but with Wishes from the King That he would first think of making the Peace and rather defer his Journey till that were concluded About the middle of June my Son came over to me at Nimeguen and brought me Letters from my Lord Treasurer to signify his Majesty's Pleasure that I should come over and enter upon the Secretary of State 's Office which Mr. Conventry had offered his Majesty to lay down upon the payment often thousand Pounds That the King would pay half the Money and I must lay down the rest at present tho his Lordship did not doubt but the King would find the way of easing me in time of that too I writ immediately to my Lord Treasurer to make my Acknowledgment to his Majesty but at the same time my Excuses That I was not in a condition to lay down such a Sum my Father being still alive and keeping the Estate of the Family and desiring that the King's Intention might at least be respited till he saw how the present Treaty was like to determin In return of my Letters on the second of July Mr. Smith one of the King's Messengers being sent Express and making great diligence arrived at Nimeguen and brought me his Majesty's Commands to repair immediately over in a Yatcht which he had sent on purpose for me In obedience to this Command I left Nimeguen but without any Ceremony pretending only a sudden Journey into England but saying nothing of the Occasion further than to my nearest Friends At my Arrival the King asked me many Questions about my Journey about the Congress draping us for spending Him so much Money and doing nothing and about Sir Lionel asking me how I had bred him and how he passed among the Ambassadors there and other Pleasantries upon that Subject After a good deal of this kind of Conversation He told me I knew for what he had sent for me over and that 't was what he had long intended and I was not to thank him because he did not know any Body else to bring into that Place I told his Majesty that was too great a Compliment for me but was a very ill one to my Country and which I thought it did not deserve that I believed there were a great many in it fit for that or any other Place he had to give and I could name two in a breath that I would undertake should make better Secretaries of State than I. The King said Go get you gone to Sheen we shall have no good of you till you have been there and when you have rested your self come up again I never saw him in better humour nor ever knew a more agreeable Conversation when he was so and where he was pleased to be familiar great Quickness of Conception great Pleasantness of Wit with great Variety of Knowledg more Observation and truer Judgment of Men than one would have imagined by so careless and easy a manner as was natural to him in all he said or did From his own Temper he desired nothing but to be easy himself and that every Body else should be so and would have been glad to see the least of his Subjects pleased and to refuse no Man what he asked But this softness of temper made him apt to fall into the Perswasions of whoever had his kindness and confidence for the time how different soever from the Opinions he was of before and he was very easy to change hands when those he employed seemed to have engaged him in any Difficulties so as nothing looked steddy in the Conduct of his Affairs nor aimed at any certain end Yet sure no Prince had more Qualities to make him loved with a great many to make him esteemed and all without a grain of Pride or Vanity in his whole Constitution nor can he suffer Flattery in any kind growing uneasy upon the first Approaches of it and turning it off to something else But this humour has made him lose many great Occasions of Glory to himself and Greatness to his Crown which the Conjunctures of his Reign conspired to put into his Head and have made way for the aspiring Thoughts and Designs of a Neighbour Prince which would not have appeared or could not have succeeded in the World without the Applications and Arts imployed to manage this easy and inglorious Humour of the King 's I staid two days at Sheen in which time some of Secretary Coventry's Friends had prevailed with him not to part with his Place if he could help it unless the King would let him recommend the Person to succeed him who should pay all the Money he expected and which the King had charged himself with When I came to Town the King told me in his Closet all that had passed between Him and Mr. Coventry the day before upon this occasion That He did not understand what he meant nor what was at the bottom for he had first spoke to His Majesty about parting with his Place said his Health would not go through with it made the Price he Expected for it and concluded all before He had sent for me over That now he pretended he did not mean to quit it unless he might present one to succeed him and hoped he had not deserved His Majesty should turn him out But the King said upon it That under favour He was resolved to take him at his Word and so He had told him and left him to digest it as he could Upon this I represented to the King how old and true a Servant Mr. Coventry had been of his Father's and His how well he had served him in this Place how well he was able to do it still by the great credit he had in the House of Commons where the King 's great Business lay in the ill state of his Revenue how ill such a Treatment would agree with his Majesty's Nature and Customs and for my own part that it would be a great favour to me to respite this change till he
saw what was like to become of the Treaty or the War and therefore I begged of him that he would not force a good Secretary out and perhaps an ill one in against both their Wills but let Mr. Coventry keep it at least till he seemed more willing to part with it The King said well then He would let it alone for the present but did not doubt in a little time one or other of us would change our mind In the mean time the Design of my Journey was known my Lord Arlington and others still asking me when they should give me joy of it and many making Applications to me for Places in the Office which made the Court uneasier to me and increased my known Humour of loving the Countrey and being as much in it as I could However when I came to Court the King fell often into Conversation with me and often in his Closet alone or with none other present besides the Duke or my Lord Treasurer and often both The Subject of these Conversations were usually the Peace and the Prince of Orange's Journey into England The King always expressed a great desire for the First but not at all for the other till that was concluded He said his Parliament would never be quiet nor easy to Him while the War lasted abroad They had got it into their Heads to draw Him into it whether He would or no. That they pretended Publick Ends and Dangers from France and there might be Both meant by a great many honest Men among them but the Heats and Distempers of late had been raised by some factious Leaders who thought more of themselves than of any thing else had a mind to engage Him in a War and then leave Him in it unless they might have their Terms in removing and filling of Places and he was very loth to be so much at their Mercy as he should be if he were once engag'd in the War That besides he saw the longer it continued the worse it would be for the Confederates more of Flanders would be lost every day the Conduct of Spain must certainly ruin all in time and therefore he would fain have the Prince make the Peace for them if they would not do it for themselves That if He and the Prince could fall into the Terms of it he was sure it might be done And after several Discourses upon this Subject for near a Month his Majesty at last told me He had a great mind I should make a short turn to the Prince and try if I could perswade him to it and assure him That after it was agreed he should be the gladdest in the World to see him in England The Duke and my Lord Treasurer both press'd me upon the same Point but I told them at a long Conference upon it how often I had been employ'd upon this Errand to the Prince how unmovable I had found him and how sure I was to find him so still unless the King would consider of another Scheme for the Peace than had been yet propos'd to him and wherein he might reckon upon more Safety to Flanders as well as to his own Honour That I had spent all my Shot and was capable of saying no more to him than I had done in obedience to all the Instructions I had receiv'd That his Answers had been positive so that some of my good Friends at Court pretended they had been my own Thoughts rather than the Prince's That His Majesty would do well to try another Hand and he would the better know the Prince's Mind if his Answers were the same to both if not he would at least know how ill I had serv'd him The King said It was a thing of Confidence between Him and the Prince and must be so treated and he knew no Body he had besides to send I told him if he pleased I would name one He bid me and I said Mr. Hyde was idle ever since his return from Nimeguen had been entred into the Commission of the Mediators there staid with us a Fortnight or three Weeks might pretend to return thither to exercise the same Function in my absence since the Commission run to any two of the Number and might take the Prince of Orange's Camp in his way to Nimeguen perform the King's Commands to His Highness inform himself of his last Resolution upon the Subject of the Peace go on to Nimeguen without giving any jealousy to the Allies or without the noise that my going would make since Sir Lionel had wrote to Court and to Me That Monsieur Beverning had desir'd all Paces should stop there till my return which he heard would be sudden and that the King would send by me his own Plan of the Peace The Duke fell in first to the Proposal of Mr. Hyde's going and after some debate the King and my Lord Treasurer and that it should be as soon as was possible He was sent for accordingly and dispatch'd away in all Points as I had proposed He found the Prince at the Camp but unmovable in the Business of the Peace upon the Terms His Majesty had Thoughts of proceeding gave Account of all that passed in that Conference to the King and went straight away to Nimeguen and writ me word of his Conversation with the Prince and that he never saw such a Firmness in any Man I knew Mr. Hyde's going to reside at Nimeguen would be of great comfort and support to Sir Lionel who was in perpetual Agonies as his word was after he was left alone in that station having ever so much distrust of his own Judgment that tho he had the most great desire that could be to do well yet he many times could not resolve how to go about it and was often as much perplexed about the little Punctilio's of Visit and Ceremony that were left to busy that Ambassy as if greater Affairs had still attended it Besides he lay under the lash of Secretary Williamson who upon old Grudges between them at Colen never fail'd to lay hold of any occasion he could to censure his Conduct and expose it at the Foreign Committee where his Letters were read to His Majesty It happen'd about this time that the Spanish Ambassadors first appearing in Publick upon a new Commission to all Three gave immediate notice of it to the Imperialists who made their Visit upon it and were within two hours revisited by the Spaniards After which they sent their formal Notifications to all the other Ambassadors and to the Mediators in the first place Sir Lionel was in pain having Orders to pretend the first Rank of Respect before the Imperialists as well as other Ambassadors there and not to yield it if it came in competition He had likewise another Order which was that upon Matters in Ceremony doubtful and not admitting the delay of new Orders he should consult with the other Ambassadors especially French and Swedish who used to carry those Points the highest
