suffer turbulent weather or be pleased with fair To us who are accustomed by prudence and constancy to weary out adversity it self it belongs to remain stedfast with dexterity to oppose the present to divert dangers wait for better Conjunctures and above all not to assure our selves of our new Enemies nor despair of our ancient friendships By such conceptions those reasons being rooted up out of mens minds which before had been imbued with the contrary the Peace was approved by the Venetians both by necessity and prudence At the same time nevertheless they perswaded the Duke Carlo to remain firm in the Maxims of the common Interest and they always fortified themselves with greater Forces till that amidst the confusions and obscurity of objects the bent of Affairs might be better discerned The French understood the reasonable sense of their Confederates and withal feared to lose by this example the imagination and hopes of new friendships They dispatched therefore in extraordinary Ambassage to Venice Monsieur de Chasteauneuf and to Turin Monsieur de Buglion to the end that excusing things past by the necessity of domestick interests they should give assurance that Italy should not be abandoned to the will of the Spaniards should promise assistance in case of invasion or attacque to both the Confederates and to heal the present wounds should propose to the Republick to procure for them of the Grisons the liberty of the passages and entertain the Duke with the hopes of Kingly Titles and other vain advantages But the Venetians listned with little credit to such projects for France having with the conclusion of the Articles lost the Authority and Keys which he formerly had in Rhetia it was no more in his power to shut or open the Passes to his friends And therefore France had nothing else to alledge in excuse but the domestick disturbances which threatned to subvert that Kingdom The Nation nevertheless in general were inraged at the indignity of the Treaty and those that designed the ruine of Richelieu failed not to publish the reproofs accusing him that betraying friends he had sold the glory and advantages of the Crown to Strangers and that with the worse consequences because it yielding to the Spaniards in the largeness of Territories and the sagacity of Negotiation there was no way to even the scales but by friendships But now said they who will any more relye upon France if the observance of Treaties shall not depend upon the integrity of the Princes or the eternal Maxims of the State but upon the venal arbitrage and fickle interests of some Favourite Minister Was it not enough then to have offended the King of England ruined Mansfelt cast off the Protestants of the Empire lost Breda and with it in a manner Holland if Italy were not abandoned the Valteline and Rhetia oppressed and the best and ancient Friends of France were not discontented Is it to be thought that the friendship of Spain is to be preferred before a base and unworthy Peace a friendship always full of jealousie and trouble and now so much the more to be lamented as it by the Treaty makes such breaches into reputation and interest as by no length of time can be repaired by Arms Let the Cardinal then rejoyce in his secret Negotiations so long as there shall remain no more famous Monuments of his Authority and Name than to have razed the two strongest Pillars of the Kingdom Faith and Friendship But the Cardinal deaf to reproaches and the gainsayings of all maintained the Treaty and sollicited the execution of it It is necessary to know what were the more internal motives of the Kingdom to so important an emergency and what were the successes that followed France to say truth was at the point of being in a combustion for division was no more restrained to Religion and its Partisans but had invaded the Court it self the Cardinal having the chiefest part in it There is no Nation that more hates and suffers Favourites than the French In civil dissensions they serve some for a pretext and others for a shelter War and Peace depend upon their will the Factions are either destroyed or promoted Kings make use of them sometimes for a shadow and oftentimes also for a help The Cardinal Richelieu above all others hath taught the rule to govern himself in such manner that making his own and the Royal Interest one and incorporating the Favour with the Authority of the Soveraign the one though there was a difference could not be distinguished from the other nor could that be offended but the other was wounded The sterility which seemed to be in the Marriage of King Lewis helped forward this boisterous storm and there was thereby confounded together as is usual in the Court of France jealousies interests passions and loves also It was expedient therefore to marry Gaston then Duke of Anjou and afterwards of Orleans the only Brother of the King and by his Marriage