Selected quad for the lemma: kingdom_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
kingdom_n	charles_n	king_n	naples_n	3,196	5	11.2320	5	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A51894	The fourth volume of letters writ by a Turkish spy who lived five and forty years undiscover'd at Paris : giving an impartial account to the Divan at Constantinople of the most remarkable transactions of Europe, and discovering several intrigues and secrets of the Christian courts (especially of that of France) continued from the year 1642 to the year 1682 / written originally in Arabick, translated into Italian, and from thence into English, by the translator of the first volume.	Marana, Giovanni Paolo, 1642-1693.; Bradshaw, William, fl. 1700.; Midgley, Robert, 1655?-1723.	1692 (1692)	Wing M565CH; ESTC R35021	169,206	386

Interest However on the 3d. Day of the 5th Moon some Scots enter'd into the Lodgings of the Embassador and having dispatch'd him with several Wounds made their Escape It is not certainly known who set these Assassins at Work People descant variously as their Affections byass them Some reflect on it as a Judgment Justly inflicted by God though by an Vnjust Act of Men on one who had been a Notorious Promoter of his Sovereign's Death Others censure it as a most Impious Sacrilege in Regard the Persons of Embassadors are by the Law of Nations esteem'd Sacred and Inviolable and the Injuries which they suffer are interpreted not only as done to their Masters who send them but to all Mankind As if Human Nature it self were wrong'd in the Persons of Publick Ministers Indeed there is no Method of establishing or conserving Friendships and Alliances between different Nations if their Agents be not secured with an Immunity from Affronts and Violences The French relate a pretty Passage of one of their Kings who before he came to the Crown being Duke of Orleans had receiv'd very ill Usage in his Travels from a certain Italian Lord call'd the Baron of Benevento After this Prince was possess'd of the Kingdom the same Italian Lord was sent Embassador from the Viceroy of Naples to congratulate his Accession to the Throne of his Ancestors Some French Courtiers who had been Witnesses of the Injuries this Lord had formerly done to their Master now perswaded the King to Revenge himself by causing some gross Indignities to be done him whilst he had him in his Power To whom the Wise Monarch reply'd It becomes not the King of France to revenge on the Embassador of Naples the Injuries which the Duke of Orleans receiv'd from the Baron of Benevento 'T is said the English Nation have demanded Satisfaction of the Hollanders for the Murder of their Embassador but were answer'd That they themselves ought first to Expiate the Murther of their King The Scots have Revolted from the New Government in England and are yet in Suspence Whether they shall set up the Son of the Late King or Form themselves into an Independent Republick The Irish are stedfast to the Interests of the Crown And many Islands in America subject to the Kings of England have now deny'd all Obedience to the New English Government which seems to tend towards a Democracy There is much Talk of one Cromwel the General of the English Forces in Ireland This Man from a Private and Obscure Estate is ascended to the Dignity of a General having purchas'd this Command by his Conduct and Valour The French extol him for the Greatest Souldier of this Age And if Fame be true he is no less Statesman As a Mark of the Respect I owe thee thou wilt receive with this Letter a Pistol of Curious Workmanship which being once charg'd will deliver Six Bullets one after another If thou acceptest this small Present it will be an Argument of thy Friendship Paris 19th of the 8th Moon of the Year 1649. LETTER XVI To the Venerable Mufti I Have often wondred at the Lethargy wherein the Nazarenes seem to be drown'd They forget what they read in their own Bibles They there encounter with Expressions which savour of the East Every Page of the Written Law relishes of the Dialect which is Pure and Lively though the Translators have cropt the Flower of the Sence I have read their Bible in Greek Latin and French but none of these Languages express to the Life the Original Hebrew Nor can it be expected It is impossible to screw up the Dull Phrases of Europe to the Significant Idioms of Asia We may as well expect Dates to spring from a Reed And for that Reason it is forbidden the True faithful to Translate the Volume of Light from the Original Arabick Which is no other than Hebrew in its Ancient Purity This is the Language of those who dwell above the Seventh Orb. 