his Lordship brought from England was the occasion of it But I could never find there was any thing more in his Journey than the hopes of seeing a Battel which was ever a particular Inclination of my Lord Ossory and a cast of my Lord Arlington to preserve himself in the Prince's Favour and Confidence as much as he could by my Lord Ossory's keeping close to him at a time when he saw the Business of Christendom roll so much upon the Person of this Prince About this time the Assembly at Nimeguen seem'd in danger of being broken by a passionate Motion the Swedes made in it There had been a long Contest since it first began between the Swedes and Danes about Freedom of Passage for the Swedish Couriers through tbe Danish Territories for managing the Correspondences necessary with their Court The Danes pretended the example of France who refus'd the same Liberty to the Spaniards This Dispute had been managed by many Messages wherewith the Mediators had been charged between the Parties wherein the Allies of both sides took equal part Sometimes the matter had been Treated with very Pressing Instances and sometimes with Fainter sometimes almost let fall and then again resumed and thus for above a Year past but about this time the Swedes came to the Mediators desire their Offices once more to the Danes upon this Subject and declare That without this Liberty insisted upon so long for their Couriers they find themselves incapable of giving Advices necessary to their Court or receiving Orders necessary from it and that without it they must be forced to leave the Assembly This Resolution of the Swedes continued for some time so Peremptory that it was expected to come to that issue but after some Foogue spent for about a fortnight or three weeks upon this occasion and some Temperament found out by the Dutch for the secure and speedy passage of all the Swedish Dispatches from Amsterdam those Ambassadors began to grow soft and calm again and to go on their usual Pace Soon after the French Ambassadors who had Treated the Swedish Affairs and Ministers with great indifferency and neglect in this Treaty declaring to Monsieur Beverning their Master would not part with one Town in Flanders to Restore the Swedes to all they had lost began wholly to change their Language and say upon all occasions That France could not make Peace without the full Satisfaction and Restitution of the Swedes and it was discoursed that the French and Swedes had entered into a new Alliance at Paris to this purpose and some believed it was by concert between them that this Attenite was given by the Swedes to the Congress That the French had at that time a mind to break it and to enter into a Treaty with Spain under the Pope's direction and at Rome not knowing to what measures His Majesty might be induced upon the Progress of the French Conquests and the Distempers Raised in His Parliament upon that occasion But this Gust blown over all was becalmed at Nimeguen so that Monsieur Olivecrantz left that Place about the end of August upon a Journey to Sweden Till this time the Motions of Business had been Respited in the Assembly upon a general expectation that the King was sending me over suddenly with the Plan of Peace that he resolved should be made and to which it was not doubted but all Parties would yield whatever it was so great a Regard was held on all sides of His Majesty's Will and Power But a greater stop was yet given to all further Paces there by the Prince of Orange's Journey into England about the end of September 1677. which wholly changed the Scene of this Treaty and for the present carried it over to London and left all other places at a gaze only and in expectation of what should be there Agitated and Concluded CHAP. III. THE Prince like a hasty Lover came Post from Harwich to Newmarket where the Court then was as a Season and Place of County Sports My Lord Arlington attended his Highness at his alighting making his Pretence of the chief Confidence with him and the Court expected it upon his Alliance and Journeys into Holland My Lord Treasurer and I went together to wait on him but met him upon the middle of the Stairs in a great Crowd coming down to the King He whispered to us both together and said to me That he must desire me to answer for him and my Lord Treasurer one to another so as they might from that time enter both into Business and Conversation as if they had been of a longer Acquaintance which was a wise Strain considering his Lordship's Credit in Court at that time and was of great use to the Prince in the Course of his Affairs then in England and tho' it much shockt my Lord Arlington and his Friends yet it could not be wondred at by such as knew what had passed of late between the Prince and him with whom he only lived in common forms during his stay there He was very kindly received by the King and the Duke who both invited him often into Discourses of Business which they wondred to see him avoid or divert industriously so as the King bid me find out the reason of it The Prince told me he was resolved to see the Young Princess before he entred into that Affair and yet to proceed in that before the other of the Peace The King laughed at this piece of Nicety when I told it Him But however to humour him in it said he would go some days sooner than he had intended from Newmarket which was accordingly done The Prince upon his arrival in Town and sight of the Princess was so pleased with her Person and all those signs of such a humour as had been described to him upon former enquiries that he immediately made his Suit to the King and the Duke which was very well received and assented to but with this condition That the Terms of a Peace abroad might be first agreed on between them The Prince excused himself and said he must end his first business before he began the other The King and Duke were both positive in their opinion and the Prince resolute in his and said at last That his Allies who were like to have hard terms of the Peace as things then stood would be apt to believe that he had made this Match at their cost and for his part he would never sell his Honour for a Wife This prevailed not but the King continued so positive for three or four days that my Lord Treasurer and I began to doubt the whole business would break upon this punctilio About that time I chanced to go to the Prince after Supper and found him in the worst humour that I ever saw him he told me he repented he had ever come into England and resolved he would stay but two days longer and then be gone if the King continued in his mind of
return The Question was Who should go and my Lord Treasurer said it must be He or I for none else had been acquainted with the debate of this business The Prince said it must be I for my Lord Treasurer could not be spared and it must be some person upon whose Judgment and Truth he could rely as to the Intentions of that Court The King order'd me to be ready in two days which I was and the Evening before I was to go meeting His Majesty in the Park he called me to him and a little out of Countenance told me He had been thinking of my Journey and my Errand and how unwelcome I should be in France as well as my Message and having a mind to gain the Peace he was unwilling to anger them more than needs Besides the thing being not to be reasoned or debated any body else would serve the turn as well as I whom he had other use of and therefore he had been thinking to send some other Person I saw he doubted I would take it ill but told him and very truly he would do me the greatest Pleasure in the World for I never had less mind to any Journey in my life and should not have accepted it but in perfect Obedience The King that was the gentlest Prince in the World of his own Nature fell into good humour upon seeing I took it not ill pretended to think whom he should send and at last asked me what I thought of my Lord Duras I said Very well upon which he seem'd to resolve it But the thing had been agreed in the morning as I was told upon the Duke's desire who thought France would accept the Terms and that the Peace would be made and had a mind to have the Honour of it by sending a Servant of his own Whether there were any other Motive I know not but my Lord Duras went immediately with the Orders before mentioned and some few days after the Prince and Princess embarqued for Holland where Affairs pressed his return beyond the hopes of my Lord Duras from France the King assuring him he would never part from the least point of the Scheme sent over and would enter into the War against France if they refus'd it However he went not away without a great mortification to see the Parliament Prorogued the next Spring which the French Ambassador had gain'd of the King to make up some good Meen with France after the Prince's Marriage and before the dispatch of the Terms of a Peace to that Court. Upon my Lord Duras's arrival at Paris the Court there were surpriz'd both at the thing and more at the manner but made good Meen upon it took it gently Said The King knew very well he might always be Master of the Peace but some of the Towns in Flanders seemed very hard especially Tournay upon whose Fortifications such vast Treasures had been expended and that they would take some