Execution of the Undertakings of this great Monarch There arrived said Sir W. at that time from England one whose name was de Cros. I shall not stop my Lord upon this Term of Contempt One called it is a very malicious Expression in respect of my self the late King of England himself did me the Honour to treat me in Passports in his Letters in his Commissions which he charged me with It is very impudent and rude to speak so of a Man who is of a good Family who has had the honour of being employed for almost twenty years and whom a great Prince and a King have not disdain'd to use as Councellor of State He was continues Sir W. a French Monk who had lately quitted his Frock for a Petticoat Here is a reproach which ill becomes an Ambassador of a Monarch who is Defender of the Faith and of the Protestant Religion of one who declared so openly at Nimeguen that he would have nothing to do with the Pope's Nuncio I do not know my Lord that it is a disgrace to be a Monk and much less to have been one formerly There are indeed amongst them as well asamongst the rest of Mankind some miserable Wretches of a mean Birth and of a disorderly and infamous Life People of no use without Honour and without Reputation Sir W. T. thought without doubt that I was of that Number but there are likewise several very famous for the Sanctity of their Lives of an extraordinary Merit and of the greatest Quality Sons of Princes and Kings and Kings themselves and Popes But if this sort of Life is not now as formerly it was so certain a Character of a good and honest Man do's Sir W. think he can dishonour me in reproaching me for leaving a Profession which himself thinks so contemptible for a Petticoat It will not be material in this place to say how I was engaged therein in my tender years There is nothing more usual in France Spain and Italy where ancient Houses do sacrifice a good part of their Families in Monasteries 't is a Maxim to say the truth most cruel and horrid Neither will I relate how and after what manner I came out of it however it was not for a Petticoat I have remained several years without so much as having any inclination to it and it hath been apparent that I have had much a-do and was very much unresolved as to this Choice There was too great advantage to throw off my Frock for the Petticoat that I have taken not to do it It is a Petticoat of a Scotch Stuff and which hath been a greater Ornament and done the Crown of England more good than Sir W. himself if he do not know it the History of England and Scotland in these late Times may inform him I shall enlarge no further that I may not engage my self to publish the Misfortunes and Disorders of Sir W's Family which I suppose would not be like a Gentleman I have no reason that I know of to complain neither of his Lady nor his Son nor of his Daughters Besides had I even cast off the Monk's Habit for a Petticoat I should have done no more than a great many worthy deferving Persons have done yea some of the Pope's Nuncio's Cardinals Bishops Kings and Princesses too who have quitted the Veil for the Breeches whose Posterity I make no question is highly esteemed and reverenced by Sir W. I did so well insinuate my self saith Sir W. into the Court of Sweden that I obtained from thence a Commission to be a kind of an Agent in England That is very dirty I have had the management of Affairs and the Quality of Envoy when Sir W. had no more than that of an Agent or Resident at Brussels I was Envoy at the Court of England before ever I was in Sweden or before ever I had any acquaintance there I went the first time to Sweden just at that time the late King of England sent me into Sweden and Denmark about the beginning of the Year 1676. The Pretence was for to demand the free passage of Letters which the King of Denmark refused for hastening the Congress of Nimeguen in procuring the expedition of Passports requisite to the Ministers of State who were to compose the Assembly and also to urge the Departure of the Embassadors belonging to those two Northern Crowns But now the true Cause was quite another Matter and of greater consequence not for the King of England but indeed for another Potentate That shall be made appear some time or other in my Memoirs Had I been a kind of a Swedish Agent I should not have defended my self in that Point I should have held it as a great piece of Honour since it could not chuse but be very glorious and splendid to have the Affairs of so great a King in such important Conjunctures as those were committed to ones charge and care but at the very time Sir W. speaks of I was dignified with the Quality of Envoy Extraordinary from the Duke of Holstein Gottorv acknowledged and received at the Court of England for such Sir W. knows that very well there was sent him divers Memoirs to Nimeguen whilst the Mediation