'T is the Dialect wherein God converses with the Pages of his Divine Seraglio Wherein all the Records of the Celestial Empire are writ And when he issues out Orders to the Ministers and Bassa's of Heaven Hasmariel the Secretary of the Immortal Divan uses no other Character or Speech but that which is peculiar on Earth to the Sons of Ismael the Inhabitants of the Region on the East of the Red Sea In fine this is the Language wherein the Omnipotent thought fit to discover his Pleasure to Mortals Believe Mahmut when he tells thee with profound Submission that he has taken some Pains to pry into those Languages which have been the Channels of Divine Knowledge I have been peculiarly ambitious to study the Anatomy of Oriental Words And it would be no Hyperbole to say I have learn'd to dissect even the very Syllables Wherein the various placing of Points and Letters alters the Sence or at least makes it Ambiguous So Significant and Mysterious are Our Sacred Characters I speak not this in Peevishness or to vindicate my self from the Contempt which Ichingi Cap ' Oglani has put upon me I have no Emulation in that Point Nor can any little Spur of Pedantick Ambition make me forward to contend with a Man whose whole Talent consists in knowing and remembring other Mens Works as if he had studied at Athens only for this End to learn the facetious Art of turning his Brains into a Catalogue of Books But I reflect on the Learned among the Nazarenes who are chiefly to blame having the Custody of the Book delivered to 'em from the Jews And among them the Translators of that Volume are past Excuse for they have deflowr'd the Original and robb'd the Virgin Language of its Beauty and Honour While the Rest are Witnesses and silent Abettors of the Rape in concealing the Indignity has been done to the Letters Form'd by the Finger of God and full of Divine Mysteries In thus accusing the Christian Interpreters of the Bible I do not patronize the Critical Whimsies of the Jewish Caballists They are exploded by all Men of Sence Yet there is a Medium between the Excess of that affected Niceness which has rendred the One Ridiculous and of that study'd Carelessness to which the Obscurity of the Other is owing As the Hebrews by pressing the Letters too close have squeez'd out Divine Chimaera's so the Christians in using too slack a Hand have scarce gain'd a gross Draught of Common Human Sence leaving the Genuine Elixir of the Writer's Meaning behind I will not lay much to the Charge of the Translators employ'd by Ptolomy Philadelphus King of Aegypt These were no Christians nor yet in the Number of those who Adored the Celestial Bodies and Elements Nor did any of them pay their Devotions at the same Altar with that Aegyptian Monarch who was a Worshipper of the God Serapis But they were Jews Seventy or Two more in Number as the Tradition goes And being every one Commanded severally to Translate those

not yet fully establish'd and confirm'd There has been a Cessation of Arms since that Time And now the Duke Amalfe on the Emperor's Side the Duke of Vandort for the King of France and he of Ersken for the Crown of Suedeland are met at Norimbergh to conclude a Final Ratification of the Articles During this Consult the Suedish Army are permitted by the Emperour's Agreement to Quarter up and down in Seven Circles of the Empire and not to be discharg'd till all their Arrears are paid at the Cost of the Germans 'T is said it will amount to Three Millions of Sequins This War has lasted near Thirty Years in which above Three Hundred Thousand Men have lost their Lives As to the English Affairs the Prevailing Party there have declar'd that Ancient Kingdom to be a Free State and the Monarchy is Abolish'd by a Publick Act. Nevertheless after Charles was beheaded his Eldest Son was Proclaimed King both in England and Ireland by some of the Nobles and Gentry that were Friends to that Royal Family And in Ireland a certain great Duke appear'd at the Head of a Numerous Army in Behalf of the Young King's Interest having laid Siege to the Metropolis of that Kingdom which with one other Town were the only strong Holds that resisted the King's Party But in the 8th Moon the Army which the English States had newly sent over to that Island engag'd with the Forces of this Duke entirely routed them killing Two Thousand Men on the Spot and taking many Thousand Prisoners with all their Ammunition and Baggage This being seconded with other Victories in a short Time reduc'd that Kingdom under the Obedience of the English States In the mean Time I hear no pleasing News from the Levant Vessels daily arrive in the Havens of France who confirm each other's Relations of a Dreadful Naval Combat between Our Fleet and that of the Venetians wherein they say we have lost Seventy Two Gallies Threescore Merchant-Vessels and Eighteen Ships of War That in this Fight Six Thousand Five Hundred Mussulmans have lost their Lives and near Ten Thousand were taken Prisoners I tell thee these are great Breaches in the Navy which belonging to the Lord of the Sea and Land has assum'd to