short time to consider of the Answer My Lord Duras told them he was ty'd to two days stay but when that was out he was prevail'd with to stay some few days longer and to come away without a positive Answer What he brought was what they had said to him before That the Most Christian King hoped his Brother would not break with him upon one or two Towns but even upon them too he would send Orders to his Ambassador at London to treat with His Majesty himself By this gain of time and artifical drawing it into Treaty without any positive refusal this blow came to be eluded which could not easily have been so any other way The King was softned by the softness of France The Ambassador said at last He had leave to yield all but Tournay and to treat even for some equivalent for that too if the King insisted absolutely upon it The Prince was gone who had spirited the vigour of the whole resolution and the Treaty of it began to draw out into Messages and Returns from France However the ill humour of People growing higher upon the noise of a Peace and negotiated in France and the late Prorogation of the Parliament this was by Proclamation anticipated soon after my Lord Duras's return tho' a thing something unusual and a countenance made as if the King resolv'd to enter into the War for which the Parliament seem'd impatient whenever the King seem'd averse to it but grew jealous of some tricks whenever the Court seem'd inclin'd to it About the end of December 1677. the King sent for me to the Foreign Committee and told me he could get no positive Answer from France and therefore resolv'd to send me into Holland to make a League there with the States for forcing both France and Spain if either refused to make the Peace upon the Terms he had proposed I told the King What he had agreed was to enter into the War with all the Confederates in case of no direct and immediate Answer from France That this perhaps would satisfie both the Prince and Confederates abroad and the People at home but to make such a League with Holland only would satisfie none of them and disoblige both France and Spain Besides it would not have an effect or force as the Tripple-Allliance had being a great Original of which this seem'd but an ill Copy and therefore excus'd my self from going The King was set upon it tho' I pretended domestick Affairs of great importance upon the Death of my Father and pleaded so hard that the Duke at last desir'd the King not to press me upon a thing I was so averse from and would be so inconvenient to me and desir'd I might propose who should be sent with the Treaty I made my acknowledgments to the Duke for his favour and propos'd that Mr. Thyn should be sent from the Office with a Draught of the Treaty to Mr. Hyde who was then come from Nimeguen to the Hague upon a Visit to the Princess This was done and the Treaty sign'd there on the sixteenth of January though not without great difficulties and dissatisfaction of the Prince who was yet covered in it by the private Consent of the Spanish Minister there in behalf of his Master so as the War could not break but upon France in case of their refusal In the mean time France draws out the Treaty upon the Terms at London into length never raising more than one Difficulty at a time and expostulating the unkindness of breaking for the single Town of Tournay though that was indeed more important than any Three of the others being the only strong one to guard that side of the Frontier and giving way for any sudden Invasion upon Gant and Antwerp and the very heart of the Country But while this Game was playing in England they had another on foot in Holland especially at Amsterdam by raising Jealousies of the measures taken between the King and Prince upon the Marriage as dangerous to the Liberties of Holland and
making it there believed That by the Match the King and Duke had drawn over the Prince wholly into their Interests or Sentiments whereas the Prince went away possessed to have by it drawn them indeed into his They propos'd to the Dutch other Terms of the Peace far short of the King 's and less safe for Flanders restoring only six Towns to the Spaniards and mentioning Lorain but ambiguously which would not have gone down in Holland but for the suspicions rais'd by the Prince's Marriage among the people there who had an incurable Jealousie of our Court and thereupon not that Confidence of the Prince that he deserved There were two ruling Burgomasters at Amsterdam at this time who had the whole sway of that Town as this has a great one in Holland Hoeft and Valkeneer the first a Generous Honest man of great Patrimonial Riches Learning Wit Humour without Ambition having always refused all Imployments the State had offered him and serving only in that of Burgomaster of his Town in his turn and as little busie in it as he could a true Genius and that said two things to me in Conversation I had not heard before one That a man that were to dye to morrow in Torment would yet enjoy to day if he were Sain and that it was some disease or decay of Spirits that hindred it The other That a man was a Coyon that desired to live after Threescore and that for his part after that Age which he was then approaching he should be glad of the first good occasion to dye and this he made good dying with neglect upon a fit of the Gout talking with his Friends till he was just spent then sending them away that he might not dye in their sight and when he found himself come a little again sending for them up and telling them Quâ—il y avoit encore pour une demy heure de conversation This was the Character of Monsieur Hoeft who was a great inclination of mine tho he passed for a humorous man and told me I was the only Ambassador he had ever visited in his life He had all the Credit that could be in his Town without seeking or minding or using it whereas Valkeneer sought and courted it all that could be without having half the other's being a Morose and Formal Man but of great Industry much Thought and as was believed Avarice and making the turns easily that were necessary in the Government to carry his ends These two had long been Enemies and thought irreconcileable till the French Instruments at this time with great Art and Industry made up the Quarrel and joyned them both in the design of making the Peace upon the Terms offered by France The Parliament meets in January by Anticipation of that Session which seemed to import something of great Consequence The King acquaints them with the League he had made in Holland and asks them money upon it for puting himself in a Posture to carry on the War if the Peace failed which the Parliament gave him upon the hopes of the War and not of the Peace The Constitution of this Parliament that had sat seventeen Years was grown into two known Factions which were called That of Court and Country the Court Party were grown numerous by a Practice introduced by my Lord Clifford of downright buying off one man after another as they could make the bargain The Country Party was something greater yet in number and kept in more Credit upon the Corruption of others and their own pretence of steadiness to the true Interest of the Nation especially in the Points of France and Popery where these came in question many of the Court Party Voted with those of the Countty who then carried all before them but whenever the Court seemed to fall in with the true Interests of the Nation especially in those two Points then many of the Country party meaning fairly fell in with the Court and carried the Votes as they now did upon the Kings pretence to grow bold with France and to resolve upon the War if the Peace were refused In October Friburgh had been taken by a feinte of the Duke of Crequi's before the Duke of Lorain could come to relieve it and in the same month Stettin had been taken by the Elector of Brandenburgh after a vigorous Resistance which left the Scales as even as they were before between the two Leagues In January upon the delays of France to agree the King's Conditions of a Peace His Majesty entred into a Negotiation with the Ministers of the Confederates at London in case France went on to refuse them but the hopes of a Peace was on a sudden dasht by the French Attempts upon Ypre and Threats of Ostend where the King immediately sends Forces over at the desire of the Spanish Ambassador for security of that important place nor did the French Ambassador seem to resent at all this Pace of His Majesty but continued his Court and Treaty with all the fairness that could be Towards the end of February the King of France marching in the Head of his Army and carrying the Queen and Ladies to Mentz seemed to threaten Lutzenburgh or Namur or Mons but having drawn the Spanish Forces that way on a sudden crosses the Countrey sits down before Gant and by the end of the month takes both that Town and Ypre and thereby gives a mighty Alarm to Holland and strengthens the Credit and Endeavours of those he had already disposed to his Terms of a Peace as grown now absolutely necessary while England seemed resolved to go into the War or at least furnish'd the Confederates with many such hopes About the first of April France made a publick Declaration of the Terms upon which they were resolved to make the Peace which though very different from those agreed between his Majesty and Holland and more from the pretensions of the Allies yet having as to what concern'd Spain and Holland been first privately agreed with some Leaders of the principal Towns proved indeed the Plan of the Peace both for Holland and all the other Confederates engaged in the War And here the French began that imperious way of Treating which they afterwards pursued in the Whole Negotiation of the ensuing Peace declaring such and such was the Conditions they would admit and no other and upon which their Enemies might chuse either Peace or War as they pleased and to which France pretended not to be tied longer than to the Tenth of May after which they would be at liberty to change or restrain them as they should think fit About this time I happened to be with Lord Treasurer one Evening in his Closet when a Packet came to him from Mr. Montague Ambassador at Paris giving him an account of a large Conference Monsieur Louvoy had lately had with him by the King His Master's Order wherein he represented the measures they had already taken for a Peace in Holland