the hopes of the Succession and the fortune of the Kingdom being espoused the minds and eyes of the Court and Nation were turned towards him He as young in years and inconstant by nature suffered his affections to be governed by the Mareshal d'Ornano who Governour of his Childhood and now Director of his Youth by complying with him in the luxurious desires of that lascivious Age had so much power with him that sometimes setting him against the Favourites sometimes making merchandize of his inclinations to his own advantage with various Fortune passing through a Prison rose afterwards to be Mareshal of France with considerable power and no less riches Amongst the Propositions of Marriage the most secret counsel excluded that with strangers that the Duke might not provoke unnecessarily mens minds to bold attempts and unseasonable hopes to get and possess the Crown by the trust and reliance upon Foreign Forces The Queen-mother promoted that alone with the Heir of the House of Monpensier which to the splendour of the Blood Royal added a considerable portion of Goods Jurisdictions and also of Soveraignty with the Principality of Dombes The Faction of the Guises abbetted her in it because the Mother of this young Princess by a second Marriage was passed into that Family and the Cardinal de Richelieu concurred in it thinking to retribute to the Queen the gratitude of that favour which he acknowledged from her Authority and Protection Others desired to give him the Daughter of Conde and Ornano who was said beyond measure enamoured on the beauty of the Princess her Mother promoted it and moved the will and inclinations of the Duke to it But the Web was woven with yet greater Intrigues for many with the discord of the Royal Family desired to introduce an alteration in Affairs for as much as the favour of the King and the authority of the Government falling upon Richelieu alone others were unsatisfied at it and aspired to their own advantages by jostling out the chief Minister and changing
might be denied to those of the Austrians To find out some composure betwixt those of the Valteline and the Grisons which might serve to maintain the defence with minds united or facilitate the Peace Coevre and Giorgio assembled their Deputies in Sondrio but without fruit the one not resolving to lose their Soveraignty and the profits and the other fancying to themselves that pardon was more to be suspected than revenge Seeds of greater calamities sprung now up in all parts for as much as that in Germany also the Victories of Ferdinand served rather to exasperate than terminate the War whilst his prosperity rendred his power as much burdensom to his Neighbours as hazardous to the Empire For this purpose a Meeting was held at the Hague to which coming the Ministers of France England Denmark Sweden Gabor and of other Princes of the North they made the World believe that they aimed not so much at the moderation of the greatness of the Austrians as totally to suppress it Nevertheless according to the destiny attending such an Assembly every one amidst the common interest driving his own peculiar designs it was discovered that the French did not intend to charge themselves with ought else but to give the Hollanders the Subsidy stipulated that they would refuse the Truce offered by the Spaniards with other large Conditions The Kings of Sweden and Denmark desired to make a War and demanded great sums of money to maintain it and the Transilvanian not regarding the Conditions lately made with the Emperour offered to break anew provided he might have a vigorous assistance In such sort that every one demanding considerable assistances and none being willing to give them to another the Meeting separates like one of those great Engines which split when they are ready for motion taking pretext that some especially the Transilvanian had not sufficient powers whereupon the Meeting was put off to the year following to the end that by a better concert the League might then be finished No body had shewed himself more earnest in this business than the King of England as both younger and more provoked whereupon dispatching his Favourite Buckingham and the Earl of Holland for his Ambassadours to the Hague impatient of longer delay he concludes with the United Provinces a Treaty of offence and defence for fifteen years by means whereof he pretended to restore the Palatine Frederick into his Patrimony concerting a diversion by Sea on the Coast of Spain and to send an Army by Land at a common charge But of this for want of money which could not be raised without the odious calling of a Parliament the design vanished and of the other Fortune frustrated the effect although the Fleet consisted of more than ninety Ships a Squadron of Holland being therein comprehended so well furnished with Souldiers and all other necessaries that if in the inconstancy of