it self the Epithet of INVINCIBLE These are Blemishes in the Ensigns of high Renown Reproaches to the Empire which we believe is to subdue All Nations I reflect not on the Courage or Conduct of the Captain Bassa Neither am I willing to help forward the Ruine of a Man who cannot expect to be honour'd with a Vest a Sword or any other Marks of the Sultan's Favour for his Service in this Sea Campagne I am Naturally compassionate 'T is not in my Praise I speak it for I believe this Tenderness to be rather a Vice of my Constitution than to have any Rank in the Morals much less to be of Kin to the Family of Vertues I pity a Man falling into Disgrace on whom the Weather of the Seraglio changes from which he must expect Nothing but Clouds and Storms Those Tempests will prove more Fatal to him than any that ever toss'd his Fleet on the Ruffled Ocean In all Probability he will suffer a Shipwreck of his Fortune if not of his Life Therefore 't is with extreme Regret I must say that which may hasten his Fall But I am commanded not to conceal any Intelligence that relates to the Interest of the Sublime Port nor to spare the Son of my Mother if I know him Guilty of Criminal Practices All that I have to lay to the Charge of the Bassa of the Sea is a Private Correspondence which he holds with Cardinal Mazarini This I discover'd by the Assistance of a Dwarf whom I have often mention'd in my Letters to the Grandees of the Port. I need not repeat to thee what I have said already to them of the Birth Education and Genius of Osmin for so is the little Spark call'd nor of the Method I have put him upon to wind himself into the Secrets of the Publick Ministers Onely thou mayst report to the Divan That this diminutive Man continues to pursue his Advantages of Access to the Closets of the French Ministers whereof I gave an Account last Year in a Letter to Chiurgi Muhamm●t Bassa Thou mayst assure them also that when he was Yesterday in the Chamber of Cardinal Mazarini he cast his Eye on a Letter which lay open on the Table whilst the Cardinal was in earnest Discourse with an Extraordinary Courier from Rome He had not Opportunity to read more than the Superscription and a Line or two of the Matter which contain'd these Words The Mild Commander The humble Shadow of the Bright Star of the Sea Bilal Captain Bassa To the most Illustrious Prince of the Kingdom of the Messiah Eminent among the High Lords of Holy Honour the Sublime Directors of the People of Jesus Assistant to the Chair of Sovereign Dignity the Seat of the Roman Caliph Julio Mazarini Cardinal and our Friend May whose later Days encrease in Happiness THY affectionate Letter and Presents were deliver'd safe to me as I lay at Anchor with the Fleet under my Command not far from the Island of Chios And as a Mark of my Acknowledgment and good Will to thee and all the Nazarenes I embrac'd in my Arms the Noble Captain Signior Antonio Maratelli who had the Honour to be trusted with this Negotiation I immediately disrob'd my self and caus'd that brave Italian thy Messenger to be vested with my own Garment as a Pledge of Before Osmin cou'd read farther the Cardinal approach'd the Table and took up the Letter letting fall some Words to the Courier by which the Dwarf was confirmed in his Suspicion of the Bassa's Perfidiousness and that this Letter newly came from him He posted immediately to give me an Account of this Passage believing it to be as it is of great Import For he has a singular Regard for the Family which first exterminated the Greeks from Constantinople Thou know'st what Use to make of this Intelligence I am not Cruelly inclin'd but I must do my Duty The Rest I refer to thy Prudence I will only advertise thee of One farther Remark of Osmin who by comparing what he has seen now with a Discourse he once before over-heard between Mazarini and a French Nobleman whilst he lay under the Cardinal's Table which I have inserted in one of my Letters concludes That the Bassa there mention'd by the Cardinal was this same Bilal Bassa who was at the Instance of the Janizaries made Bassa of the Sea I could not without making my self an Accomplice conceal so foul an Ingratitude to the Grand Signior and so Villainous a Treason against the Empire which holds the First Rank among all the Dominions on Earth Paris 24th of the 9th Moon of the Year 1649. LETTER XVIII To Cara Hali Physician to the Grand Signior VVE have had a violent hot Summer in these Parts with much