upon the French Terms That since they were agreed there they hoped His Majesty would not be against it That however France had ordered him to make his Majesty the offer of a great Sum of Money for his Consent tho' to a thing already accepted by Holland and wherein his Majesty was consequently not concerned That Monsieur Louvoy desired the Ambassador to write this immediately to Lord Treasurer and to offer him a very considerable Sum for himself that should be sent over in Money Jewels or by Bills as he should chuse and Mr. Montague added That it was desired this Affair should be treated only between them two and not communicated to either of the Secretaries of State My Lord Treasurer read the Letter to me and I said Well my Lord What do you say to the Offer He Answered That he thought 't was the same thing as if it should be made to the King to have Windsor put into the French hands and so he should treat it and that we had nothing to do but to go on with our Treaty with the Confederates This his Lordship and I were incharged with and had brought near a conclusion when Letters came from Mr. Hyde with Representations made him from the Pensioner at the Hague of the dispositions in Holland running violently into a Peace and the absolute necessity he thought there was of concluding it upon the taking of Gant and danger of Antwerp which was then threatned and the loss whereof would be so fatal to the Trade of Holland especially Amsterdam Hereupon Mr. Godolphin was dispatched immediately into Holland to bring the last and surest Account he could get of the resolutions there upon this Affair and return with the greatest speed he could he did so and brought the same account of all dispositions which Mr. Hyde had given and in the process of our Treaty with the Confederates Monsieur Van Beuningham when he came to the point was forced to confess That he had no Powers to conclude without first communicating to the States which must draw into length and uncertainty About this time the French Ambassador began to change his Language who had ever before pretended That His Majesty should be always Arbiter of the Peace but now assuring that his Master had agreed with Holland he seemed to wonder and expostulate why the King should pretend to obtain better Terms for the Spaniards than their Allies the Dutch were content with I was then pressed by the King and Lord Treasurer to go into Holland to know their final Resolutions whether they would yet go on with the War in case his Majesty should go into it But I excused my self knowing the Dutch were too much prest by so near approaches of France to declare themselves upon a reserve of the King 's and said If his Majesty resolved to go that way he must first take his measures with the Parliament for the War and then send them word in Holland he was ready to declare it in case they would pursue it and upon this Message I knew the Dutch so well as to believe they would do it and keep close to their late Alliance with his Majesty This the King was unwilling to do but posted Mr. Godolphin again into Holland about the middle of April to know their final resolutions and Prorogued the Parliament for Fourteen Days During these Negotiations and since the Money given by the Parliament and in Six Weeks time the King had raised an Army of about Twenty thousand men the compleatest and in all appearance the bravest Troops that could be any where seen and might have raised many more upon so great a concurrence of the peoples humour with His Majesty's seeming design of entring into a War against France and it was confest by all the Foreign Ministers That no King in Christendom could have made and compleated such a Levy as this appeared in such a time My Lord Treasurer upon the Twentieth came to me and assured me of the King's Resolution being at length fixed to go into the War and desired me to prepare what the King was to say to the Parliament upon this occasion which I did When I carried it to my Lord Treasurer I met there Letters from Mr. Hyde and Godolphin That Holland absolutely desir'd the Peace even upon the Terms proposed by France and had resolv'd to send Monsieur Van Lewen over hither to dispose the King to be contented with them He arriv'd and the King sent me immediately to him to know his Errand He was the Chief of the Town of Leyden and had join'd with Amsterdam Harlem Delf and some others in promoting the Peace even upon the French Conditions But being a man of great Honour and Worth and having done it upon the suspicion that England was still at bottom in with France and that all the rest was but Grimace the Prince had procur'd him to be sent over on purpose to satisfie himself and thereby his Complices for the Peace that the King's intentions were determined to enter into the War which His Highness thought the only means to prevent the Peace When I came to Monsieur Van Lewen he told me freely That it was the most against their hearts in Holland that could be to make a Peace upon Terms so low and unsafe for Flanders and that if the King had gone into the War as was promised upon France delaying or refusing to accept his Scheme they would certainly have continu'd it but His Majesty's Proceedings look'd ever since so uncertain or unresolv'd that it had raised Jealousies in Holland of our Measures being at bottom fix'd and close with France which made most of the Towns in Holland think they had nothing else left to do but to go in with them too as fast as they could and the approach of the French Army to Antwerp left them now no time to deliberate Yet he professed to me in private That if the King would immediately declare the War he believed the States would still go on with it in pursuit of their Alliance and the Terms therein contained I made this Report to the King who seem'd positive to declare the War in case the Parliament advis'd him and promis'd to support it when an unlucky peevish Vote mov'd by Sir T C in spight to my Lord Treasurer passed the House of Commons That no Msney should be given till satisfaction was received in matters of Religion This left all so loose and so lame that the King was in a rage reproach'd me with my Popular Notions as he term'd them and ask'd me when or how I thought he could trust the House of Commons to carry him through the War if he should engage in it And I had not much indeed to say considering the Temper and Factions of the House nor could I well clear it to my self by my Observation whether the King was firmly resolved to enter into the War or if he did whether the House of Commons would
Advances he had made towards a Peace that it had all the effect designed by it The several Towns and Provinces proceeded with a general Concurrence to the Ratifications of the Peace that they might lie ready in their Ambassadors hands to be exchanged when that of Spain should be signed Monsieur Beverning now favoured with a fair Gale from home the humour of his Countrey blowing the same way with his own dispositions and seconded with the great facilities that were given by France made such a quick dispatch of what remained in contest upon the Treaty between France and Spain that all was perfected and signed by the Twentieth of September and thereupon the Dutch Ratifications were exchanged with the usual forms In all this Sir Lionel Jenkins had no part as in an Affair disapproved by the King his Master The Dutch Ambassadors played the part of formal Mediators had the Treaty between the two Crowns signed at their House and took great care by the choice and disposition of the Room where it was performed to avoid all punctilio's about Place that might arise between the several Ambassadors Mr. Hyde had the mortification to return into England with the entire disappointment of the Design upon which he came and believed the Court so passionately bent I was left at the Hague without any thing more to do than to perform the part of a common Ambassador France was left in possession of the Peace with Holland and Spain and by consequence Master of that of the Empire and the North upon their own Terms and England was left to busie it self about a Fire that was breaking out at home with so much smoak and so much noise that as it was hard to discover the beginning so it was much harder to foresee the end of it After the Peace of Spain signed and of Holland ratified tho' the Ambassadors of the Emperour at Nimeguen were sullen and those of Denmark and Brandenburgh enraged yet by the application of the Dutch Ambassadors the Conferences were set on foot between them and the French and Sir Lionel received Orders from Court to return to his Function tho' the remaining part he had in the Affair was rather that of a Messenger than a Mediator The Northern Princes continued their Preparations and Marches as if they resolved to pursue the War but at the same time gave jealousies to the Emperour of some private Intelligences or Negotiations of separate Treaties set on foot between France and Denmark and others between that Crown and Brandenburgh by Monsieur Despense an old servant of the Elector but Subject of France On the other side France made great Preparations to attack the Empire upon the pretence of forcing them into the terms they had prescribed for the Peace and thereby gave so great terror to the Princes of the Rhine that lay first exposed to the fury of their Arms that the Electors of Ments and Triers and Duke of Nieuburgh sent away in great haste to the States demanding and desiring to be included by them in the Peace they had made by virtue of an Article therein which gave them liberty within six Weeks to declare and include such as they should name for their Allies But this was opposed by France and refused to any patticular Prince of the Empire and allowed only to the Emperor and Empire if they should jointly desire to be declared and included in the Peace as an Ally of Holland The Duke of Lorain about the same time seeing the whole Confederacy breaking into so many several Pieces and every one minding only how to shift the best they could for themselves accepted his part of the Peace as France had carved it out for him and chose the Alternative offered from that Crown by which Nancy was to remain to France But the Emperor tho' he professed all the inclination that could be to see the General Peace restored yet he pretended not to suffer the terms of it should like Laws be imposed upon him he consented to the re-establishment of the Treaties of Westphalia which seemed to be all that France insisted on but could not agree to the Passage demanded for their Troops whenever they found it necessary for the execution of the said Treaties and this was insisted on positively by the French Nor could the Imperialists yield to to the dependance pretended by France of