Selected quad for the lemma: friend_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A52763
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The Pacquet-boat advice, or, A discourse concerning the war with France between some English gentlemen and a French-man betwixt Calis and Dover.
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Nedham, Marchamont, 1620-1678.
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1678
(1678)
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Wing N399; ESTC R25502
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11,634
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24
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Egg broken into a pale of Water which you shall hear if you have patience Messieurs I'ay receu vostre Lettre 23 du mois passe c. but because Sir said he you understand and speak English so well as to make you pass for any thing if you can but leave your Shrug and your Jernies and Bongres I will not trouble the Company with a Language I do Love as little as it may be they understand and therefore I will endeavour to teach the Marquess to speak English for he is a Civil obliging complaisant person Messieurs I have reciev'd your Letter of the 23 d. of the last past by which I have seen all the reasons which you represent to make me understand that the City and Province of Vtrecht are not in a condition to satisfie the Demands which Mounsieur Robert hath made I do easily Judge that you cannot do it without great trouble but since necessity has no Law and that the Armies of the King must be maintained you ought to accommodate your selves to the said Sieur Robert so as to furnish what he demands otherwayes it is impossible but you must fall into a most grand desolation and to mend the matter the honest Sieur Robert tells them in short that since they made such an impossibility to raise the mony demanded he would cause fire to be set to the four quarters of the City and he would light it in the middle himself a fin de reduire en Cendre une ville qui u ' estoit qui a charge inutile au Roy men Maistre to the end I may reduce a City into ashes which is unprofitable and a charge to the King my Master Is this true or not Sir Mounsieur said the Frenchman but what is all this to the English Sir answered the Captain I think it is a fair warning to the English to stand upon their guard and to endeavour to put themselves out of the danger of coming under the power of the French and if possible to put the French out of the power of putting them in danger Why Sir replyed the other the French have no designs upon you but onely as your own fears and apprehensions perswade you What cryed the Captain the French without designs you shall as soon find a Monkey without tricks From the Onyon Porridge-man to the Mareschal you are all Politicians and designers You have you say an hundred Sail of Ships and two hundred thousand Men and you have no designs nor ever had I warrant you to make yourselves Masters of Flanders Germany Holland and England at last But by your favour Sir you must pass through fire as well as water before it comes to that Well Mounsieur said the French-man I hope for all this that there will be a Peace and it may be I have some reason for my conjecture I assure you we Merchants are in hopes that you will not enter upon a War which must be so great a hazard and charge to the Nation Sir said the Captain you offer fair but I cannot imagine why you should be so troubled for the charge of the War tho I hope it will come to your share at last to defray it unless you are afraid we should so impoverish our selves by a War that when you come to visit us we should not be worth the Plundring and London would be good for nothing but a second Fire as Robert said of Vtrecht and for my own particular and I hope all true English hearts are of the same tough old metal you shall first try how you can digest our Steel and Iron before you taste of our gold and silver I found my two Gentlemen were running into a heat and therefore I thought it better to make a tack as the Boat then did to some other discourse which we presently did and so past the time till we came to Dover Peer As we parted the Mounsieur bid us adieu and with the grace of a shrug particular to his Nation he told me he should be obliged infinitely if he had the good fortune and honor to meet me upon the Exchange Farewel said the Captain and have a care I do not meet you scattering your Bills of Exchange in the wrong place and taking up News to send into France in lieu of which you will return us suspicious of your own making to set us together by the ears at home that so you may be secured from us broad The French-man gave him a look full of indignation and away he went to take post immediately for London I was extreamly pleased with the rugged honest conversation of this Captain and therefore desired if his affairs would permit that we might be Companions for that night at Dover where I had some little affair he willingly consented to my proposition and so together we went to an Inn where we had no sooner taken a Room but in come two Gentlemen of my Relations who had promised to meet me there I was very much pleased at their arrival and after mutual civilities pass'd and that we had like English men made some provision for Supper without ever asking what we should pay for it and got a bottle of good Canary for my Captain would drink no French Wine we presently fell to chat The first question you may be sure was What News and the Captain was in great haste what shall we have a War with France Sir answered one of my Friends Mens opinions are various as their Interests but here is his Majesties Speech which it may be is news to you and if you please to read it you may make your conjecture Cousin said I you mistake if you think it news or if in less than a weeks time we do not see in Paris every thing of moment that passes at London The French trade in Aleppo Pigeons nay if we will believe them they would perswade us that they can tell beforehand what will be done That is an excellent way of intelligence said the other Gentleman but for my part I look upon it as a French artifice and I am confident that that trick of pretending to know every thing amongst us has done them considerable service for certainly it has given occasion for those jealousies which now break out amongst us as if there were a secret intreague betwixt the French and us in order to some strange design and nothing will beat it out of some Peoples heads but that this War is only for a colour Sir said the Captain here came over with us one of their Whisperers Pistol-droppers News-Makers and away he is posted for London to fill some peoples heads with Proclamations of Peace Popery Arbitrary Government c. and others pockets with French money to swear it is true they have Letters from France that confirm it Cousin said I if the French can accomplish this either way they have done their business I assure you there is nothing they dread like a War with