lasted which I had delivered in at London concerning the re-setling my Master but the Interest and Concerns of this Prince were so indifferent to him that I was fain to beg of my Lord Treasurer to recommend them more particularly to Sir Leoline Jenkyns Moreover you may see Sir W. T. mentions in his Memoirs all the Potentates that had any interest in the Peace of Nimeguen except the Duke of Holstein Gottorp notwithstanding he had two Ministers at the Congress and although France had stipulated for his re-establishment in the second Article or Condition of the Peace such who shall peruse the Memoirs of Sir W. might be apt to think that the Duke of Holstein was reckoned as no body in the World and that he had no part at all in what pass'd in Christendoom from the commencing of the War in 1672 until the conclusion of the Peace 1679 But Thanks be to God Sir W. is not the Steward of Glory and Immortality Sir W. therefore must have often read my Name and Character in the Letters and Orders of the Court and cannot have forgot that he came to render me a Visit at my Lodgings at such time as he by the King's Order was to confer with me upon what account Monsieur Olivencrantz might be obliged to pass from Nimeguen into England That Swedish Embassador lodg'd at that time in my house 'T is true indeed as the Interests of my Master were inseparable from those of Sweden I found my self engaged to be very much concerned in the Interests of that Crown in whatsoever might depend on my care There was an Envoy extraordinary from Sweden at London and yet for all that the Swedish Ambassadors did me the Honour to maintain a very regular Correspondence
and at Nimeguen which he was confident would be the Theatre of his Glory they made him act a disgraceful ridiculous part He imagines I am partly the cause of it either because that my Voyage to Nimeguen might have been the effect of my Negotiation which he might have gathered by the Kings answer or because I might have done nothing in Holland but administer cause of Suspicions and Umbrages that hasten'd on the Peace in spite of his Teeth and Reverst the Treaty he had but lately concluded at the Hague My Lord If I be not mistaken here is another occasion of Sir W. T. being vext at me There was a Treaty a foot between England and Spain for which purpose Sir W. was employ'd without any other design in reference to England but to abase the Parliament and no other on the Spaniards side but only to add a little more reputation to their Affairs Now the Parliament got nothing by it and the greatest advantage accrued to the Spaniard who upon this occasion made him really believe it and so took him for a Cully A sad acknowledgment for having alone saved Flanders for Spain I ridiculed this Treaty I made observations thereon that were published in Holland and men judged that the observations were well grounded After that and after the business of Nimeguen I was not to expecâ— any Encomiums from so unjust a person as Sir W. T. but still he might have writ more like a Gentleman and have spoken of me without ever loosing the respect which he owed to my Master without doing so great an injury in my person both to my Name and Family out of a merry humour for in whatsoever past I performed the duty of a Minister both zealous and most faithful Nay and I did nothing but even by concurrance and good likeing of the King of England I beseech you My Lord conserve for me the honour of your gracious favour and be fully perswaded that I shall be all my life long with much respect Your most humble c. FINIS AN ADVERTISEMENT Concerning the Foregoing Letter IT is now some Months ago since the Foreign Journals gave us to understand that Monsieur de Cross the Ingenious Author of the foregoing Treatise was meditating an Answer to Sir William Temple's Memoirs As nothing more sensibly touches us than to have our Reputation wounded by those Persons whom we never injured We are not to admire that our Author who thought himself unjustly attacked in these Memoirs took the first opportunity to justifie his proceedings to the World and if he sometimes falls out into severe or indecent Language it is to be remembred that he was not the first Agressor but that his Adversary taught him the way How well M. de Cross has acquitted himself in this Affair I will by no means take upon me to determine Let the Reader without prejudice or partiality confider what both Parties say and then let him judge for himself When these Memoirs first appeared in publick I remember the Criticks in Town were much divided in their Sentiments about them some found fault with the Stile as too Iuscious and affected others censured the Digressions as Foreign to the Business in hand and particularly the Story of Prince Maurice's Parrot that to use Sir William's own Expression p. 58. spoke and asked