the ten Towns of Alsatia upon that Crown which the French demanded as so left or at least intended by the Treaty of Munster while the Emperor's Ambassadors denied either the Fact or the Intention of that Treaty While these Dispositions and these Difficulties delayed the Treaty of the Emperor the Ratifications of Spain were likewise deferred by concert as was supposed between the two Houses of Austria so as the term agreed for exchange of them was quite elapsed and twice renewed or prolonged by France at the desire of the States But during this time the French Troops made incursions into the Richest Parts of Flanders and which had been best covered in the time of the War and there exacted so great Contributions â—nd made such Ravages where they were disputed that the Spanish Netherlands were more ruined between the signing of the Peace and the exchange of the Ratifications than they had been in so much time during the whole course of the War The out-cries and calamities of their Subjects in Flanders at length moved the Spaniards out of their slow pace but more the embroilments of England upon the Subject of the Plot which took up the Minds both of Court and Parliament and left them little or no regard for the course of Foreign Affairs This Prospect made Holland the more eager upon urging the Peace to a general Issue and France making a wise use of so favourable a Conjuncture pressed the Empire not only by the Threats and Preparations of a sudden Invasion but also by confining their Offers of the Peace to certain days and raising much higher Demands if those should expire before the Emperor's Acceptance All these Circumstances improved by the diligence and abilities of the Dutch Ambassadors at Nimeguen at length determined the House of Austria to run the Ship ashore whatever came on 't rather than keep out at Sea in so cruel a Storm as they saw falling upon them and for which they found themselves so unprovided The Spanish Ratifications at length arrived and after the Winter far spent in fruitless Contests by the Imperial Ambassadors and more fruitless hopes from England by the Spaniards and other Confederates Sir Lionel Jenkins gave notice both to the Court and to me that he looked upon the Treaty between the Emperor and France to be as good as concluded and soon after I received His Majesty's Commands to go immediately away from the Hague to Nimeguen and there assist as a Mediator at the signing of the Peace which then appeared to be General I never obeyed the King so unwillingly in my life both upon account
observing the remaining Paces of the General Peace by that of the North which was left to be made at the Mercy of France And though Denmark and Brandenburgh looked big and spoke high for a time after the Peace between the Empire and France pretending they would defend what they had conquered from the Swedes in Germany yet upon the march of the French Troops into the Brandenburgh Countrey both those Princes made what haste they could to finish their separate Treaties with France and upon certain sums of Money agreed on delivered up all they had gained in this War to the Crown of Sweden Thus Christendom was left for the present in a General Peace and France to pursue what they could gain upon their Neighbours by their Pretensions of Dependences and by the droit de bienseance which they pursu'd with such imperious Methods both against the Empire and the Spaniardt as render'd their Acquisitions after the Peace greater at least in consequence than what they had gained by the War since not only great Tracts of Country upon the score of Dependences but Strashurgh and Lutzenburgh fell as Sacrifices to their Ambition without any neighbouring Prince or States concerning themselves in their Relief But these Enterprises I leave to some others Observations Very soon after my Arrival at the Hague the King sent me Orders to provide for my return as soon as I could possibly be ready and bid me acquaint the Prince and the States That he had sent for me over to come into the Place of first Secretary of State in Mr. Coventry's room My Lord Treasurer writ to me to the same purpose and with more Esteem than I could pretend to deserve telling me among other things They were fallen into a cruel Disease and had need of so Able a Physician This put me in mind of a Story of Dr. Prujean the greatest of that Profession in our time and which I told my Friends that were with me when these Letters came A certain Lady came to the Doctor in great trouble about her Daughter Why what ails she Alas Doctor I cannot tell but she has lost her Humour her Looks her Stomach her Strength consumes every day so as we fear she cannot live Why do not you Marry her Alas Doctor that we would fain do and have offer'd her as good a Match as she could ever expect but she will not hear of marrying Is there no other do you think that she would be content to Marry Ah Doctor that is it that troubles us for there is a young Gentleman we doubt she loves that her Father and I can never consent to Why look you Madam replies the Doctor gravely being among all his Books in his Closet then the case is this Your Daughter would Marry one Man and you would have her Marry another in all my Books I find no Remedy for such a Disease as this I confess I esteemed the Case as desperate in a Politick as in a Natural Body and as little to be attempted by a Man who neither ever had his own Fortune at heart which such Conjunctures are only proper for nor ever could resolve upon any pusuits of it to go against either the true Interest or the Laws of his Countrey One of which is commonly endanger'd upon the fatal misfortune of such Divisions in a Kingdom I chose therefore to make my excuses both to the King and to my Lord Treasurer and desir'd leave to go to Florence and discharge my self of a promise I had made some years past of a Visit to the Great Duke the first time I had leisure from my Publick Imployments Instead of granting this Suit the King sent a Yatch for me towards the end of February 167 8. with Orders to come immediately away to enter upon the Secretary's Office about the same time with my Lord Sunderland who was brought into Sir Joseph Williamson's Place I obey'd His Majesty and acquainted the Prince and States with my Journey and the design of it according to his Command who made me Compliments upon both and would have had me believe that the Secretary of State was to make amends for the loss of the Ambassador But I told the Prince that tho I must go yet if I found the Scene what it appear'd to us at that distance I would not charge my self with that Imployment upon any terms that could be offer'd me We knew very well in Holland That both Houses of Parliament believed the Plot That the Clergy the City the Countrey in general did so too or at least pursu'd it as if they all believ'd it We knew the King and some of the Court believ'd nothing of it and yet thought not fit to own that Opinion And the Prince told me He had reason to be confident that the King was in his heart a Roman Catholick tho he durst not profess it For my own part I knew not what to believe of one side or t'other but thought it easie to presage from such contrary Winds and Tides such a Storm must rise as would tear the Ship in pieces whatever Hand were at the Helm At my arrival in England about the latter end of February I found the King had Dissolv'd a Parliament that had sat eighteen years and given great testimonies of Loyalty and compliance with His Majesty till they broke first into Heats upon the French Alliances and at last into Flames upon the business of the Plot I found a new Parliament was called and that to make way for a calmer Session the resolution had been taken at Court for the Duke's going over into Holland who enbarqu'd the day after my arrival at London The Elections of the ensuing Parliament were so eagerly pursu'd that all were in a manner engag'd before I came over and by the dispositions that appear'd in both Electors and Elected it was easie to presage in what temper the Houses were like to meet My Lord Shaftsbury my Lord Essex and my Lord Hallifax had struck up with the Duke of Monmouth resolving to make use of His Credit with the King and to support it by Theirs in the Parliament and tho the first had been as deep as any in the Councels of the Cabal while he was Chancellor yet all Three had now fallen in with the common Humour against the Court and the Ministry endeavouring to inflame the Discontents against both and agreed among themselves That none of them would come into Court unless they did it all together Which was observed like other common strains of Court-Friendships Sir William Coventry had the most Credit of any man in the House of Commons and I think the most deservedly not only for his great Abilities but for having been turn'd out of the Council and the Treasury to make way for my Lord Cliffora's Greatness and the Designs of the Cabal He had been ever since opposite to the French Alliances and bent upon engaging England in a War with that Crown and assistance