believ'd himself when he related the Story of Pancrates a Famous Magician of Egypt who by these Talismans was able to transform Inanimate things into the Appearance at least of Living Creatures Thus he wou'd turn a Stick or Piece of Wood into a seeming Man who shou'd walk discourse and perform all the Actions of a Rational Being A certain Stranger travelling with him once to Memphis and lying with him in the same Carvansera as soon as they were alighted from their Camels Pancrates took a Plank of Oak and having touch'd it with his Talisman and pronounc'd Two or Three Syllables incontinently the Stock mov'd stood upright walk'd and taking the Camels by the Bridle led them to the Stables After which this Wooden Man came in and prepar'd their Pillaw went of whatsoever Errands Pancrates sent him And when they departed the Magician using a certain Private Ceremony this Officious Servant return'd to a Plank again This was his Practice all along the Road. One Day his Fellow-Traveller being resolv'd to try the Experiment took Advantage of the Magician's Absence who was gone to the Temple and had left his Talisman behind him The Curious Travelle having been often an Eye Witness of this Trick takes a Piece of Wood and touches it with Pancrates's Talisman repeating the Syllables he had heard him utter Immediately the Inanimate Timber became a Man asking his Pleasure The Traveller astonish'd at the Event commanded his new Servant to bring him a Bucket of Water The Enchanted Spark obeys The Traveller told him it was enough and bid him return to a Piece of Wood again but instead of that he continu'd drawing of Water and bringing it in till the House was full The Traveller fearing the Anger of Pancrates thought to dissolve the Enchamment by cleaving the Wooden Animal in Two But this augmented his Trouble For each Piece taking a Bucket fell to drawing of Water so that of One Servant he had made Two This continued till the Magician came to his Rescue who having sternly rebuk'd the Traveller's Rashness at a Word turn'd the Two busie Drudges to their Primitive Loggishness and Inactivity again I do not tell this Story as if I would have thee believe it or that I give Credit to it my self Let us imitate the Author of it who laughs at all that delight in such Fables But the Christians who believe a Piece of Bread is Transform'd to Flesh and Blood and becomes an Immortal God at the pronouncing of Four Words by the Priest may be excus'd if they put Confidence in the Figments of Poets and Orators I have in my Custody the Journal of Carcoa who formerly resided at Vienna a Private Agent for the Ever Happy Port. Some of his Letters speak of the Superstition and Credulity of the Germans in this Kind Yet in a Letter to the Mufti he acknowledges himself overcome by the Unquestionable Testimonies of such as had been Eye-Witnesses of the Life and Death of one Faustus a German Magician who play'd a Thousand Infernal Pranks as he calls them even before the Emperour himself He tells also of another Magician call'd Zyto who liv'd in the Days of the Emperour Charles IV. And when the Emperour's Son to whom Zyto belong'd was to Marry the Duke of Bavaria's Daughter the Duke to oblige his Son-in-Law who was much taken with Magical Tricks as were all the Germans sent for a great many Famous Sorcerers to the Wedding Among the Rest while One was performing a rare Exploit on a sudden Zyto the Prince's Conjurer came up to him with a Mouth seeming as Wide as that of an Old Crocodile and swallows him up at a Morsel When he thus had done he retires and voids him again in a Bash and brings him thus drench'd into the Company challenging any of the other Magicians to do a Feat like that but they were all silent I hear of no such Tricks done by those French Witches who cause so much Discourse at present The worst they are accus'd of is Bewitching their neighbours Hogs to Madness which thou knowest may be only a Natural Malady I pray Heaven defend us from the Enchantments of a deluded Phansy that Domestick Incubus of every Mortal and we need fear neither Witch nor Wizard Paris 20th of the 5th Moon of the Year 1654. LETTER X. To Cornezan Mustapha Bassa THE Fame of Christina Queen of Sueden has no doubt reach'd thy Ears I have made Mention of her in several of my Letters That Royal Virgin is now about to surrender her Crown to her Cousin whom they call Charles Prince Palatine This is a Voluntary Resignation And her Motive is said to be a strong Inclination to Solitude and a Private Life being esteem'd the most Accomplish'd and Learn'd Princess of this Age. But those who pretend to know more than others say That the True Ground of her abandoning the Kingdom is a Resolution she has taken to change her Religion and embrace the Faith of the Roman Mufti which is forbidden by the Laws of Sueden Thou wilt smile at the Proposals which this Queen sent to her design'd Successor and his Answer to them In the first Place She will keep the Greatest Part of the Kingdom and Revenues in her own Hands Secondly She will be no Subject but altogether Independent and Free Thirdly She will have Liberty to travelinto Foreign Countries or into any Part of that Dominion Lastly She will not have the Offices of Trust or any other Gifts that she shall have disposed of to her