whose Demands vere still higher and greater The Ambassadors of Holland being returned to Zeist and having met with the Ambassadors of England a new Treaty of Peace was proposed but still very difficult to conclude For beside that England did not bate the least of its first Pretentions those of France were so exorbitant that it had been much better for the State to have perisht than to have granted them France demanded a Medal every year in form of Tribute with all the Charges of the War which it made to mount to immense Sums England demanded to have several things in the Indies which belonged to the Republick yielded to it so as I have said the State had almost as good have abandoned all as to have concluded so disadvantageous a Treaty The Republick having notice of all those things by their Ambassadors who came home again from Zeist without having effected ought resolved to break the Dikes of the Sea which was as I hinted before their last recourse in the utmost necessities But what made them the more willingly proceed to this resolution was that the People rejecting the Disasters of the State upon those who had the Conduct of it had Massacred the Pensioner of Holland with his Brother so as that they were in hopes that as the State had Chang'd its Master so also its Fortune would be Chang'd The States proceeding to that extremity as to break their Dikes gave them time to think of their Affairs They sent to the Princes of Germany the Propositions of Peace made them by the two Kings for the better possessing their minds in what they imagined of the Ambition of France They represented to them the piteous estate they were reduced to and that if they deferred longer affording them assistance it would be perhaps too late when they should be willing to do it That the Waters indeed saved them for the present but that they would not save them always That the Winter being come the French would pass over the Ice to attack them and that since they had not been able to resist them while the Provinces had been so flourishing there was little likely hood they could do it now being fallen so low from their ancient Reputation These Remonstrances the truth whereof was undoubted seeing the sad Estate the Republick was reduced to affected the Emperour the Marquiss of Brandenburg and several other Princes of the Empire The Marquiss of Brandenburg as being one of the most Potent first took the Field to succour it and as the King knew he had to do with a brave determinate Prince and besides a great Captain he decamped from Zeist and returned to France But first he thought fit to try if he could render himself Master of Boisle-duc which was shut up on one side by the Garrison of Crevecceur and on the other by that of Endeven Boisle-duc is a place situated just in the midst of a Marsh yet it is as weak in its outworks as it 's strong in its situation Nevertheless there 's a Cittadel on the side which looks towards Holland with two Forts on the side of the Mastricht Gate but all this would not be reckoned for any great matter if as I have said its situation did not render it almost inaccessible The lying establisht his Quarters at Boustel but while he was preparing all things for the Siege God who had begun to take Holland into his Protection sent Rains which continued for four or five days without ceasing so as the Country is low and level it was immediately filled with water that a body would have said they had opened the Sluces The King thinking the fair Weather might return staid eight or ten days longer at 〈◊〉 but seeing it did not leave off raining he decamped and returned home The Prince of Orange who after the Death of the Pensionary had all the Authority consided in him seeing the People in some manner of repose by the French Kings Departure thought of contenting them farther by the punishment of Mombas whose death they had long demanded He had been Conducted from Vtrecht to Woerden and from Woerden to Nicurbruk whither the Army of Holland was retreated There the Prince of Orange called a Council of War and began to examine his Affair which appeared daily worse and worse for him In short as his Conscience did not leave him any repose and that he thought himself absolutely ruined he was contriving how to make his escape which nevertheless was very difficult for he was carefully Guarded having People always with him Sentinels at the Door and at the Windows of his House As he was musing after what manner he should go to Work to get away one of his Friends got a Letter conveyed to him by which he gave him notice that he had but three days more to live if he found not the means to escape That the Council of War was resolved to make him serve for an example to others and that it was his part to take his measures thereupon 〈◊〉 seeing himself menaced at this rate spoke the same day to one of his Keepers who promised him in conâ—â—deration of some Money he gave him to let him escape out at the Window when he should be set Senrinel at that Post which happened on the morrow This Affair being done Mombas caused a Spanish Officer to be founded who was to be upon the Guard the same day at an mundation to know whether he would let him escape that way and get him a Guide ready The Officer loving Money as well as the Guard before-mentioned agreed for a hundred Pistols with him who made him this Proposition in consideration of which he promised to get him a Guide ready and to let him pass when he pleased This Bargain being thus struck Mombas have one called Villate a hundred Pistols this Villate having been his Gentleman oâ— the Horse and the Manager of this Affair to carry 'em to the Spaniard but Villate instead of giving them him went away with them whether that naturally he was inclined to pilfering or perhaps there remained something due to him from his Master and that he was content to pay himself with his own hands be it as it will as Mombas was still reckoning upon this Bargain all his Care now was to deceive those that kept him in sight to do which he went this way to work First He began to complain of a great pain in his Leg sent for a Chirurgeon shew'd him his Leg which by a wound he had formerly had remained lagger than the other and ask'd him what was to be done with it He caus'd also a Request to be made to the Prince of Orange that he would send him one of his Chirurgeons and these two Chirurgeons the one as ignorant as the other concluded a Plaister should be laid on 't and accordingly sent him one to be applied for that purpose By this means he kept his Bed without giving any suspicion and the day