of the Confederates and was now extremely dissatisfied with the conclusion of the Peace and with the Ministry that he thought either assisted or at least might have prevented it and in these dispositions he was like to be follow'd by the best and soberest part of the House of Commons For my Lord Treasurer and Lord Chamberlain I found them two most admirable Emblems of the true and so much admir'd Felicity of Ministers of State The last notwithstanding the greatest skill of Court and the best turns of Wit in particular Conversation that I have known there and the great Figure he made in the First Part of these Memoirs was now grown out of all Credit and Confidence with the King the Duke and Prince of Orange and thereby forc'd to support himself by Intrigues with the persons most discontented against my Lord Treasurer's Ministry whose Greatness he so much envy'd and who was yet at this time in much worse condition than himself tho not so sensible of it for he had been very ill with the late Parliament upon account of Transactions with France which tho He had not approved yet He durst not defend Himself from the imputation for fear of exposing his Master He was hated by the French Ambassador for endeavouring as he thought to engage the King in a War with France He was in danger of being pursued by his Enemies next Parliament for having as they pretended made the Peace and endeavoured to stifle the Plot and yet I found within a Fortnight after I arrived that he sat very loose with the King his Master who told me several reasons of that change whereof one was his having brought the business of the Plot into the Parliament against his absolute Command and to compleat the happy and envied state of this Chief Minister the Dutchess of Portsmouth and Earl of Sunderland were joined with the Duke of Monmouth and Earl of Shaftsbury in the design of his ruin What a Game so embroyled and play'd on all sides with so much heat and passion was like to end in no man could tell But I that never had any thing so much at heart as the Union of my Countrey which I thought the only way to its greatness and felicity was very unwilling to have any part in the Divisions of it the deplorable effects whereof I had been too much acquainted with in the Stories of Athens and Rome as well as of England and France and for this reason tho I was very much pressed to enter upon the Secretary's Office immediately after my arrival yet I delay'd it by representing to His Majesty how necessary it was for him to have one of the Secretaries in the House of Commons where it had been usual to have them both and that consequently it was very unfit for me to enter upon that Office before I got into the House which was attempted and failed But how long this excuse lasted and how it was succeeded by many new and various accidents and how I was prevailed with by the King to have the Part I had afterwards in a new Constitution of Councel and how after almost two years unsuccessful endeavours at some Union or at least some allay of the heats and distempers between the King and His Parliaments I took the resolution of having no more to do with Affairs of State will be the Subject of a Third Part of these Memoirs FINIS In troth I think you love us as you do yours That a King of England who will be the MAN of People is the greatest King in the world but if he will be something more he is nothing at all And I will be the MAN of my people Birdlime never catches great Birds * Whence come you It answer'd From Marinnâ—n The Prince to whom do you belong The Parrot To a Portugez Prince What do you there I look after the Chickens The Prince laugh'd and said You look after the Chickens The Parrot answered Yes I and I know well enough how to do it With Blows That there are some wounds among you that will bleed still if there be not care taken of them What do you intend then Sirs to make us be torn in pieces by the Rabble * The Lilly shall Invade the Land of the Lion bearing wild Beasts in its Arms the Eagle shall move its Wings and the Son of Man shall come to his assistance from the South then there shall be great War throughout the World but after four Years Peace shall shine forth and the Son of Man be deliver'd by those from whom his ruin was expected 1. That for avoiding the Inconvenient that may happen by the great number of Coaches in the streets that are so narrow and the Corners so incommodious the Ambassadors Mediators propose Not to make any Visits tho' they be Visits of Ceremony with more than Two Pages and Four Lackeys to each Ambassador and to have but one Coach with two Horses and not to go to the Place of Conference or other publick places with more than one Page and two Lackeys to every Ambassador 2. That when Coaches meet in these narrow places where there is not room to pass by one another every one instead of contending for Place or precedency shall mind rather to make the passage easie to one another and stop the first if he have the first notice that the Pass is too strait and also give place to the other if it be more easily done on his side than on the other side 3. That no Lackey shall carry either sword staff or stick in the streets nor Pages any more than a little stick 4. That the Ambassador upon any Crime committed against the publick Peace by any of their Domesticks shall renounce all Protection of the said Domesticks and deliver them up into the hands of the Justice of the City desiring and authorizing them to proceed against them according to their ordinary rules 5. That in case any insult or quarrel should be made by the Domesticks of one Ambassador with those of another Ambassador or any other publick Minister the Ambassadors will deliver up such of their Domesticks into the hands of the Master of the Party offended to be punisht at his discretion That the Mediation was always on foot for to go on with its business Full Powers Like able Men. Their Strength and their Weakness And in this distress of their State by so long a War All means were first to be tried An incurable Wound As a Storm that has ceased after it had threatned much and made but little alterations in the World To push the business on as far as it is possible The Will of the King Whipt Cream And when one is at High Mass one is at it Had been wanting in respect to the King their Master Rascal I 'll set a mark on thee at least that I may hang thee afterwards Of a sound mind A sorry wight That he had still life for one half hour of Conversation The French Fools are dead An easie Governess Unseasonably Right of Decency
had never been esteem'd so before The King of France march'd as far as Vtrecht where he fix'd his Camp and his Court and from thence began to consider of the ways how to possess himself of the rest which was defended only by their Scituation upon some flat Lands that as they had by infinite labour in Canals and Digues been either gain'd or preserv'd from Inundations so they were subject to them upon opening the Sluces whenever the Dutch found no other way of saving their Country but by losing it This at least was generally believ'd in the French Camp and Court and as I have heard was the Preservation of the State For that King unwilling to venture the Honour and Advantage of such Conquests as he had made that Summer upon the Hazards of a new sort of War with a merciless Element where neither Conduct nor Courage was of use resolv'd to leave the rest to practices of Peace with the States upon the advantage of the terms he stood in and the small distance of place between them or if these should not succeed then he trusted to the Frosts of the following Winter which seldom fail in that Country to make all passable and safe for Troops and Carriages themselves that in Summer would be impassable either from the Waters or the depth of Soil In the mean time the State and the Government of Holland took a new Form and with it a new Heart Monsieur De Witt and his Brother had been Massacreed by the sudden fury of the People at the Hague and by the Fate of Ministers that Govern by a Party or Faction who are usually Sacrificed to the first great Misfortunes abroad that fall in to aggravate or inflame the general Discontents at home The Fact and the manner having been very unusual may be the Subject of others enquiry as it was of Mine which gave me this account The Ruart of Putten Eldest Brother to Monsieur De Witt had been accused of a design upon the Prince's Life and of endeavouring by Money to engage one of his Highness's Domestiques in that Attempt But no other Witness appearing he was sentenc'd only to be Banished at which the People show'd great dissatisfaction being possest with an Opinion of his Guilt The Morning he was to come out of Prison Monsieur De Witt against the Opinion of his Friends would needs go himself to bring him out with more Honour and carry him out of Town and to that purpose went with his Coach and four Horses to the Court This being not usual to this Minister made the People take more notice of it and gather together Tumultuously first in the streets where he passed and then about the Court where the Prisoner was kept Some of the Trained Bands of the Hague that were upon the Guard mingled among them and began to rail aloud against the Judgment of the Court the Crime of one Brother and the Insolence of the Other who pretended as they said to carry him away in Triumph In the midst of this Heat and Passion rais'd by these kind of Discourses among the Populace the two Brothers came out some of the Train'd Bands stop'd them began to treat them at first with ill Language and from Words fell to Blows upon which Monsieur De Witt foreseeing how the Trajedy would end took his Brother by the hand and was at the same time knock'd down with the butt end of a Musket They were both presently laid dead upon the place then drag'd about the Town by the Fury of the People and Torn in pieces Thus ended one of the greatest Lifes of any Subject in our Age and about the 47 th year of his own after having Served or rather Administred that State as Pensioner of Holland for about eighteen years with great Honour to his Countrey and himself After the Death of these Brothers the Provinces and Towns run with Unanimous Voices into Publick Demands of the Prince's being restored to the Authority of his Ancestors The States had in the beginning of the Year declared him Captain General and Admiral of their Forces which was no more than De Witt had always profest was designed for Him when he should be of Age but this was found neither to have satisfied England nor the Prince's Party at home and therefore all the Members of the State agreed in those Acts that were thought necessary to a full Restitution of His Highness now at the Age of Twenty one Years to the Office and Power of Stadtholder with all advantages and even some more than those which had been exercised by his Ancestors At the same time Monsieur Fagel was introduced into Monsieur De Witt 's Place of Pentsioner of Holland whose Love to his Countrey made him a Lover of the Prince as believing it could not be Sav'd by any other Hand and whose Zeal to his own Religion made him an Enemy irreconcilable to France whose Professions as well as Designs were to destroy it This Revolution as it calm'd all at Home so it made the first Appearance of defending what was left of the Country The State grew United the Army in Heart and Foreign Princes began to take Confidence in the Honour and Constancy of the Young Prince which they had in a manner wholly lost upon the Divisions and Misfortunes of the State The French themselves turn'd all their Application and Practices the same way and made the Prince all the offers that could be of Honour Advantages to his Person and Family Provided he would be contented to depend upon them The Bait they thought could not fail of being swallow'd and about which most Artifice was employ'd was the Proposal of making the Prince Sovereign of the Provinces under the Protection of England and France And to say truth at a time when so little of the Provinces was left and what remain'd was under Water and in so eminent danger upon the first Frosts of the Winter this seemed a lure to which a meaner Soul than that of this Prince might very well stoop But his was above it and his Answers always firm That he never would betray a Trust that was given him nor ever fell the Liberties of his Countrey that his Ancestors had so long defended Yet the Game he play'd was then thought so desperate that one of his nearest Servants told me he had long expostulated it with his Master and ask'd him at last how he pretended to live after Holland was lost and whether he had thought so far The Prince told him he had and that he was resolv'd to live upon the Lands he had left in Germany and that he he had rather pass his life in Hunting there than sell his Country or his Liberty to France at any Price I will say nothing of the Ambassy sent at this time by his Majesty to the French King at Vtretcht where the Three Ambassadors Duke of Buckingham Lord Arlington and Lord Halifax found him in his highest Exaltation for
