this Book abounds with and which so many Thousands of People yet alive know to be so And yet the Author is a person of a passing good Character in France and the Book is dedicated to no less a man than the Learned Bishop of Meaux and passes among the most of the Nations abroad for a True History I am of opinion there is not in this whole pretended History one single Page without some one or two gross mistakes if not wilful Errors and to name them all were to Copy over the whole Book Only to give a hint of the rest from these few the Author will needs have Cromwell to have been a Prebendary and of Bishop William's Faction against Laud which Faction he says arose on the debate betwixt the two Archbishops for Precedence an affair some Ages older than Cromwell In short there is not one single Syncronisme right in the whole Book from the beginning to the end witness one for all He makes Duke Hamilton's Expedition into England to have fallen out in the Year 1644. and King Charles the First to have rendred himself to the Scots Three Years after I would not have mentioned this Book if I thought it not conducing to the Common-wealth of Letters but especially to Strangers to know this late practice of the French Writers that thereby they may not swallow all they write upon Trust Being upon this subject of Counterfeiting Dispatches and Papers I could instance a great many Remarkable Events that have been owing to that kind of Artifice both in Ancient and Modern Times from the knowledg of which it seems the French are the more imboldened to try the Experiment But there hapned one of the signallest effects in Britain of an Artifice of this nature some Fifty years ago that tho it be quite foreign to the purpose yet the Strangeness of it the mighty Consequences that attended it and it 's lying hitherto among the Secrets of our History will obtain me the Reader 's Fardon to give the Story of it in short Every body I believe is acquainted with the Rise of those unhappy Commotions that shook this Island during the Reign of King Charles the First and knows where to lodg them Both Nations were discontented and the Flame rose in Scotland which propagated it self at last to England and our Historians have taken care to give us all the Publick Steps of those unhappy Transactions but not without Partiality on some one side or another But there was one Secret Hindge on which the Scotch Second Invasion moved that has never to this day been committed to Print and which is a notable demonstration upon how small and unseen Springs the greatest Revolutions in the Affairs of the World do oftentimes turn When King Charles was induced to enter into Terms of Treaty with the Scots at RÃppon some of the English Nobility that had been very Instrumental to bring the King to an Accommodation and thereby deserved well of the Scots found a great Coolness and Uneasiness in the Scotch Commissioners towards them notwithstanding they had deserved so well of that Countrey The Treaty being at last concluded and the Scots fully pleased with the Terms one of the English Noblemen being very desirous to know the Reason of that Coolness that had during the whole Course of the Treaty appeared in the Scots was resolved if possible to find it out To this end having invited the Earl of Rothes and the rest of the Scotch Noblemen that had managed the Treaty to Dinner he fell upon the matter of Their coming into England and how happily the Differences betwixt the King and Them had been made up and withal how happy he thought himself in promoting so good an Agreement At length he concluded with the uneasiness he was in on the account of the Coolness he had always found in the Scotch Noblemen towards him notwithstanding of his great Zeal and Success in serving them with the King and in the whole course of the Treaty The Earl of Rothes answered He thank'd his Lordship for the good Offices he and the rest of the English Commissioners had done his Countreymen both with the King and in the Treaty But he was astonished to hear his Lordship inquire the ground of his and his Collegues Coolness towards him and some of the English Peers there present For says he it was your Lordship and They that Invited us at first into England and promised to join with us as soon as we were on English Ground and yet notwithstanding your Lordship and They were so far from making good your promise that you appear'd in Arms against us The English Noblemen being surprised at this answer at length the Earl of Rothes pull'd out of his pocket a Letter signed by Seven or Eight of the chief of the English Nobility directed to him the Earl of Rothes in name of the rest of his Countreymen Inviting them into England and promising to come in to them upon their entring this Kingdom Which Letter was yet a matter of greater astonishment when it was found a Counterfeit one and that a certain English Nobleman then present who is dead and his Family extinct long ago confess'd himself to have done it This Letter has had the luck to be oftner than once printed in several Histories of that time for a true one and I believe I am the first that have publickly advanc'd it to have been false Being safe in what I have said about it from the knowledge of two or three Noblemen yet alive whose Hands are at it