a League wherein the King of Sweden entred by which these three Powers oblig'd themselves to cause the two Crowns to lay down Arms if not to declare against that which would not lay them down This League was call'd the Triple Alliance and was in the Issue so fatal to the Hollanders as I shall shew in due place that for ought I know they quickly repented their having had any hand in it A Man of Rochel is said to have been the Person who laid the first Foundations of it after having made all those Powers sensible how distrustful it became them to be of the ambition of France Be it as it will France which never easily pardons those who have once offended it knowing this Man was in Swisserland where he endeavour'd to insinuate the same thing into the Cantons sent thither the two Muzels the eldest of whom was a Captain of Cavalry and the other Gentleman of the Horse to Mon. Turenne to endeavour the seizing him The Affair was ticklish and of a strange consequence for the Muzels if what they came to do had been discovered in Swisserland but having had the cunning to conceal their design and to trapan their Man as he was passing from one City to another they brought him into France where he was broke alive upon the wheel after he had endeavour'd to baulk the execution by an action more resolute than Christian For having found in the Dungeon where he lay a piece of glass he made a shift with it to cut off his privy members and hid them under his straw bed for fear the Gaoler should chance to take notice of what he had done But not having been able to stanch the blood so well but that there still trickled down some drops the Gaoler would needs see from whence this proceeded add to this that his Colour did sufficiently speak him not to be in good health at length the Gaoler having perceived what he had hidden under the straw bed with a great quantity of blood beneath he gave the Judges notice of it and as he was designed for a publick spectacle they hastened his sentence Whereupon he was condemned to be broken and they fearing he would not have strength sufficient to go as far as the place where they put other Criminals to Death and perhaps too he would not be alive if they deferr'd his Execution until the Afternoon as is the common practice they raised up a Scaffold before the Prison Door and he was Executed the same instant The Triple Alliance which France had not foreseen did so startle that Crown that though it had promised it self the Conquest of the better part of Flanders it was nevertheless obliged to lay down Arms not but that it had above a hundred thousand men on foot but as England and Holland arm'd powerfully by Sea and that France had not a Fleet capable of resisting such great Forces that Crown was afraid that while its Arms were busied in Flanders the English joyn'd with the Hollanders would make a descent either into Britany or in Normandy and cast a terrour into the very heart of the Kingdom France being thus brought as it were by force to make a Peace began to contrive how to resent this outrage and principally upon those who had most contributed thereunto And as people did generally attribute to the United Provinces the Repose then enjoyed through all Europe all the French resentment fell upon it But it was very cautious of letting it appear yet a while For as Holland was as yet in good Terms with England and Sweden a way was first to be found out to separate it from those two Powers which were still capable of being re-united together for the interrupting its Designs as it only watcht for an occasion it quickly met with a very fair one by a Controversy which happened between England and Holland about Commerce far was it then from offering its Mediation as at other times it had done to accommodate the difference on the contrary it endeavoured still more and more to irritate the King of England and mean while caused a Treaty underhand to be proposed with the Hollanders that so they might not entertain any thoughts of making their Peace with England The Hollanders who had often found the assistance of France when they had any variance with England still expected the same kindness and the more for that the French King still amuz'd them with a Treaty But when they thought to have come to a Conclusion with him to oppose the King of England they were strangely surprized to hear that the French King had joyned himself to him and that while the English attack'd them by Sea the French were to attack them by Land with such numerous and such amazing Forces that it had not of a long while been known that France had had the like The United Provinces were then very much perplexed for though they were extreme Potent in Ships and Mony they had no Soldiers just ready to Oppose the French King whose Troops were already on their March though the Land of Cologne which was the way he took to attack them Now to have gone about raising any in their own Country besides a long Peace which the Provinces had enjoyed for several years had rendred their Subjects more capable of Commerce than of War there was no great feats to be hoped for from them the new Soldiers not being over-fit to resist Disciplin'd Troops Whereupon the Hollanders sent into Germany to make Levies there and to treat with some Princes from whom they were in hopes of Succours But all Europe was so startled at the prodigious Preparations of France that each was willing to keep his own Troops at home not knowing yet but that under the Pretext of attacking Holland the French King might invade Germany The Hollanders had hardly more than five and twenty thousand Men for though they had distributed Commissions to all those who proffered themselves to serve them yet as those new Troops were not on Foot there was no reckoning upon them until they were come to the Rendevouze But what still more and more weakned the State is that de Witt Pensioner of Holland who had much Credit in the Republick had ever excluded the Prince of Orange from Affairs and as he was a better Politician than a Soldier and yet would be medling in all Affairs went on very disorderly and in great Confusion There was still another thing which did not a little contribute to the ruine of the State but which was then unknown namely that the French King knew all that passed in the Country by the means of one Mombas who was in the Service of the Commonwealth that had confided in him a considerable trust in the Soldiery A Frenchman he was by Nation so that the King found it an easy matter to gain him to his Interests by the means of Desroches Captain in the Prince of Conde ' Guards and being his