the waves reason or force might have commanded any attempt whatsoever seemed likely to succeed But carrying Fredericks Colours for a shew sailing longst the Coast of Spain and casting Anchor in the Baye of Cadiz in design to take that Port and to pillage the rich Fleet which was expected from America they land at Puntal to cut off succours from the Town and shut up certain Gallies and Gallions in the Port which would have easily succeeded if they had not spent a great deal of time to no purpose in fortifying themselves Spain that was wont rather to provoke her Enemies afar off than to see them before her face and in her bosom was in disorder and the King would have gone in person to oppose them if Olivares had not diverted him considering the remedy too late and unbecoming the grandeur and gravity of that Nation Ferdinand Giron who commanded in that Quarter with a stupendious stoutness transported in a few Gallies from the Terra firma and in sight of the Enemy Ammunition and Souldiers with which the Garrison was strengthened they so molested the English with Sallies that judging the gaining of it would be long and difficult they re-imbarked applying themselves to what they could light on at Sea Many Barks were dispatched from the Coast of Spain to meet the Fleet to the end that changing their course and keeping aloof from the Cape of St. Vincent where the English waited for them they might put in at the Corogne One of them falling seasonably into their hands saved the rest for taking it for granted that the Fleet would make for this Port they sailed thither whilst in the mean time having had no advice it arrived happily at Cadiz And now the English Weather-beaten and sickness increasing returned into their own Country not without mutual dissatisfaction with the Hollander the one imputing to the other the ill success of the Expedition But greater were the jars and jealousies which after the Conference in Holland increased more and more betwixt England and France for the one attributed to the other the loss of Breda by denying passage to Mansfelt and upbraided him with the ruine of the Palatine and the other interests in Germany whilst designing in his own Kingdom the destruction of the Huguenots he desired the lessening of the Protestants every where Nor did France want complaints reciprocal for the many reprisals happened at Sea the retreat of Soubize to London the assistances promised before the Peace to the Rochellois and the caution given to that Peace as though England intended to make a Party with its Subjects besides the unhandsom intreatment of the Queen and her Family contrary to the Conditions of Marriage The Austrians hoping for great advantages from such disagreements the common friends to both interposed themselves to put a stop to them or remove them and particularly the Venetians who charged Marco Anthonio Corraro and Angelo Contarini Cavalieri Ambassadours Extraordinary An. Dom. 1626 to congratulate King Charles his Succession with express and most effectual offices for that purpose which nevertheless had no effect the minds of the Favourites being much more exasperated than the interest of the Crowns discordant ANNO M.DC.XXVI In the beginning of this year Torquato Conti with the Popes Army being entred into the Milanese put mens minds greatly to a stand betwixt the report which he published to invade the Valley joyntly with Papenhaim and the slowness of his march as if he desired retardments and expected accidents which might divert him from doing of it The Venetians with a body of their Army coasted upon him longst the Borders resolving according to his motion to advance into the Valteline and defend it But before any undertaking and ingagement of Arms arrives the news that as to the Affairs of the Valteline France and Spain had betwixt themselves concluded a Peace a report so surprizing that it is not to be said how much it universally struck mens minds in regard that though the name of Peace was very pleasing yet the secret management of it and the almost shame with which
Negotiation and some through the conjuncture of time although they awakened jealous thoughts in some yet they seemed not of importance to disturb the Peace under which some not remembring that one ring is not a Chain yet a Chain is formed of many rings thought themselves secure and others happy But by the death of Henry the Fourth France falling into a long minority the Spanish Ministers judged the conjuncture fit to reap their advantages with Counsel and with Arms. And to say truth the occasion in Italy seemed favourable because the French as hath been said being excluded and now fallen under the government of a Child and of a Woman and Ministers divided in their private Interests the Country was believed so low in courage and strength that if at any time strangers in the attempt to subdue it had gotten great company