Favourites revok'd by her Successor To these Articles Prince Charles Answer'd First That he will not be a mere Titular King without Dominions nor without such a Revenue as is Necessary to defray the Royal Expences both in Peace and War Secondly That he will suffer no Competitor Equal or Sovereign in his Kingdom Thirdly That he will not run the Hazard of her Intrigues in Foreign Courts Lastly That if he be King he will dispose of Preferments as he thinks fit And in Fine That he will not be the Shadow of a King without the Substantial Prerogatives of Sovereignty 'T is added That when the Queen heard his Reply she said aloud I propos'd those Articles only to try his Spirit Now I esteem him Worthy to Reign who so well understands the Incommunicable Rights of a Monarch This Intelligence comes by a Secretary to the Spanish Embassador who is newly come out of Sueden to Negotiate at this Court a Ten Years Truce between France and Spain Here is likewise an Embassador from Portugal who acquaints the Court That the Portugueze have Expell'd the Hollanders out of the Places they held in the East Indies But if our Merchants bring true Intelligence the Tartars will Exterminate all the Franks that are in China In the mean Time the Young King of France passes away his Hours in Dancing seeing of Plays and other Recreations provided with vast Expence by Cardinal Mazarini to divert him from medling with Publick Affairs and

Feet of Twelve Pilgrims and that Cardinal Ludovisio entertain'd Nine Thousand of these Devotees at once with a very Magnificent Feast They say also That the Pope will get this Year Two Millions of Sequins by the Resort of Pilgrims to that City The King of Denmark's Resident at this Court has received a Letter which Certifies him that his Master has declar'd Prince Christian his Son Successor in the Throne They talk also of a Marriage lately Solemniz'd between Charles a German Count and Charlotte Sister to the Lantgrave of Hesse-Cassel But that which most takes up Mens Ears and employs their Tongues and Thoughts are the Civil Wars of this Kingdom which is all in a Flame by Occasion of the Imprisonment of the Prince of Conde and his Brothers The Citizens of Paris are very jocund at the repeated News of the King 's Ill Success For they wish not well to his Arms whilst employed against the Malecontents Illustrious Old Grandee I wish thee the Years of Nestor and those Calculated by Full Moons of Prosperity But I pray Heaven avert from thee some of his Moments wherein they say he was tormented with the Gout as I am at this Instant It is a Pain hardly to be supported Paris 11th of the 6th Moon of the Year 1650. LETTER VII To the same BY the God whom I Adore and by his Shadow I swear There is no Disloyalty in Mahmut Yet his Life is full of Temptations and Perils The Box of Letters I mention'd in my Last is irrecoverably gone and laid up in the Bowels of the Earth if we may believe the Confession of a Man every Angle of whose Heart has been search'd with exquisite Torments even to Death Eliachim's Slave the Negro whom I spoke of mistook that Box for one very like it out of which he had often seen his Master take Jewels For this is the particular Merchandise of that Jew And the Weight of each was not so Unequal as to rectifie his Error Lucre tempted him and the desire of Liberty Whilst the Darkness for he committed this Villainy before Sun-rising and his own Guilty Fears conspir'd to baffle his intended Theft The Boxes stood together so Careful was Eliachim of the Sublime Secrets as not to venture 'em in a Place less secure than that of his Jewels and the Villain hasty to be gone and confounded for want of Light took up that wherein were the Writings instead of his design'd Prey the Jewels He went directly into the Fields purposing to bury this suppos'd Treasure in the Earth in some private Place where he might take it forth at Discretion But first opening the Box to supply himself with such Stones as he thought would be unquestionable Pawns for Money to answer his present Necessities that so he might the better provide for his Concealment he was astonish'd and his Heart became like Lead when he found Nothing but Papers full of Characters to which he was wholly a Stranger A Thousand Resolutions presented themselves to him in that Agony of his Mind and he knew not which to fix on Sometimes he thought to carry the Box back again as he found it and since his Design had been thus strangely baulked to Content himself till another Opportunity But then he consider'd 't was too late to return before his Master would miss both his Slave and Box for the Sun was now far advanced in our Hemisphere and Eliachim is an early Riser In a Word therefore he thought it the safest Way to bury it in the Ground as he first intended had it been the Box of Jewels and so shift for himself Proposing to himself this Advantage