and answered common Questions â—ike a reasonable Creature Lastly â—he Graver sort of People were scandalized to see several Persons eminent both for their Station and Quality and some of them still Living treated with so much Freedom and with so little Ceremony adding that the Author every where appeared too full of himself which I find is the very Character which the French Relator of the Negotiation at Nimeguen has been pleased to bestow upon him Indeed as for the Language of the Memoirs a Man needs but turn over half a dozen Pages to be convinced that the first Objection is just and reasonable Every Leaf almost stands charged with Gallicisms more or less and indeed 't is odd enough to see a Man of Sir William Temples's Constitution who all along declares such an invincible Aversion to the French Nation so fondly doting upon their Expressions even where he had no necessity to use them But at the same time I confess I am of opinion that his Digressions are not so faulty it being not amiss in a just History but especially in Memoirs to relieve a serious Scene now and then with something that is diverting and agreeable As for the last Objection I have nothing to say to it at present since it is not improbable but that the following Book of Monsieur de Cross may prevail with him to attempt his own Justification FINIS
by Letters with me The King of England was also graciously pleased to hear me in what concerned the Affairs of the Swede although I was no otherwise authorized for it Monsieur Olivencrantz his Voyage to London was contrived first of all by the King and my self without the least medling or intervention of any one of his Ministers and then again in the Negotiation whereof my Voyage to Nimeguen was a Consequence the Restitution of Sweden was especially insisted upon All this made many Men believe that I was intrusted with the Management of the Affairs of this Crown and Monsieur Van Beuninguen believed it so to be in the Letter he writ to the Lords States-General which hath since been printed where he speaks with so much uncertainty concerning the Voyage I was about to make to Nimeguen and about this Negotiation that it was evident it was a very great Secret Since his being at London saith Sir W. speaking of me he hath wholly devoted himself to Monsieur Barillon the French Ambassador under pretence to act for the Interests of Sweden Monsieur Barillon was not at that time in London when I was sent thither he came not thither till a long time after I found Monsieur le Marquis de Ruvigni there whom Monsieur Courtin succeeded and after that Monsieur Barillon came to take the place of Monsieur Courtin I never devoted my self to this Ambassador and I never had any Correspondence or was in League with him prejudicial to my Duty Nay it happened the King of England one day having a design more especially to take into Consideration the Swedish Interests Monsieur de Barillon diverted him from it whether for fear lest a particular Peace should be clapp'd up between the Northern Crowns or else out of Jealousie that he might leave the Glory of the Restitution of this Crown to the King his Master and depriving it of all other relief might keep it in the mean time in a greater dependance I was so much put to it and fell out with Mr. Baâ—illon so much thereupon that I did not so much as â—peak to him in 3 or 4 months nay one day as the King was at Dinner I cast in his teeth what had past â—n the presence of Monsieur Wachmeister Envoy-Exâ—raordinary from the King of Sweden I do not question but Monsieur Wachmeister remembers it well enough he is no less worthy to be believed than he â—s brave and undaunted And now after this manner I became all one with â—he Ambassador of France But yet I must confess â—hat at such time as he stickled for my Master's Inâ—erest and that of the Swede I was intirely devoted â—o him thinking my self most happy that I was â—nabled to pay my most humble Services to such a â—reat Monarch whose Subject I have the honour to â—e without failing in my Loyalty and Allegiance â—hichlought to pay him before all others whatsoever Whereupon my Lord I shall tell you one thing in â—hich Monsieur de Revigni at present Lord Galloâ—ay cannot but agree with me no nor Monsieur â—livencrantz neither The departure of this Amâ—assador for England occasioned shrewd suspicions both at Nimeguen and London to the French Ambassadors Monsieur Barillon was much alarm'd at it especially when he saw that Monsieur Olivencrantz lodged at my House and when he knew that I had offered a Project upon which I had the Honour sometimes to be in debate with my Lord Treasurer Monsieur Barillon put all in practice to sift him to the bottom nevertheless all the offers of this French Embassador proved ineffectual and wrought thing upon this Man who if a man would give credit