both People and the Princes themselves would now place their safety and greatest glory in yielding their obedience Some by a pecuniary Interest were already dependent upon Spain others by blood and others by pretensions The Popes taken up in the care of Holy things or distracted in the concerns of their own Family side always with the strongest so that the safety and protection of Italy was now committed to the Venetians alone Nevertheless it was judged that they also would prefer Peace before all things either from the experience of the hazards and events of former Wars or because Monarchies being subject to various changes and accidents it was believed that time might produce such successes from which they thought their Republick as standing upon a more sure foundation exempt and free But in this general Quiet and Peace of Europe there wanting rather pretexts than minds to disturb Italy it was abundantly supplied by the death of Francis Gonzague Duke of Mantua hapned in the flower of his Age about the last of October 1612. He left for posterity to his House Mary yet at Nurse to the Estate two Brothers Ferdinand a Cardinal and Vincenzo and to Italy a sad series of Calamities and Troubles By his Marriage with Margarite Daughter of Charles Emanuel Duke of Savoy it was generally believed that the Peace of Italy would have been established composing thereby the pretensions of those two Houses upon Monferrat They had their ancient Original from the very root of the succession to that State from the Paleologhi and the Gonzagui and after many litigious proceedings Charles the Fifth Emperour as Soveraign of the Fief did rather foment than extinguish them by a certain sentence whereby the possession was adjudged to Mantua leaving undecided to Savoy the right of certain donations of Lands and of the Dowry of Blanche Wife to Charles the First Duke of Savoy which though it exceeded not 80 Thousand Crowns yet with the interest of a long time came near to a Million In the Marriage aforesaid it was studiously endeavoured to ballance all Interests besides the Dowry in Money and Jewels the Father ceding in favour of the Daughter and her Posterity the Revenues of Monferrat and there was a line to be drawn which was to distinguish the confines much intangled with Piedmont upon some lands whereof those of the house of Gonzaghi having a right they renounce it and made a mutual exchange of several places for common convenience and advantage But the affections of Princes being not to be bound by those Bonds which among private men pass for Sacred designs ceased not nor were pretensions extinguished For the Line they could never find a point where to begin it but that of the life of Duke Francis being cut they fell back into discord and the confusion of their former Interests Margarhite called the Infanta according to the custom of Spain in regard of her Mother Daughter of the Catholick King Philip the Second who in her young days was left a Widow in the house of Mantua retained very lively affections for that of her Father whose maxims and sence were so deep imprinted in her that she played that part which was most pleasing to the Savoyards Carlo Emanuel was then Duke of Savoy who it may be said had with much virtue adorned and as much ambition embroiled two Ages He was born in the 61. year of the last and with him at a birth Generosity Courage and the desire of Dominion In the 19. year of his Age he succeeded his Father in the Estate important for its scituation plentiful by its Fertility and for its extent considerable but not proportionable to his mind Being invironed with two so great powers as are France and Spain he could not but know how difficult it would be to make conquests and as impossible to keep them Nevertheless the divisions of France having opened a way to the surprisal of the Marquisat of Salusses and other great attempts he espoused together with the Daughter of Philip the Second a partiality to that Crown and the Maxims thereof But the assistance of his Father-in-Law who had no mind to make him greater towards the Confines of the Milanese not being such as hope and desire had suggested to him he at last concluding a Treaty with Henry the Fourth more to the advantage of the Spaniards than himself adheres to France and enters with Henry as a sharer in these designs which that great King upon firm foundations had laid against the Austrian Monarchy His treacherous and sudden death discharges him leaving Carlo in the grief of his lost hopes and in fear of the revenge of Spain which nevertheless having pacified by sundry means and the Hostage of one of his Sons since he had not been able to make his profit with the great Ones he now purposes to disturb his Neighbours of more moderate power The death of his Son-in-Law gives him the occasion and on the first notice of it he dispatches as his Ambassadour to Mantua the