and who are much better acquainted with the whole Story than I possibly can To leave so long a digression and put an end to this Appendix I shall only add a few words concerning two Passages in the foregoing Observators that has made a great noise in the World and which both Honour and Justice obliges me to clear The first is about what I wrote of a Book printed in French some fourteen Months ago if I mistake not the time Intituled Avis aux Refugès sur leur prochain Retour en France An Advice to the French Refugees upon their expected return to France This Book has occasion'd a great many others by way of Answers and Replies betwixt two of the Learnedst Men of the French Nation Monsieur Jurieu and Monsieur Bale And therein the Consistory of the French Church at Rotterdam has been oblig'd to concern themselves Monsieur Jurieu has positively accus'd Monsieur Bale of being the Author of this Book and to have written it of concert with a Cabal of other French Pensioners set a work by the Court of France I shall not meddle in the Debate betwixt those two Great Men any further than concerns my self In one of my Observators I mention'd this Book which has occasion'd so much heat and said It was concerted by the French Court and that I knew the Author This was long before there was the least word of Contest betwixt Monsieur
our Ancestors in their so often-try'd Valour against that Nation in their own Countrey was the ordinary Talk then in England But the truth was we were not more confident of our own Success than the French themselves were of it And the fear alone of our Declaring against them brought them to a Peace If we look back upon the Posture of Affairs in France at that time we shall find it was at least as good as it 's now in this Juncture and consequently they had rather less reason to be afraid of Vs then than they have now They were during the last War safe and at ease on the Italy side the Duke of Savoy and the Switz being intirely in their Interests the Duke of Bavaria was Neutral or rather for the French the King of Sweden not only declared for them but obliged the Duke of Brandenburgh one of the most Powerful of the Confederates to return with his whole Forces from the Rhine to defend his own Lands on the other side of Germany Another powerful Diversion they had obtained upon the Spaniard by raising a formidable Insurrection in Messina which was like to spread it self not only through the rest of Sicily but into the Continent of Italy it self and therein the Kingdom of Naples Not only were they thus well circumstantiated abroad but were much more so at home in respect of what they are now At that time the French King was Master of some Hundred Thousands of the best of his Subjects whereof some Forty Thousand were esteemed the best Troops in his Armies all whom he has forced since to abandon both his Countrey and Service and many of them to take part with the Confederates against him And to add to all the advantages the French were in Possession of during the whole course of that War tho they saw the English Nation were zealous to enter into it against them yet they knew but too well That the King of England was their unalterable Friend and would never be hearty in his People's Quarrel Now how far in the course of this present War the Circumstances of France incline to the worse when compared to what they were during the last we need to more but to call to mind these few things Instead of being safe and easie on the Italy side as they were then they are now in War there Savoy being their declared Enemy and making a considerable Effort upon that Quarter Instead of the Switz's being openly for them as they were then they are now Neutral at best The Duke of Bavaria instead of being their Friend as then he is now one of the firmest and sincerest of the Confederacy against them Not only is Sueden not declared for them but both they and the other Northern Crown has assisted the Confederacy with their Troops and has been proof against all Insinuations to gain them to the French Interest or so much as to recal their Forces The Crown of Spain lies under the weight of no diversion by the French on any side but that of Catalonia which was likewise their case the last War But if the French are now in no better circumstances with respect to their Affairs Abroad than they were in the time of the last War it 's beyond all question their Circumstances at Home admit of a great many unlucky aggravations that render them a great deal worse now than they were then Their Countrey is exhausted and impoverish'd beyond expression Some Hundred thousands of that People who made the greatest Figure in their Wars have now setled themselves and all they could carry with them elsewhere And of these a great many do now help to compose the Confederate Troops and none long more to enter into their Countrey again with Swords in their hands than they The Discontents in France are raised to a prodigious height in respect of what they were some years ago And in short tho the French were sufficiently miserable then they are inexpressibly now much more so And to cast the balance for altogether betwixt the two Junctures of the Wars we are treating of Instead of a King on the Throne of England the French were assured of they have