in hiding the Papers in a secure Place That if they were of Value he might at any Time make Composition with his Master by discovering where they were All that I have here related is drawn from his own Mouth in the Midst of Tortures For Eliachim soon heard of his Fugitive Negro who was seiz'd on the Rode to Lyons by some Correspondents of this Jew Who having Intelligence of it took Horse immediately and went to the Place He did not think it safe to make a publick Business of it or to arraign him before the appointed Judges of the Country But relying on the Justice of his Cause and the Right of a Master he privately put him to Tortures of divers Kinds in a House where he cou'd command any Thing The stout African at first deny'd that he had medl'd with any Box saying he escap'd purely for the Sake of Liberty But when a Succession of divers Torments had quite overthrown his Constancy he confessed all that I have already related Eliachim still suspecting worse and that he only fram'd this as a plausible Story to be freed from or at least to respite the Pains he suffered caus'd sharp Thorns to be thrust under the Nails of his Fingers and Toes believing that the Extremity of so sensible a Pain wou'd extort the true Secret from him But he cou'd get Nothing else from the poor excruciated Negro though now almost ready to expire than that he had hid the Box under-Ground in a certain Corner of a Field out of the City To which he knew not how to direct Eliachim but promis'd to shew it him if he wou'd carry him alive to Paris This was no hard Task to perform in the Opinion of the Jew it being but a Days Journey to this City from the Place where they then were But he was deceived in his Hopes and now all the Applications and Cordials they cou'd use came too late For that very Night the Negro breath'd out his Soul However when Eliachim came to Paris he follow'd the Directions of his dead Slave as well as he cou'd in searching every Corner of the Fields on that Side of the City where this Black had been seen to go out But all to no Purpose He cou'd find nothing nor have we any Hopes ever to see that Box again Yet I have many Qualms of Fear lest some Time or other it should come to Light to our Disadvantage and Ruine I desire thy Instructions Sage Governour of the Capital City how I shall deport my self if it be my Lot to be discover'd As to the Remaining Box which has in it the Transcripts of my own Dispatches I have taken it Home to my Lodging Believing it will be as safe here as in the House of Eliachim since that faithful Jew is no more exempted from Contingencies than my self And I have no Servant to betray me This Kingdom abounds at present in Treasons and Rebellions The French spare not to massacre one another for the Sake of a Passion While the Spaniards make their Advantages of these Intestine Feuds For under Pretence of assisting the Princes of the Blood they get Footing in Picardy from whence it will not be easy to expel them Leopold Arch-Duke of Austria is at the Head of the Spanish Army and has taken several Towns belonging to the French King

Surplusage of Happiness Which thou wilt not fail to possess if thou inheritest the Vertues of that Bassa as well as his Office May his Soul now taste the Reward of his Just Life And I doubt not but he has made an happy Experience of my Wishes He sits down in Quiet under the Trees of Eden His Head encompass'd with a Garland of Flowers which never fade Vested with the Immarcescible Crimson and Purple of Paradise He reposes on his Bed of Delights whilst Beautiful Pages serve him in Vessels of Gold set round with Sapphires and Emeralds He drinks the delectable Wine which never Inebriates and eats of the Fruits every Morsel of which prolongs his Life for a Thousand Ages He hears Nothing but the Voices of such as are full of Benediction and Joy The Virgins of Paradise salute him with a Grace which cannot be express'd They chaunt to the New-come Guest Songs of Immortal Love To the Stranger from Earth they tell their Passion in Strains which ravish his Heart He is dissolv'd in a Thousand Ecstasies This is the Reward of a Pious Mussulman a Wise Minister a Just Judge of the Faithful Follow his Example and thou shalt be translated into his Company For he is in a Goodly Place near the Spring-Head of Perfect Bliss Thou wilt expect some News from me as a Testimony of my Respect And I cannot pretend there is none stirring at a Juncture when all this Part of the World is so full of Action or at least of Counsels Here has been great Rejoicings lately for the taking of St. Menehoud a Strong Town in the Hands of the Prince of Conde All the Officers of the French King's Army endeavour'd to dissuade him from the Siege of this Place but Cardinal Mazarini over-rul'd their Arguments and having reprov'd their groundless Fears caus'd it to be invested and attacqu'd the 22d