Count Francisco Marteningo and afterwards the Marquess of Lucerna to console his Daughter She then publishes her self with child to suspend a while the succession of Ferdinand the Cardinal and leave the Government fluctuant and uncertain Soon after the Prince Vittorio Amadeo her elder Brother arrives and at the same time the Count Guido di San Giorgio a Subject by birth of Monferrat but by discontent with his own Prince becomes a near Confident of Carlos was by frequent goings and comings driving on a secret Treaty at Milan The Mine at last was sprung for Vittorio perswades his Sister with her little Daughter to return home to her Father or at least to retire to a neutral place as might be Milan and if in consideration of the Child not yet born her going out of those Countries were not approved he insinuated that there was Monferrat where she might remain with more decency That it was not fit that a young Princess should remain amidst the said memorials of her past contentments and under the eye of the Cardinal her Kinsman as young in years as jealous of the
find it strange to serve a Prince and that grace and favour should depend upon the Minister They ceased not therefore either with secret signs imperfect sayings or covered discourses such notwithstanding as Lewis understood to go on censuring the present Government the condition of the King himself under the direction and tutelage of another Amongst all Monsieur de Luines got the ascendant a Gentleman of Avignon of no great birth expresly put about the King that he might take up his time in hunting and hawking and other lesser pleasures But he with these insnares him in such sort that he quickly made the whole Kingdom his Quarry Corrupting some of d'Ancres Domesticks he brings them to represent to the King his actions designs and the means to preserve himself in his greatness with so much horrour and detestation of Lewis as yet without experience that not thinking himself secure either as to his life or Kingdom he resolves without delay to rid himself of so formidable a Minister His death was betwixt a few resolved on the King is perswaded to it out of a desire to exercise his Office and make tryal of his Authority Luines hopes to inherit the favour and the spoil and Monsieur de Vitri a Captain of the Guards who undertook to kill him thought to oblige the young Prince to him by the first fruits of his command The Mareshal then incertain of his destiny proudly entring into the Royal Palace of the Louvre the four and twentieth day of April sees the door clapt to behind him and in the same instant Vitri making a shew to arrest him d'Ancre falls dead with the shots of three Pistols The business was no sooner divulged but the Queen-mother doubtful what should become of her self breaks forth into a flood of complaints Those that had been of the Confidence fearing the same chastisement dispersed in disorder But the people who are moved with every blast running amongst them upon a report that the King was betrayed and wounded took Arms but assured of the contrary by the chief Ministers who rode through the streets quieting the tumult turned their fear into gladness and detesting the life and name of the dead let the World see That the lustre of favour is glorious but a thing so tender and weakly that going out with every puff it stinks at last and is infectious The Corps ignobly buried was taken up again and mangled into little pieces was burnt the ashes carried through the streets to sell and bought by many at a great rate to vent the publick hatred and private revenge The King greatly rejoycing that the judgment of the people did justifie the violence of the fact sends away the Confidents of the dead amongst whom was the Bishop of Lusson who retired to Avignon The Marquess his Wife was publickly beheaded and the Queen-mother confined to Blois And now those great ones who upon Conde's imprisonment had been kept from Court returned The Prince nevertheless was not set at liberty because the King contented by his own occasion to know his Authority left the height of favour to Luines and he with wonted craft considering how to establish himself in that condition resolved with the price of the liberty of two such Prisoners to play the Merchant with both for his own conveniences France with this sudden change might be said to be restored to it self and gained to Italy because the King stood in much jealousie of the Spaniards by reason of their confidences which he had discovered with the Queen-mother and with d'Ancre The reconciled Princes were addicted enough to Savoy and the progress of the War in the Milanese gave that Crown justly to understand how much of its honour and interest till now neglected was treated there And therefore understanding the danger Vercelli was in Lewis expressed himself to the Ambassadour of Spain That if some sudden composure were not