now to deal with one that 's entirely in the Interest of England and who when under a less figure scorn'd to be their Friend as long as they prov'd themselves to be the Common Enemy and Great Disturbers of Christendom There is but two things that seem to be more promising for the French in the present War than was in their Case during the last and that is The War in which the Emperor is engaged with the Turks and the French being possessed of more Towns in Flanders and Germany than they were then But laying even these in the Balance with those disadvantages I have named I hope I am not altogether out of my reckoning in saying their Case is at least no better now than it was then All this comparison I have made for two Reasons 1. To shew it was not so easie to make Head against France especially in an Offensive War as some people imagined at first And 2dly That in all human probability we may expect either now to bring France to Reason or we shall never do it And if we do it not then it 's impossible to foresee the Thousandth part of the Miseries that attend England since that is the mark that most of the Designs of France are levell'd against He that 's at pains to reflect upon that prodigious turn of Affairs in Holland in the year 1673. when after the French had render'd themselves Masters of so great a part of these Provinces that Amsterdam was within one Ace of sending the Keys of their City to the French King then at Utrecht The Prince of Orange at the age of Twenty one years with a handful of Men and those new-rais'd and ill-disciplin'd did put a stop to that mighty Torrent and in a few months not only oblig'd the French King in the height of all his Glory to quit all his Conquests on that side but by a miracle of Bravery and Conduct carried the War to the Frontiers of France it self I say He that is at pains to consider all this and at the same time the insuperable Difficulties this young Prince lay then under He may from the justest methods of Reasoning conclude That in all probability The same Prince when at the head of Three Kingdoms as well as of the Armies of Holland and the Confederates may out do what at that time all the World thought utterly impossible to be done Our Malecontents in England would fain flatter themselves with hopes that the Hollanders may come to be wearied of this War and that they may be brought to enter into terms of Accommodation with France rather than to continue it much longer at so vast a charge and under so many discouragements in their Trade Of this I see by some of their late Pamphlets they would fain
persuade themselves and others from what happen'd in the last War when the Hollanders made up a separate Peace with France But though it were a just standard of Reasoning to judge of what will be for what has been as it is not yet even as to this former Conduct of the Hollanders These Gentlemen are mightily out And their hopes are laid not only upon the weakest but upon the falsest Foundation Which will appear if they be at the pains to consider the Circumstances that oblig'd the States to enter into that Separate Peace The joint Declaration of War against them by the English and French in the year 1672. was a Thunderclap they least of all suspected and were least of all provided against The House of Orange which had for some Generations together been the Tutelary Genius of their State was now under an Eclipse And through the unlucky Conduct of a contrary Faction the Corner-stone of the Belgick Government I mean the Office of Statholder was abolish'd This paramount-Error brought in a thousand more And their Military Assairs at Land were never in so miserable a condition for want of both Officers and Soldiers that knew any thing in War It was no wonder then that People under this circumstance should rather incline to run the Ship ashore at any rate than to venture to keep her out at Sea in so ill hands But upon their returning back to their true Basis in Restoring the young Prince of Orange to the place his Ancestors had possessed with so much glory and upon their committing to him the shatter'd Relicks of ther Armies they bore up the War with heart enough especially being steel'd with the Prince's admirable Conduct and was so far from patching up a Peace with France though they had wisely done it both for them and Us with England that they continued it without interruption from the year 1672 inclusive till the year 1679. being near seven years Even then the Hollanders had notwithstanding continued the War longer if three unhappy things had not interven'd 1st They were fain to lose their Trade and the rather that the English their Rivals in it was at peace with all the Nations about them And when once Trade quits its wonted Channel for another they consider'd how hard a difficulty it is to bring it back again 2dly The Authority of the Prince of Orange was but in its Infancy and the Seeds of Jealousie that had been sowing by the Emissaries of France for the tract of several years were not yet quite rooted out Thence it was the Peace betwixt them and France was rather from the hot instances of the Populace set a work by the Prince's secret Enemies than the effect of a sedate inclination in the Members that compos'd the States-General But there was a 3d Reason