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
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
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
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
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
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
States or at least Private Measures and Correspondencies with several Towns and Persons of those Provinces so as to induce or force the States at last into a separaâ—e Treaty with France upon the difficulties or delays that might arise in a General one And upon this point the Allies were so jealous that the States Deputies of the Foreign Committee who manag'd all these Affairs in the first resort thought it necessary to seem as averse against Treating in any of their Dominions as any of the Allies Thus all places in Germany France and the Low-Countries seem'd absolutely excluded by one part or other and London was dislik'd by all as too remote and of difficult and uncertain Commerce for Letters by reason of the Sea After much perplexity upon this Subject in many Conferences I had with the Deputies and Discourses with the Pensioner I propos'd two places as the only I could think of left for any attempt upon all circumstances The first was Cleve which could not be said to belong to the Empire but to the Elector of Brandenburgh as Duke of Cleve and not as a Prince of the Empire The other was Nimeguen as being the last Town belonging to the States and upon the Borders of Germany Both Towns capable of such a reception as was necessary both in good Airs and easie of access from all parts center'd between Spain and Sweden between the Empire and France and near England where the Spiring of this Treaty was conceiv'd to be I thought France might not dislike Cleve even upon those regards the Allies suspected of the vicinity to the States and the Confederates could not except against it as belonging to one of them On t'other side if the Allies approv'd Cleve and France should refuse it yet they could not afterwards disapprove of Nimeguen which was but three Leagues nearer the Hague or Amsterdam where they suspected the French practices and disjoin'd from both by necessary passage of great Rivers which made the Commerce more difficult and slow than it would be from other Towns of the States Dominions Another Reason was That I knew no other to name that did not seem previously excluded and upon this the Deputies consented that I should propose both to the King that he might do the same to all the Parties but that I should begin with Cleve which I did This France refus'd upon pretence of some dependance upon the Empire but as was thought upon picque to the Duke of Brandenburgh with whom they were more offended at this time than with any of the Allies After this refusal and Nimeguen being advanc'd France first aâ—cepted it and afterwards the Allies who could not well refuse it after having express'd they would have been satisfied with Cleve and so this Place came to be fix'd for the Scene of this Negotiation But at the same time that France accepted the Place of Treaty they declar'd That they would not however send any Ambassâ—dors thither till the Emperor had given them satisfaction upon the two Points so long insisted of Prince William of Furstenburgh's Liberty and Restitution of the Money seized at Colen which were Points had been hitherto as obstinately refus'd at Vienna as demanded by France So as these paces towards a Peace gain'd at present very little ground but left way for the Actions and Successes of the ensuing Campania to determin the Times the Methods and Conditions of their pretended Treaty The French began their Action by the Siege of Limburgh with one part of their Army whilst the King with the rest lay encamp'd in a Post most convenient to oppose any attempt of relieving it to which purpose the Prince was upon his march but after a short and weak resistance it was taken before he could approach it For besides some delays forc'd by his sickness he began here to feel the weight that hung about him all the course of this War from the uncertain and slow marches of the German Horse and the weakness and disorders of the Spanish Troops which were necessary to make up his Army of strength to oppose that of France compos'd of such Numbers such brave and experienc'd Troops and under so great a Commander as the Prince of Conde and so gallant Officers After the taking of Limburgh the French and Confederate Armies in Flanders fell into no considerable Action or Attempt Neither daring to sit down before any Place of Strength while the other Army attended them and was ready to relieve it and neither seeming very earnest to come to a Battel unless with evident Advantages upon the loss of which so great Consequences seem'd to depend as the French entire Conquest of Flanders on the one side or the Confederates marching directly into France on the other after any great Victory Besides they seem'd to be amus'd by the expectation of what was likely to pass in Germany both upon the Rhine between the Imperialists and French and in Pomerania between the Swede and Brandenburgh which without new Successes in