found out he should be constrained to make good his obligation and maintain Carlo in the Treaty of Asti In this interim he gives the Duke leave to raise what French he desired and sends to the Borders of Savoy 6000 Foot and 2000 Horse to go forward into Italy where there should be need The Archbishop of Lyons going in great diligence to Rome communicates to the Pope the intentions of the King in favour of the Duke and seeing a young Prince that inclined to War and gave from his Race future presages of his Government every one believed a flood of Armies in Italy was to follow and an open Rupture betwixt the Crowns And therefore the Pope did not only double his endeavours for Peace but an Union was spoken of by some of those Princes and particularly the Grand Duke who knew they had offended France by having superciliously adhered to the other Party The Spaniards apprehending at first Lewis's threatnings and to pacifie him readily shewing a desire to Peace afterwards being assured that that Kingdom would not remain so quiet but was within a while to expect a new Crisis which promoting with Arts Friends and Money and with the help of some of the chief Ministers who dis-inclined from having any thing to do with the affairs of Italy they proceeded in the siege and in their designs The truth was that the first heat of the French cooling again the most secret intention appeared to be as not to let Piedmont be lost yet so as not to break with Spain Thus with appearances proposals and endeavours to hinder it Vercelli was near being lost for all the Half-moons were now taken The Neapolitans with their approaches having cut their passage into the Ditch had a breach open in the Bulwark of St. Andrea and towards the River on the other side the Walloons had made another The Garrison from duty and sickness appeared to be greatly diminished and for want of powder had at last resolved to take that out of the Mine under the Bastion forementioned No experiment to get some in by stealth had succeeded The Duke thereupon applying himself to force draws near to the Enemies Camp by night placing longst the Sesia 9000 Foot with 1400 Horse and 10 small Pieces Three thousand Foot and 400 Horse were appointed for the relief and there stood in the Rear the French under the Marquess d'Vrfè Signor di Chigliè and the Baron di Rairan and the Italians commanded by the Serjeant Major of the Marquess of Caluso and the Signor of Parella When the Duke caused the Alarm to be given the Arrierguard aforesaid divided into several Parties and d'Vrfè having passed the Sesia met by a Body of Horse and forced to fight was defeated with the loss of 600 men But whilst the Spaniards hasted to that side 1000 men entred into Vercelli on the other with some powder though not so much as was proportionable to the want For all this Toledo slackens not his attacque but re-inforcing with twenty Cannons more his battery of the Fort St. Andrea caused another assault
people and by vainly boasting his Authority and preferring his own Glory before that of the King made himself burdensom and maligned Lewis was naturally suspicious but timid whence Princes having no Guards that can preserve them from disquiet he was perpetually tortured in his mind sometimes with jealousie at the excessive power of the Minister and at others with the grief at the necessity to suffer him The Cardinal to spy out his intentions kept him environed with his Confidents which reported to him his words and the tendencies of them The King inclined to amuse himself very often privately at home as it were to vent his affections with some of his Familiars whereupon the Cardinal easily insinuated into his favour Monsieur de Saint Mars of the House of d'Effiat and promoted him in the flower of his years to the Charge of Grand Escuyer which in that Court they call Monsieur le Grand with so great a suite of propitious Fortune that in a short time the Kings affection rose to such a height as to obscure the chief Minister and render the confident young man aspiring to high things The enterprise on Perpignan being resolved the Cardinal perswades the King to go thither carrying along with him the Queen and his Brother and leaving the little Children kept in the Bois de Vincennes the Governour whereof was Monsieur de Chavigni Together with the people all the Court murmured that the Cardinal arguing from the Kings weak health his death to be near by carrying him together with the Queen and Orleans to the Army that depended upon him and was commanded by la Meilleray his Nephew and by leaving the Sons deposited in the power of his Confident aimed in all events to dispose of the Regency nay of the Royal Family and the Kingdom But the Queen opposing her tears to the Cardinals counsels obtained to remain at St. Germans with her little Sons The King recommending the Government of Paris to the Prince of Conde and