to Sir W. T. was intirely devoted to Mons Barillon and yet Mons Barillon found him not to be corrupted or bribed One would think my Lord that Sir W T. has a mind to make Men believe that I was only sent into Holland to carry him a Dispatch from the Court for he is always harping upon this String when he mentions my Voyage Yet please to take notice my Lord That he confesseth that it was I who procured this Dispatch What means the King then when he says That I had been too cunning for them all There is not so much Prudence and great Abilities required in a Courier it is sufficient that he be expeditious But this Message must needs have been Honourable to employ an Envoy extraordinary of one of the greatest Princes of the Empire except it be what Sir W. hath been pleased to say That I was so much devoted to the King yea and to Monsieur Barillon too and so little tender of my Master's Dignity that I would comply with any Offices If I were a Courier or Messenger Monsieur T. hath at least done me a good Office in representing me to be what I would not have the Confidence to believe my self namely that I was an able Messenger a Courier of the Cabinet and very deep in the King's Trust and Confidence For before ever Monsieur T. spoke of this Dispatch which as he says the Court sent him to be kept as a mighty Secret Pensioner Fagel says he knew all the Contents and was quite stun'd at it Dâ— Cross had industriously informed the Deputies of the Town I Copy from Monsieur T. and had told them that the two Kings were intirely agreed an the Conditions of Peace that he had carried Orders to Monsieur T. to go to Nimeguen and that at his Arrival there he would find the Letters of my Lord Sunderland the English Ambassador at Paris with all the Articles as they are concluded between the two Crowns Here is I acknowledge a very expert Messenger very knowing in the Secret and very forward in the work in 4 or 5 hours time that I had been at the Hague Monsieur T. will be much more stun'd than Monsieur Fagel was when he shall know hereafter what past at the Hague in that little time that I was there not having discovered what it really was neither then nor since It was most certainly something of greater importance than to tell the Deputies of the Towns the Contents of the Dispatch with which I was intrusted And Monsieur T. will see cleerly one day how far this only incident did change the Fate of Christendome I pretend not adds Monsieur T. to determine by whose means and how du Cross obtained this Dispatch And a little lower All that I could learn at Court about this matter was that his Orders were made up one morning in an hours time at the Dutchess of Portsmouths apartment by the intervenâ—i n of Monsieur Barillon It 's pity that an English Ambassadour that all the King his Master's Council if one can believe it that a Man who if he had pleased himself might have been several times Secretary of State should be so little informed I will not say during his absence while he remained at the Hague and at Nimeguin but even since his return into England of
what past there and chiefly in that very affair wherein Monsieur T. was more exercised than in any other Business that he ever undertook But how he could be know it since neither the Duke of York nor my Lord Treasurer not hardly the King himself if we may believe Monsieur T. knew any thing of it And that these Orders were made in one morning in an hours time at the Dutchess of Portsmouths Apartment by the Interception of Monsieur Barillon Observe now if you please my Lord the Malice of Monsieur T. in Relation to Monsieur Williamson on whom he would give in this place the Character of Perfidy as he hath done in diverse other parts of his Memoirs Monsieur T. ought to have had at least some respect for the King whose Orders Monsieur Williamson did Execute I never talkt of it says Monsieur T. to the Secretary of State Williamson as if he would say that he was sufficiently perswaded that Monsieur Williamson was a Man altogether for France and that he was intirely devoted as well as my self to Monsieur Barillon and that he was the Author of this Dispatch Is it not clear that Monsieur T. would make us imagine that Monsieur the Chevalier Williamson Secretary of State the French Ambassador and the Dutchess of Portsmouth promised these Orders As for me tho' I had the Dispatch given me yet he does not accuse me openly in this place of bearing any other part in this Affair than only as a Messenger entrusted with the Conveyance And not only so but I never went to the Dutchess of Portsmouths Lodgings she having an irreconcilable aversion for me and I for her Can there be a greater absurdity than this To endeavour to perswade his Readers that the most important affair of that time on which depended says Monsieur T. The Fate of Christendom was