the Low-Countreys were like to decide in a great measure the Fate of this War whil'st the Confederates equally presum'd of their Successes in Alsatia and the French of those of the Swedes in the North. About the end of July the King of France weary of a dull Campania left the Army to the Prince of Conde and return'd with his Court to Versailles And the same month His Majesty seeing the Negotions of the Peace lay'd at present asleep sent for me to make a short turn into England and give an Account of all the Observations I had been able to make abroad upon the present Dispositions and Conjunctures as well as receive his Instructions for the future progress of his Mediation The Parliament in England tho much pleas'd with the last Peace in Holland yet were not so with His Majesty's desires of a General One They thought the Power of France too great since their last Conquest in Flanders and their Ambition too declar'd of atchieving it by one means and at one time or other They were suspicious of the Court 's favouring too much the French Designs by pursuing a Peace that would break so mighty a Confederacy as was now united against France They were jealous of the Councels which had made the late Alliance and Kindness between Us and France in the time of the late Cabal and besides these regards and the common Notions of balancing the Power of our Neighbours which were very popular the ambitious Designs of private but unquiet or aspring men fell in to augment and blow up the general ill humours upon the more Publick Accounts The Lord Shaftsbury impatient at his fall from so great a share of the Ministry and hoping to retrieve a Game he was forc'd to give over had run desperately into the popular humour both in Parliament and City of censuring the Court exclaiming against our partiality to France but most of all against the Conduct of the present Ministry And Lord Arlington was
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
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
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
and govern himself as well as he could by Presidents and Examples He consulted both these Ambassadors whether he should visit the Spaniards after having given the first notice to the Imperialists And they concluded That he should first know of them whether it was done in form as to Ambassadors in general or whether it was upon the account of the near Alliance in Blood between those two Houses of Austria That if it were the First he ought not visit them as having put a disrespect upon the Mediation and distinguish'd the Emperor from all the other crown'd Heads who had yielded the precedence wholly to them which they should not have done if the Emperor had refus'd it But if the Spaniards affirmed it was only upon the nearness of Blood between them none of the other Ambassadors need take any notice of it since the same had been done between those two Crowns at Munster upon the same score which being there declared it gave no offence to the Mediators tho they were the Pope's Nuncio's with whom there was otherwise no competition Sir Lionel was satisfied by the Spaniards who gave it him in writing that the Visits were made only upon the score of Kindred as at Munster and thereupon made them his Visit and received theirs for which he was sharply reprov'd by Secretary Williamson's Letter upon it who had represented it to the King as a Disobedience to a positive Order and giving up the Point to the Imperialists But being at Court soon after these Dispatches I endeavoured to justify my Colleague's Intentions and his Proceedings by shewing that he had conform'd to his other Orders of consulting the other Ambassadors and proceeding according to the best President which was that at Munster and that if he had broken with the Spaniards upon this Point he would have provok'd the Imperialists to declare their resolution of not yielding to the Mediators upon which the other Ambassadors would recal the Concession which they had already made in this Point and so hazard if not lose the Possession his Majesty was in of the first Respect given to his Mediation I had the good fortune to satisfy his Majesty and his Ministers and to obtain Orders for His gracious Pardon to be sent Sir Lionel for they would suffer it to run in no other Terms for which however the poor Gentleman made as great Acknowledgments as if his Fault had been much greater and worse meant The rest of this Summer passed without any further Paces made in the Congress at Nimeguen where the Messages carried and returned about the Business of Lorain served to keep the Mediators in countenance and no more The whole Body of Allies pressed for an Answer from the French to that Duke's Pretensions delivered in by President Canon The French after their former Exception of his wanting a Minister there raised another to stave off these Instances of the Allies and declared they could give no answer about Lorain till the Bishop of Strasburgh's Agents were received by the Allies upon which the Emperor made an invincible Difficulty declaring he would never treat with a Vassal of his own And in these Conferences about Lorain the French Ambassadors