the defence of the Frontiers of Flanders with an indifferent Army to the Counts of Harcourt and de Guische departs the Mareshal la Meilleray always chosen by the Cardinal for the imployments of greatest moment being advanced before Perpignan but a little distant from the Sea and from the Pirenees is the chief City of Rossiglion considerable for the exact Fortifications both of Town and Citadel and at present provided with a numerous Garrison To take it therefore by force being thought no easie matter it was resolved to block it and by hindring it of Victuals to overcome it with Famine The Spaniards with four thousand Musquetiers conducted from Colivre a great Convoy into it whereupon it was found necessary to shut that door of the Sea by possessing that place defended by the Marquess di Mortara with three thousand men The preparations and the motion of the King of France had given great apprehensions throughout all Spain But amidst so many disturbances the Conde Duke publishes in the Court a certain Henrico for his natural Son till now not only concealed but in such sort cast off that taking a desperate Voyage into the Indies he had passed several years there in sordid and base courses But now Olivares to vent a certain Genius of Ambition and Power introduces him with great expence and equipage into the Kings Service the Constable of Castile being perswaded to give him his Daughter to Wife to the scandal of the other Grandees who in Spain are not wont to prefer the Idol of Favour before the Nobleness of Blood Afterwards desiring to cover his own extravagancy by having the King emulate his example seduces him to declare Don John of Austria for his Son then but thirteen years of age born of a mean Woman and obscurely brought up and confer upon him the Title of Generalissimo against Portugal with the assistance of a certain Council All this was attended with the scorn and murmuring of many that in the greatest pressures of the Monarchy distraction was seen in mens minds and the Treasures consumed in actions and expences both unprofitable and unworthy to the abandoning of the Kingdoms and contempt of the lawful Heir which was yet kept under the care and might well be said captivity of Olivares's own Wife The clamours and wishes of all sollicited the King to go out of Madrid and draw near to the Frontiers whilst he of France was heard to be arrived at Narbon to the end that if the one came in person for conquest the other would at least shew himself a far off for defence Olivares doubtful lest the King going forth should either get light how affairs stood or that others should inform him of the infelicity of his governing sometimes with artifice hiding the dangers and then exaggerating the inconveniencies and above all the expence which the Kings moving necessarily required endeavoured to stop him The King nevertheless his will at this time over-mastering that of the Favourites resolves to go to Saragozza but with such a slow pace that going out of Madrid not with a military Equipage but rather for divertisement with delightful Entertainments and Players sometimes staying to delight himself with them sometimes going out of the way and always making very little Journies arrives late and yet the motion of the Army was much later Colivre not being able to expect so much delays the Conde Duke orders that at any rate it should be relieved and the Fleet being not yet ready that it should be attempted by a select body of Horse by Land The execution proved more difficult than the command for there was a necessity to cross over Catalogna with the Rivers and Mountains between without Victuals with the Enemy in the Flank and Reer of them However the Conde Duke far from the danger and accustomed in things of difficulty to arrogate to himself whatever had a prosperous issue and where it fell out otherwise to lay the blame of it on Fortune or the Instruments pressed that it should be hazarded though with never so great appearance of loss So that making choice of three thousand men on Horseback the most part reformed Officers under the Marquess de Pouar the passage was attempted but Monsieur de la Mothe Odancourt following them and the Peasants withholding Victuals and interrupting the ways the Spaniards quickly found themselves without bread and without Forrage in the Mountains so beset that there being no means of coming to fight nor to escape they in a body render themselves with Colours Arms and Horses Prisoners Thus the best of the Spanish Forces being blasted without blood those of Colivre yet continued the defence till la Meilleray piercing into the Wall with a Mine blew up the Aqueduct whereupon for want of water they capitulated together with the Castle of St. Elmo lying close by and upon a height And now the Siege was laid before Perpignan honoured with the presence of King Lewis whilst the Cardinal at Narbonne was