I cannot pretend to know what the true ends or subject of it was The common belief in England and Holland made it to be our jealousie of the French Conquests going too fast whilst ours were so lame and great hopes were rais'd in Holland that it was to stop their Course or Extent but these were soon dash'd by the return of the Ambassadors after having renew'd and fasten'd the measures formerly taken between the two Crowns And the Ambassadors were indeed content as they past through Holland that the first should be thought which gave occasion for a very good Repartee of the Princess Dowager to the Duke of Buckingham who visited her as they pass'd through the Hague and talking much of their being good Hollanders she told him That was more than they ask'd which was only That they should be good English-men he assur'd her they were not only so but good Dutchmen too that indeed they dit not use Holland like a Mistresz but they lov'd her like a Wife to which she replied Vrayement je croy que vous nous ayméz comme vous ayméz la vôtre When France lost all hopes of shaking the Prince of Orange's Constancy they bent all their thoughts upon subduing and ruining the remainder of the Countrey They had avanc'd as far as Woorden and from thence they made their ravages within two or three Leagues of Leyden with more violences and cruelties than would have been prudent if they had hop'd to reclaim the Prince or States from the obstinacy of their defence The Prince encamp'd his Army near Bodegrave between Leyden and Woorden and there made such a stand with a handful of Men as the French could never force The Winter prov'd not favourable to their hopes and designs and some promises of Frosts inveigled them into marches that prov'd almost fatal to them by a sudden thaw This frighted them into Cautions perhaps more than were necessary and gave the Prince and States leasure to take their measures for a following Campagne with the Emperor Spain and the Duke of Brandenburgh and Lunenburgh which prov'd a diversion to the Arms of France and turn'd part of them upon Germany and Flanders so as to give over the progress any further in Holland Upon the approach of the Winter the Prince after having taken Narden three leagues from Amsterdam in spight of all resistance and opposition from either the French or the Season resolv'd like another young Scipio to save his Countrey by abandoning it and to avoid so many Sieges as all the Towns they had lost would cost to recover He contented himself to leave the chief Post guarded with a part of the Army and with the rest marched into Germany joyn'd part of the Confederate Troops besig'd Bonne which had been put into the hands of France at the beginning of the War wherein the Elector of Cologn and the Bishop of Munster had enter'd jointly with France The boldness of this Action amaz'd all men but the success extoll'd the prudence as well as the bravery of it for the Prince took Bonne and by it open'd a passage for the German Forces over the Rhine and so into Flanders and gave such a damp to the Designs and Enterprizes of France that they immediately abandon'd all their Conquests upon Holland in less time than they made them retaining only Mastricht and the Grave of all they had possest belonging to this State In this posture stood affairs abroad when the Peace of England was made in February 1673 4 upon the strength and heart whereof the Prince of Orange concerted with the German and Spanish Troops to begin an offensive War and in the head of an Army of above Forty Thousand Men to march into France The French began now to wish the War well ended and were very glad to accept his Majesties Mediation The King was desirous to make France some amends for abandoning the Party and making a separate Peace Some of his Ministers foresaw he would be Arbiter of the Peace by being Mediator and that He might hinder any separate Treaties by mediating a general one and might restore Peace to Christendom whenever he thought fit and upon what Conditions he thought safe and just The only difficulties that appeared in this Affair were what the Confederates were like to make in accepting the King's Mediation whose late engagements with France had made him thought very partial on that side And the House of Austria finding that Crown now abandon'd by England had too greedily swallow'd the hopes of a revenge upon them to desire any sudden Treaty till the Successes they expected in the War might at least make way for reducing France to the Terms of that at the Pyrenees This I suppose gave some occasion for my being again design'd for this Ambassy who was thought to have some credit with Spain as well as Holland from the Negotiations I had formerly run through at the Hague Brussels and Aix la Chapelle by which the remaining parts of Flanders had been sav'd out of the hands of France in the Year 1668. But having often reflected upon the unhappy Issue of my last Publick Employments and the fatal turn of Councels in our Court that had occasion'd it against so many wiser mens Opinions as well as my own I resolv'd before I went this Journey to know the ground upon which I stood as well as I could and to found it by finding out what I was able of the King 's true Sentiments and Dispositions as to the measures he had now taken or rather renew'd and trust no more to those of his Ministers who had deceiv'd either Me or Themselves Therefore at a long Audience in his Closet I took occasion to reflect upon the late Councels and Ministry of the late Cabal how ill His Majesty had been advis'd to break Measures and Treaties so solemnly taken and agreed how ill he had been serv'd and how ill succeeded by the violent humour of the Nation 's breaking out against such Proceedings and by the Jealousies they had rais'd against the Crown The King said 'T was true he had succeeded ill but if he had been well serv'd he might have made a good business enough of it and so went on a good deal to justifie what was past I was sorry to find such a presage of what might again return from such a course of thought in the King and so went to the bottom of that matter I shew'd how difficult if not impossible it was to set up here the same Religion or Government that was in France That the universal bent of the Nation was against Both That many who were perhaps indifferent enough in the matter of Religion consider'd it could not be chang'd here but by force of an Army and that the same force which made the King Master of their Religion made him Master of their Liberties and Fortunes too That in France there was none to be consider'd but the Nobles and the Clergy
which was yielded for want of Provisions and as much against common opinion and expectation as the contrary event in the Siege of Mastricht The Affairs of Denmark and Brandenburgh prosper'd all this while against Sweden with advantage in most of the Sieges and Encounters that pass'd this Summer and the first part of the Winter following so that the Swedes seem'd to be losing apace all they had so long possess'd in Germany but the Imperial Forces tho' joyn'd with those of the several Princes upon the upper Rhine had made no progress in their design'd Conquests there and were forc'd to seek their old Quarters on the German side of the Rhine upon the approach of the French which was a true and undisputed decision of the small success of this Campania After it was ended the Parties engag'd in the War began to turn their thoughts or at least their eyes more towards the motions of the Treaty than they had hitherto done The Prince of Orange writ to me desir'd to see me for a day or two at Soesdycke near Amesfort about a days Journey from Nimeguen He complain'd much and with too much reason of the Conduct of his Allies the weakness or rather uselesness of the Spanish Troops in Flanders for want of Pay or Order the Imperial Armies acting without design upon the Rhine or with dependance upon Orders from Vienna where the emulation of the Ministers made such destraction and counter-paces of their Generals that the Campania had pass'd with small effect after the promises of vigorously invading either Lorain or France How the Dukes of Lunenburgh had fail'd of sending their Troops to Mastricht which with the Sickness of the Camp had render'd that Siege ineffectual So that he began to dispair of any good issue of the War and would be glad to hear I hop'd for a better of the Peace upon our Scene at Nimeguen after the Paces and Progress whereof he made particular enquiries I told him how little advances had been hitherto made by the slowness of his Allies dispatching their Ministers thither how little success could be expected from the pretentions of the Parties when they should meet especially France pretending to keep all they had got by the War and Spain to recover all they had lost how His Majesty seem'd of the mind to concern himself no further than the Paces of a Mediator our Orders being only to convey the Mind or Proposals of the Parties from one to another and even to avoid the offers of any references upon them to his Majesties determination so that my opinion was That it must be the War alone that must make the Peace and that I suppos'd it would do at one time or other by the weakness or weariness of one of the Parties The Prince seem'd of my mind and said the events of the War would depend upon the Conduct at Madrid and Vienna before next Campania for without some great successes he did not believe the States would be induc'd to continue it longer I told the Prince the Discourses Monsieur Colbert had entertained me with upon my arrival at