began to insinuate to the Mediators That their Master never intended That to be treated as a Principal but only as an Accessary to the Treaty In August arrived at Nimeguen the Bishop of Gurck chief of the Imperial Ambassay and Count Antoine of that from Denmark The first was immediately visited by the Spainsh Ambassadors and returned them after which he sent his Notifications to the Mediators and from them to the other Ambassadors upon which no Difficulty was made by them since the Bishop made the same Declaration the Spaniards had done before upon the like occasion That the first Visits passing between the Ministers of the two Houses of Austria were Visits of Kindness and Consanguinity and not of Ceremony But Count Antoine fell into endless Difficulties upon his first arrival He intended to have sent his first Notification to the Mediators as others had done but the Imperialists having notice of this Intention sent him direct word they expected the first Respect should be given the Emperor and this was the first time they owned that Pretension in prejudice of the Honour hitherto done to the King's Mediation Count Antoine sent Monsieur Hoeg his Colleague to acquaint the Mediators with this Incident and desire them to find out some Expedient They excused themselves alledging their positive Orders to expect the first Notification The Danes were as unwilling to disoblige His Majesty as the Emperor and found no temper in this matter after many offered both by French and Dutch Ambassadors so that Count Antoine resolved to leave it undecided and to give no Notifications nor receive or make any Visits but however assisted at the Conferences among the Allies and made a part of all the Evening Entertainments at Play and in Conversation in the Apartments of the several Ambassadrices And this course he observed during his stay at Nimeguen which was seven or eight Months for the rest a Person very much esteemed for his generous Qualities and Gentlemanly Humour and Conversation and yielding to none upon the Place in the Greatness and Splendor of his Equipage wherein the Marquess de Balbaces and Count Antoine seemed to distinguish themselves from all the rest About the end of July the Prince of Orange made an Attempt upon Charleroy rather than a Siege This had been before concerted with the Duke of Lorain who made a meen of entring into Champagne on purpose to draw off the French Forces from attending the Prince's motions and design upon Charleroy the Prince had hopes to take it by Surprize but found them of the Garison upon their Guard and very strong as well as the Place which had been fortified with all the force of Art and Expence which could be employed upon a Place of that Compass He sat down before it and would have besieged it in form if the Duke of Lorain could have diverted the French Army from relieving it but Monsieur Louvoys with great diligence leaving the Mareshal Crequi with Force enough to face that Duke assembled a very great Army for the Relief of Charleroy upon approach whereof the Prince called a Council of War to resolve whether to march and fight the French Army or raise the Siege The last was resolved upon debate at the Councel and accordingly executed and therewith ended this Compania in Flanders But this March and Retreat of the Prince passed not without many Reflections not only among the Allies but in Holland too as if he had given over the Design upon some Intelligences and Expresses between Him and the King about this time Monsieur Bentink had gone over and returned without any Bodies knowing his Business My Lord Ossory happened to arrive in the Camp the day before the Council of War upon which the Siege was raised which made many think something
have supported him in it or turned it only to ruin the Ministers by the King's Necessities 'T is certain no Vote could ever have passed more unhappily nor in such a Counter-Season nor more cross to the humour of the House which seem'd generally bent upon engaging His Majesty in the War and the Person that moved it was I believe himself as much of that mind as any of the rest but having since the loss of his Employment at Court ever acted a part of great animosity in opposition to the present Ministry in whose hands soever it was This private ill humour carried him contrary to his publick intentions as it did many more in the House who pretended to be very willing to supply the King upon occasion of the War or even of his Debts but that they would not do it during my Lord Treasures Ministry In short there was such fatal and mutual distrust both in the Court and Parliament as it was very hard to fall into any sound measures between them The King at least now saw he had lost his time of entring into the War if he had a mind to it and that he ought to have done it upon my Lord Duras's return and with the whole Confederacy And my Lord Essex told me I had been a Prophet in refusing to go into Holland to make that Alliance which had as I said pleased none at home or abroad and had now lost all our measures in Holland and turn'd theirs upon France But the turn that the King gave all this was That since the Dutch would have a Peace upon the French Terms