of the 10th Moon Some say he had a Party there Yet it held out till the 27th of the last Moon at which Time it was surrender'd upon Articles to the King who was there in Person with his Brother the young Duke of Anjou the Queen the Cardinal and the whole Court They return'd to this City the Ninth of this present Moon They were receiv'd with great Acclamations and seeming Joy by those who wou'd have triumph'd more heartily had they been defeated or forc'd to raise the Siege For the Citizens of Paris wish well to the Prince of Conde's Arms Not so much out of Love to him as in Hatred of his Enemy the Cardinal-Minister And they are sensible that this Successful Siege will redound wholly to the Cardinal's Honour by whose sole Orders the Place was invested It is discours'd as if this Minister has some new Design on Foot to conquer the Kingdom of Naples This is certain a Mighty Fleet is fitting out to Sea Whither bound no Man knows but those of the Cabinet among whom the Cardinal is Chief In the mean while the Common People listen after certain Prodigies that have been seen in the Air. They say a Flaming Sword appear'd lately to rise in the North and take its Course South-Eastward From whence People make various Prognosticks as their Passions or Interests inspire ' em Some are of Opinion it presages the Conquest of Naples by this King 's Arms. Others apply it to the New Common-Wealth of England and to the Victorious Sword of Oliver who from General of the English Army is now in this very Moon exalted to the Height of Sovereign Power Governing the Nations of England Scotland and Ireland under the Title of their Protector Here are divers of his Subjects in this City and other English Scots and Irish who embrace the Interest of Charles the Son of their late Murder'd King who has been since Crown'd King of the Scots They give a different Character of Oliver yet all agree that he is a Wise Statesman and a Great General The Scotch King's Party speak contemptibly of Oliver's Birth and Education Yet thou know'st this hinders not but he may be a Man of Courage and Vertue They relate many odd Passages of his Youth which seem to me so many Evidences of an extraordinary Genius and that he is a Person of a deep Reach He tamper'd with several Religious Factions in England counterfeiting an Exquisite Piety whereby he first rais'd himself a Name among the Zealots of that Nation who look'd upon him there as a very Holy Person and one mark'd out by Destiny for Great Undertakings He soon got a Considerable Command in the Army of the Revolters Where he signaliz'd himself by many brave Actions which spoke him a Man of an Invincible Courage and Admirable Conduct So that at Length none was thought more fit than he to be General In fine he acquitted himself so gallantly in that High Office and has so wrought himself into the Affections of the People that they now look upon him as a Prophet or Saviour and the Divan or Parliament of that Nation have conferr'd on him the Sovereign Authority Those of the English which are Affected to his Interest speak Great Things in his Praise They call him another Moses or Joshua They prefer him to Hannibal Scipio and even to the Great Alexander It is difficult for them to speak of him without Hyperbole's 'T is said the King of France will court his Friendship Indeed all the Neighbouring Countries stand in Awe of this successful Hero And the Hollanders who are the only People that durst engage in a War with the English Common-Wealth now seek for Peace since he is invested with the Supreme Authority In the mean Time the Poor Exil'd King of the Scots takes Sanctuary in this Court with his Mother the Late Queen of England and his Brother whom they call the Duke of York The French King allows them all very Considerable Pensions And the Latter has some Command in the Army in Flanders There is another Brother also but little talk'd of as yet being the Youngest of the Three They are Generously entertain'd here it being the peculiar Honour of this Court to be a Hospitable Refuge to Princes in Distress Yet Observing Men say The King will in Time grow Weary of his Royal Guests It being very Chargeable to maintain them and their Burdensome Retinue Besides he will have some Reason of State to discard them if he enters into a League with Oliver the New English Sovereign who is courted on all Hands Eliachim the Jew of whom thou wilt hear in the Divan is just come into my Chamber and brings me Word that there is an Express newly arriv'd who informs the Queen of a Defeat given to the Spaniards near a City call'd Rozes which they had besieg'd in Catalonia The French were going to the Relief of this Place and the Spaniards set upon them in their March but were beaten into their Trenches from whence they fled by Night leaving Three Hundred Spaniards on the Spot almost Two Thousand Prisoners and all their