Nimeguen in which his Highness was chiefly concerned upon which he replied coldly he had heard enough of the same kind another way which Monsieur D' Estrades had found out to Pensioner Fagel but that they knew him little that made him such Overtures and for his own Interests or Advantages let them find a way of saving his Honour by satisfying Spain and nothing of his Concerns should retard the Peace an hour After my return to Nimeguen I found the French making all the advances they could towards the progress of the Treaty and they were no doubt in earnest being in a posture to insist upon their present possessions and having made a great hand of this last Campania were willing like Gamesters that have won much to give over unless oblig'd to Play on by those that had lost The Swedes were more in haste and in earnest for the Peace than any hoping no Resource for their losses in Germany by the War The Dutch were grown impatient after the Peace finding France would make no difficulty of any thing between them offering privately by their Emissaries especially at Amsterdam such a Reglement of Commerce as they could desire the restitution of Mastricht and of all satisfaction the Prince of Orange could pretend upon his losses or their seizures in the War But Denmark and Brandenburgh were as violent against the Peace having swallowed up in their hopes all that Sweden had possess'd in Germany and tho' the Emperor seem'd to pretend little after the taking of Philipsburgh besides the restitution of Lorain and the Towns of Alsatia to the posture they were left in by the Munster Treaty yet they were so fast link'd both with their German Allies as well as Spain that they resolved to make no Paces in the Treaty but by common concert and Spain tho' sensible of the condition their affairs in Flanders were in as well as Sicily yet upon a design then hatching at Madrid for removal of the Queen Regent and her Ministry to introduce Don John to head the affairs of their Government had conceiv'd great hopes to recover those desperate infirmities that their inveterate disorders both in Councils and conduct especially in their Finances had for so long time occasion'd Besides they had confidences still given them from their Ministers in England that His Majesty would not after all be contented to see Flanders lost or would be forced into the War by the humour of his Parliament For these Reasons the Allies seem'd to make no hast at all to the Congress and some of them hardly to look that way and none of the Parties were yet arriv'd besides the French the Swedes and the Dutch But about the end of September the French Ambassadors gave notice That their Master having made so many advances to the Peace and being so ill seconded by the proceedings of the Confederates and their slowness in coming to the Treaty was resolv'd to recal his Ambassadors unless those of the chief Confederates should repair to Nimeguen within the space of one Month. This we communicated to the Dutch Ambassadors and they to the States who after some Conferences with the Ministers of their Allies came to a resolution That they would enter upon the Treaty themselves if the Ministers of their Confederates should not repair to Nimeguen by the first of November which was afterwards upon some disputes declar'd to be meant Old Stile being that of the place where the Congress was held The noise of this resolution of the States was more among their Allies than the danger since there were ways enough to raise difficulties and spin out time after the Ambassadors should arrive as well as before but yet it had so much effect that the several Confederates did upon it begin to hasten away one or other of their intended Ambassadors towards Nimeguen as Count Kinkski from Vienna Don
Pedro Ronquillo from England where he then resided as Spanish Envoy but not the persons principally intrusted or at the head of their Embassies nor with powers to proceed further than Preliminaries And from Denmark Monsieur Heug without any news of Count Antoine's preparation who was appointed chief of that Ambassay any more than of the Bishop of Gurke or Marquess de Balbaces the chiefest of those design'd from the Emperor and Spain In the mean time the Dutch began to lay load upon their Allies for their back wardness so declar'd in making any paces towards the Treaty to cavil upon the obligations they were under of so many great Subsidies to so many Princes their Allies for carrying on a war which the Allies pursued for their own separate Interests or Ambition tho' entr'd into it perhaps at first for defence of Holland with whose safety theirs were complicated Hereupon their Ministers both at the Hugue and az Nimeguen took the liberty to say publickly upon several occasions and in several Companies That their Masters would pay no Subsidies to their Allies the next Campania unless in the mean time they would by their fair and sincere proceedings in the Treaty put the French in the wrong as their expression was The Swedes had as well as the French offer'd to deliver us their Powers but this was deferr'd by the Dutch to the arrival of their Allies till after the first of November was elaps'd The French began to press them upon it in consequence of the States resolution and after some little demurs the Dutch Ambassadors agreed to deliver theirs so by a concert not without difficulty we agreed That on the 21st of November the several Powers should be brought to us the Mediators by the several Ambassadors at such Hours as they should severally take from us should be deposited in our hands and that we should afterwards communicate the Originals mutually to the several Ambassadors at their Houses and leave Copies with them attested by us the Mediators This was done accordingly and the morning after the Dutch Ambassadors brought us an account of several exceptions they were forc'd to make against several expressions in the French and Swedish Prefaces to their Powers which they said were fitter for Manifestoes than for Powers of a Treaty especially those of justifying the War and maintaining the Treaty of Westphalia But the greatest stress they laid was upon a clause in the French Powers mentioning the Pope's Mediation which they said their Masters could never consent to now no more than they had at Munster To say truth tho' the gaining of time for the Allies coming might have some part in these exceptions of the Dutch yet they were fram'd with great art and shew'd the great quickness and sharpness of Monsieur Beverning's apprehension as well as his skill and experience in these kind of affairs being I think without dispute the most practis'd and the ablest Ambassador of any I have ever met in the course of my Employments The Dutch exceptions were return'd by others from the French and Swedes against their Powers but with offer from both of entring into the Treaty while these Ministers should be adjusting The Dutch accepted it provided the French would oblige themselves to procure new Powers free from the exceptions raised against them as the Dutch offer'd to do After much debate they all agreed in desiring us the Mediators to draw up a form of Powers to be us'd by all the Parties We did it and it was approv'd by them all with some reserve only from the French whether it would be fit to mention any Mediation since that of the Pope's was left out and some little Tentatives upon us whether we would be content to leave out all mention of his Majesties Mediation as well as that of the Pope's This we excus'd our selves from doing the whole frame of the Congress having proceeded from His Majestie 's Mediation without any intervention of the Pope's and the King 's having been accepted by all the Parties which the Pope's had not been but on the contrary the very mention of it in the Powers declar'd against by several of them And by Orders we received from Court upon occasion of this dispute we declared to all of the Parties That tho' His Majesty pretended not to exclude any other Mediation that the Parties should think fit to use yet he could not in any wise act jointly with that of the Pope nor suffer his Ministers to enter into any Commerce either of Visits or Conferences with any of His that might be employed at Nimeguen In November arriv'd Monsieur Heug one of the Danish Ambassadors Monsieur Somnitz and Blaspyl the two Brandenburgh Ambassadors Lord Barclay from Paris and soon after Don Pedro Ronquillo one of the Spanish Ambassadors but the last continued incognito till the arrival of Count Kintski who whether he had taken the Gout or the Gout had taken him continued upon that pretence at Colen till the new year was begun The Spanish Ambassador coming upon Visits to my Wife and meeting me there found that way of entring into the present business of the Scene as much as if he had been declar'd upon it He agreed with the French in this one point of desiring either the Pope's Mediation might be mentioned in their Powers or that His Majesty in consideration of the Peace would suffer the mention of his to be left out but the Dane on t'other side agreed with the Dutch in refusing to admit any Power with mention of the Pope's Mediation There arose likewise another difficulty from a seeming Expedient propos'd by the Dutch of having from each Party several Powers granted for treating with the several Parties they were in War with which the French refus'd or to grant other Powers than for the Dutch and their Allies and in these disputes or difficulties the year 1676 ended I enter not at all into the Detail or so much as mention of the many Incidents that fell into the course of this Treaty upon Punctilioes of Visits or Ceremonials because they seem to me but so many Impertinencies that are grown this last Age into the Character of Ambassadors having been rais'd and cultivated by men who wanting other Talents to value themselves in those Imployments endeavoured to do it by exactness or niceties in the Forms and besides they have been taken notice of by discourses concerning this Treaty and at one time or other may be exactly known by the Original Papers of our Ambassy which are in two or three several Hands Whereas I intend chiefly to declare the course of this great Affair by the more material circumstances and from the true springs of those events that succeeded rather than trouble my self with the Forms that served to amuse so long this Assembly at Nimeguen I shall only make two Observations upon the Ceremonial the first is upon the Emperor's Conduct towards the Brandenburgh Ambassadors allowing his Ministers to Treat them both like