and France offered money for his Consent to what he could not help he did not know why he should not get the money and thereupon ordered me to Treat upon it with the French Ambassador who had Orders to that purpose I would have excused my self but he said I could not help seeing him for he would be with me at my House by Seven next Morning He accordingly came and I told him very truly I had been ill in the night and could not enter into Business The Ambassador was much disappointed and pressed me all he could but I defended my self upon my illness till at length he left me without entring upon any thing When I got up I went immediately to Sheen writ to my Lord Treasurer by my Wife May the Tenth 1678. how much I was unsatisfied with being put upon such a Treaty with the French Ambassador that belonged not at all to my Post and which they knew I thought dishonorable to the King and thereupon I offered to resign to His Majesty both my Ambassy at Nimeguen and my Promise of Secretary of State 's Place to be disposed by his Majesty as he pleased My Lord Treasurer sent me word The King forced no man upon what he had no mind to but if I resolved this should be said to him I must do it my self or by some other for he would not make my Court so ill as to say it for me and so it rested and I continued at Sheen without stirring till the King sent for me In the mean time from the beginning of May the ill humor of the House of Commons began to break out by several Discourses and Votes against the Ministers and their Conduct which increased the ill opinion His Majesty had conceived of their intentions in pressing him to enter upon a War yet notwithstanding all this he had as I was told by a good hand conceived such an Indignation at one Article of the private Treaty proposed by Monsieur Barillon that he said he would never forget it while he lived and tho he said nothing to me of his Resentment yet he seemed at this time more resolved to enter into the War than I had ever before seen or thought him Monsieur Ruvigny the Son was dispatched into France to know the last intentions of that Court upon the terms of the Peace proposed by His Majesty but brought no Answer clear or positive so as His Majesty went on to compleat his Levies and to prepare for the War but May the eleventh the House of Commons passed another Negative upon the Debate of money which so offended the King that he Prorogued them for ten days believing in that time his Intentions to enter into the War would appear so clear as to satisfie the House and put them in better humour Monsieur Van Lewen distasted with these delays and the Counterpaces between King and Parliament begins to discourse boldly of the necessity his Masters found to make the Peace as they could since there was no relying upon any measures with England for carrying on the War and the Season was too far advanced to admit any longer delays Upon these Discourses from him His Majesty began to cool his Talk of a War and to say The Peace must be left to the Course which Holland had given it and tho' upon May the twenty third the Parliament met and seemed in much better temper than they parted yet news coming about the same time that Monsieur Beverning was sent by the States to the French Court at Gant to propose a Cessation of Arms for six Weeks in order to negotiate and agree the Terms of the Peace in that time the Affairs began now to be looked upon both in Court and Parliament as a thing concluded or at least as like to receive no other motion than what should be given it by Holland and France And indeed the dispositions were so inclined to it on both sides that the Terms were soon adjusted between them These Articles having been so publick I shall not trouble my self to insert them but only say they seemed so hard both to Spain and to the Northern Princes who had made great Conquests upon the Swedes that they all declared they would never accept them and when the French Ambassadors at Nimeguen desired Sir Lionel Jenkins to carry them to the Confederates he refused to do it or to have part in a Treaty or Conditions of Peace so different from what the King his Master had proposed and what both his Majesty and Holland had obliged themselves to pursue by their late Treaty at the Hague About this time France by a Conduct very surprizing having sent Monsieur la Feuillade to Messina with a common expectation of reinforcing the War in Sicily shewed the Intention was very different and of a sudden ordered all their Forces to abandon that Island with whom many Messineses returned fearing the Vengeance of the Spaniards to whom they were now exposed and this was the only important Service done that Crown by all his Majesty's Intentions or preparations to assist them for no man doubted that the abandoning of Sicily was wholly owing to the apprehensions in France of a War with England which they thought would give them but too much occasion for imploying of their Forces and indeed the eyes and hopes of all the Confederates were now turned so
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
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
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