that I believe prevail'd more with the Hollanders to make up that Separate Peace than all the rest and that was The unsteady and suspected measures of England during the whole course of that Affair King Charles they knew too well to believe he would ever heartily espouse the Common Interest against that of France And yet they again and again declared to his Ambassador at the Hague That if he would give them such assurances as they could rely on of his Declaring immediately against France as his Parliament would have had him to do they would continue the War cost what it would It was then King Charles's fault rather than that of the Hollanders that they made up that separate Peace And yet at their making it they made such provisions for Spain and the other Confederates that naturally made way for a general one which followed upon it If we take a view of the circumstances that the Hollanders are in at present especially with an eye to these three Motives which induced them to put an end to the last War by a separate Peace we shall find there is not the least imaginable ground to fear they will fall upon such Measures in this War as they did in the former For First Though by the continuance of this War their Trade must needs be impair'd yet they are in no hazard as they were during the last War of losing it after a general Peace comes once to be concluded Considering that the English who are the only Rivals they have reason to suspect on that head are in the same Circumstances with themselves 2dly The King of England's Interest in Holland as their Statholder was never so great as it is at this very moment The contrary Faction that oppos'd him in the progress of the last War is either now changed for him or become so insignificant as not to be able to counterballance the hundredth part of the other Scale And 3dly That fatal discouragement which attended all the former steps made for the Liberty of Europe from the temper and management of King Charles the 2d is now out of doors And the jealousies the Hollanders entertain'd of that Prince notwithstanding of all his Protestations to the contrary are now buried with him in his Grave By all that I have said and by a great many other things I have not time to say It may appear to any body of common sence that the Hollanders are in no hazard of wearying in this War so soon as some Ill-affected Persons would imagine And no People have given greater proofs of their zeal to the common Safety of Christendom nor taken truer and juster methods to that end than they have done all along But there is one demonstration that shews the hearty Affection and Zeal of the Hollanders to carry on this War and which ought perhaps to put some other People that are as much concern'd as they to the Blush They do at this very moment give to the maintenance of this VVar three times more in proportion to what we do in England as to Imposts on their Trade and Chattels And as to Taxes on their Lands and Houses they pay willingly in some Provinces above the real value and in most about three parts of four Notwithstanding of all which there is no uneasiness to be seen or felt among them upon that score and which is the more wonderful that they depend on Trade for their necessary sustentation which we do not in England But I am afraid to have said too much on this subject of the carriage of King Charles and the Hollanders in the last War Considering how lately that Excellent Person Sir William Temple has given us an Account thereof in his Memoirs A Book upon which we can never place a sufficient Value whether we consider the Matter or the Stile And wherein together with the many secret Hindges on which Affairs of that time did move VVe have the exactest and justest Idea of the present King set forth to the life and such an Idea as agrees with the whole matters of fact and that renders him a Prince of the greatest Justice Honour and Foresight that can be
instanc'd in History I must confess the Character and Account that Learned Gentleman gives of the King meets so close with those Transactions of his Life that has hapned since that one would be almost tempted to think the Book had either been written or at least lick'd over again after this late Revolution in England was brought about But so far was it from being so that it 's committed now to the Press just as it came from the Author's Pen several years before this Revolution was either thought upon or the least occasion for it and that without his Knowledg or Review or the least Alteration Addition or Deduction of any one single sentence through the whole In reading these Curious Memoirs and the part His Majesty has in them it brought to my mind a Book of Monsieur Aubery's printed at Paris in French Twelve Years ago with Approbation of the French King entituled Memoirs pour servir a l'Histoire de Holland Memoirs to give light to the History of Holland In which there is a Character given of the present King in a few words that rather outdoes than falls short of Sir William Temple's And because Monsieur Aubery is both an Author of great account and much more that the very Design of the Book it self is mighty unfavourable to the Family of Orange and he as much an Enemy to the present King as can well consist with the Temper of an Historian