Cavalry who seeing Trees all along the Rhine put himself with his Troops among them thinking himself thereby the better sheltered from the Cannon Mean while in went the French into the Rhine one after one and many of them were drown'd being swallow'd up in a Whirl-pool Others seeing this took the advantage on the left and pass'd for all the World like Cows which follow in the tail of one another Wurtz his Cavalry saw them pass without flinching until they perceiv'd some Troopers who now began to come out of the Water and form a Squadron Then they came from under the Trees where they stood but instead of pushing the Enemies that were return'd into the Water they made a halt upon the brink of the River from whence they made their discharge which being at too great a distance was without any effect The little Resolution which the Cavalry shewed gave Courage to the French who would never have dared to have stood their shock if they had but followed them into the Water and not stood gazing and suffer them to strengthen their Squadron with their Companions Wurtz his Cavalry having thus quited their ground the French rallied and waited for their Companions who still pass'd the River for the most part swimming and some by Boat. The Prince of Conde being thus in a Boat with the Duke of Anguien and some great Lords of the Court he caus'd his Boat to turn back towards the Water-side when he perceiv'd the Duke of Longueville had thrown himself into the River and ran the risque of being drowned he took him into his Boat and endeavouring to pass as soon as possible he was no sooner arrived on the other side than that he drew up his Troops in Battel Array in order to attack the Enemies Retrenchments The Hollands Infantry finding themselves weak in sorry Retrenchments and had besides placed all their hopes in the Cavalry by whom they saw themselves abandoned thought less of making Resistance than of demanding the Quarter which the Prince of Conde had offer'd them calling out to them aloud that they should lay down their Arms. Mean while the French still advanc'd without one man so much as making a shot either of their or on the Hollanders side which made the King believe who saw all that pass'd that he should have the Victory without its costing him one drop of blood But the Duke of Longueville having made a Debauch just before he parted from Emmerick advanc'd up to the very brink of the Retrenchment and fired his Pistol whereupon the Hollanders vex'd they had not fired sconer and fancying they had no more hopes of quarter left made their Discharge which being made as it were in the very mouths of the French killed a great many of the most considerable Persons among the Enemies The Duke of Longueville who had begun the noise was killed stone dead the Prince of Conde wounded and many others whom it would be too long to name The French who had been startled at this Discharge being recovered from their fright Rallyed and Attack'd the Retrenchments where they found some Resistance especially at one Barriere where was an Officer whose head was hoary with years but whose old Age had as much Vigour as the most Resolute Youth But being at length overwhelmed with numbers the rest sought their safety from their heels not thinking of asking Quarter which then they thought was to no purpose The French having no more Enemies to fight plundred the Castle of Tolhuys and put all the Isle of Betue under Contribution This was not the only advantage they reaped from the passage of the Rhine the Hollanders who were then afraid the French should come and fall upon them behind abandoned the Issel and retreated to Vtrecht where the Populace would have Sacrificed Mombas to its Resentment whom they accused of what had newly happened The Prince of Orange who knew he deserved Death yet was desirous he should be first questioned and perhaps put on the Rack for a full Discovery of his Treason gave order he should be saved by a back Gate and hid him in Hay to save him from the Peoples Resentment Mean while the King in Person took the City of Doesburg and Mon. Turenne those of Nimmeghen Swoll Deventer Grave Arnheim Skinckenskens the Fort of Crevecceur with a number of other Fortresses Thus did Vtrecht fall into the hands of the French but without their being obliged to lay siege to it For while the King was still before Doesbourg the Burgher-masters brought him the Keys as if they had been afraid of not having a Master soon enough The Marquis of Rochefort who was in favour at Court was sent to be Governour of that Town But as he had not yet much experience in War he failed of seizing Muidem which was abandoned by the taking in of which nevertheless they had made sure of Amsterdam In effect it was easy being Master of Muidem to hinder Ships from going in or out of Amsterdam for they must of necessity pass by Muidem which they would not have dared to have done if the French had been Master of it Thus Amsterdam had been brought to the necessity of coming to render it self up as Vtrecht had already done Not but that if the King had still come and presented himself before the Gates of the City they would have brought him the Keys for every Individual was in that Consternation that they only thought of saving their own Families without otherwise troubling themselves about the interest of their Country Nay and without staying for the Kings sending to summon up the delivery of the Town a Council was held in the City whether they should not go to meet him to desire he would be pleased to take it into his Protection as well as all the Inhabitants and there was a great danger of their coming to this Resolution if two Burger masters whose names ought to be Consecrated to Posterity the one of whom was called Offe and the other Hassenaer had not encouraged the rest to hold firm and rather call the Sea to their succours which had been a safer Remedy for them tho they were brought to the utmost necessity than to receive the French. After the King had taken the City of Doesburg he went to Encamp at Zeist two Leagues from Vtrecht where Ambassadors from the States came to demand Peace of him But as he was too haughty upon the success of his Arms he proposed such disadvantageous Conditions that the Ambassadours were obliged to return home without coming to any Conclusion Mean while when they were arrived at the Hague it was resolved they should go again because that Affairs on the other side were in so lamentable an estate that they thought themselves over happy in that they might receive any manner of Conditions Mean while there was still another difficulty which was that the French King would not come to any Conclusion without calling thereunto the King of England