concluded and made up in one hours time in the apartment of the Dutchess of Portsmouth by the Intervention of Monsieur Barillon Monsieur T. is accustomed so little to spare the King's Reputation that he fears not on this occasion to prostitute it in a strange manner He does not only charge him with partiality and connivance in suffering Valentiennes Cambray St. Omer and several other places in Flanders to be taken without Murmur or Opposition But the King of England obliged as much as could be in the Quality of a Mediator and more through the Interest of his Kingdoms to procure the Repose of Christendom yet corrupted by the French Ambassadours and by the Charms of a Mistress Sacrifices all Europe and his own Estate to a Power that is naturally an Enemy to England And this without Ceremony in an hours time without the advice of his Council and hides himself in the Apartment of a Woman as if he was sensible that he went about an action the most unworthy of the Majesty of a Prince and the most opposite to the Felicity of his People that could be For what other Construction can any one make of what Monsieur T. says and can any man conclude otherwise when he reads this worthy passage in his Memoirs Certain it is that this Dispatch was made up by Monsieur Williamson and by the Kings Order And since the King was pleased to avoid opening his mind hereon to Monsiâ—ur T. giving him no other answer but that I had been more cunning than all of 'em Monsieur T. might possibly Address himself to Monsieur Williamson who it may be might tell him by whose means and how Du Cross had obtained this Dispatch 'T is plain that Monsieur T. despairs of penetrating into this Affair that he knows not where about he is when he speaks of it and that he only seeks to blacken the Reputation of the King and his Ministers If the Peace of Aix la chapelle is his Favourite because he hath the Vanity to believe it to be intirely his own work 't is easie seen that the Peace of Nimiguen is his Aversion because he is ashamed to have had so small a Part in it as he had and that the most glorious part of his Life is not to be sound in that Negotiation I would have this Complaisance for Monsieur T. though he treats me so ill I would at least in some part draw him out of this great incertainty on the subject of the Dispatch which I brought him He is deceived when he imputes this Resolution to the Intrigues and Perswasions of France It was neither managed nor taken nor dispatcht at the Dutchess of Portsmouth's nor was it by the means or intervention of Monsieur Barillon The Ambassadour had no part in it but on the very Instant when the affair was concluding He was not so much as present at the Expedition as he had not been at any time at the Deliberations The Marquiss of Ruvigny the Son carryed the first News to the King his Master the same day that I parted for Nimeguen Monsieur Williamson knew well what was contained in the Dispatch to Monsieur T. in which there was nothing very mysterious But he was never privy to the secret of the Negotiation and tho' he was present when I took my leave of the King in Secretary Coventry's Office yet he was then ignorant of the true subject of my Voyage and perhaps he never knew it The King was not at all precipitate and the affair was not concluded and dispatcht in an hours time It was treated on and deliberately considered near Three weeks There was time given to the Ambassadours of Swedeland to resolve themselves and make their Answer The King's design was doubtless aimed for the good of Europe and the publick tranquility but in truth he had not in his Eye nor did he certainly believe that happy Fate of Christendome for which Monsieur T. labours so earnestly in consort with some particular Persons Enemies to the State Seditious and Disturbers of the Publick Repose But the King said pleasantly adds Monsieur T. that the Rogue Coquin du Cross had outwitted them all If Monsieur T. had not made the King say this and had said it himself I might have applied to him with as much Justice as any man in the World these Verses which I have read somewhere Coquin he calls me with mighty disdain Doubtless I should answer Monsieur T. thus Seek your Coquins elsewhere you 're one your self But the Person of Kings is sacred Besides Can that be an abuse which is spoken pleasantly without the least design perhaps of offending For Coquin is a word which the Late King of England often used when he spoke of People for whom he had notwithstanding Respect and Consideration 'T is true he used the word also very familiarly when he was angry but at such times he spoke with indignation and not pleasantly The Parliament presented an Address to the King as Monsieur T. reports in which they represented the Progress of the French Arms and desired him to stop it before it became more dangerous to