I beg leave to do the ungrateful part of a Translator as to some Passages in it Let us hear therefore what a French-man a Roman-Catholick an Enemy of the then Prince of Orange and of his House and an Idolater of the present French King tells us of the Affairs of Holland during the last War and His Majesty's part therein and withal let us pardon an Air of Vanity that naturally attends a French Author when he writes of his King In Page 300 of these Memoirs he has these words as near as I can give them in English This young Prince meaning the present King then Prince of Orange has from his Infancy given the greatest Marks of his Reservedness and Moderation His Prudence augments as he grows up in years And all that pretend to know any thing of Merit that are acquainted with him do agree in this That never Prince has given the world greater hopes of himself He endured with the profoundest Dissimulation pardon the Expression from an Enemy the Injuries of the Barnevalt Faction restored in the Persons of the two De Wits waiting with a Patience and Taciturnity even beyond that of his Great Grandfather Prince William of Orange the Advantages of Time and a favourable occasion for his own Re-establishment for being deprived by a solemn Edict of all the great Employments of his Family after the sudden Death of his Father he came to be re-established in them by a contrary Edict the beginning of this War He was obliged for his Restoration to France which having about seven years ago made the greatest Conquests that has been heard of in so short a time the most part of the Frontier Towns of the Vnited Provinces and many of their Capitals Utrecht and Zutphen among others rendred themselves at the first view of our Troops Tho those Places were provided of great Garisons yet being composed of Officers and Soldiers without skill the King meaning the French saw himself Master of above Forty Places in less than Two Months time and found himself so overwhelm'd with Success not only above his Hopes but Wishes that he might say with Caesar Veni Vidi Vici I came I saw I overcame These Thunderclaps that presag'd yet others worse to come and which put the Hollanders to the greatest Consternation gave occasion to the People to complain of the ill Conduct of the De Witts and furnished a just Cause for the Friends of the House of Orange to say That there was none capable to sustain their Tottering State nor to defend them against that Powerful Enemy but the Princes of that Family And that as they had protected them before against the Tyranny of Spain there was no others able to save them from the Thunder of France The Grandmother of the present Prince a Woman of a Masculine Courage that had endured with the greatest impatience the low Ebb of that House which she had once seen in the greatest Splendour took pains to gather together all the best Friends and Dependants of the Name of Nassau which were very numerous These People displeased at their being turned out of all the Employments in their State and to see them in the hands of the Children of the Burgomasters and being back'd with the Fury of all the rest that lov'd their Countrey and saw themselves under the hazard of present Destruction by a Victorious Army in the bowels of their Countrey they came as to their last Sanctuary to restore the present Prince to the Possession of all the Dignities his Ancestors had enjoyed that is of Captain and Admiral General and Stadtholder whicb were thereupon entail'd on his Family for ever by a Solemn and Vnanimous Decree This same Author comes afterwards to tell us that before this re-establishment of the Prince of Orange The Holland Troops were such sort of creatures that places wherein there were Five Thousand Foot and Eight Hundred Horse in Garison would render themselves Prisoners of War at the first approach of the French without making the least Resistance And that Fifty Reisters of Munster would put ordinarily to Flight Three Hundred of the Dutch Horse that fled before them as so many Sheep before a Wolf But Page 311. Returning to speak of the present King and his Part in the War after his Re-establishment he expresses himself thus The Prince of Orange saw himself at the Age of Twenty One Years at the head of an Army as his Great Grandfather William of Orange had been at the same Age under the Emperor Charles the 5th And in the whole course of this War he made appear to the World so much Conduct and so much Bravery in a great many Rancounters Battels and Seiges as certainly far surmount the Actions of his Renowned Ancestors who had set a Copy for Two Hundred Years together for the greatest Captains to imitate If he had not had the unhappiness to be born in the Age of Lewis le Grand whose Power Genius and Fortune admits of no stop This Young Hero continued He with a few Troops hastily Levied and but ill Disciplin'd had the Courage to make head against this great Monarch in the height of his Fortune And his Conduct and Personal Valour in Battel made Victory for some hours incline to his scale till at last he had the consolation not to have Yielded but to the Greatest Prince on Eartb And it may be justly said of him tho an Enemy That nothing but so Glorious a Sun could lessen the Rays of this Rising Star Thus far Monsieur Aubrey and