never any of His present Highness's Predecessors have been ever as much as suspected of aspiring at any Power over the Commonwealth but what tended to its greater Security and for the Elevation of the Majesty of the Republick without the least Glances of assuming any to themselves unless it were His Highness's Father who in all probability was animated thereunto by his matching with a Daughter of England And that his Ambition might have proved fatal to the Republick beyond Retrieve if his immature Death and other seasonable Providences had not intervened That the Influence of that Match had proved very detrimental to that illustrious House by stirring up such a Jealousie in the States against them as would not suffer them to admit the present Prince for a long time to enjoy the Places of Honour Authority and Trust formerly so well maintained and officiated by his noble Ancestors And that at the same time it had proved as pernicious to the States themselves in creating and nourishing Factions among them and Endeavours to keep up the Republick upon a new Model without Captain-General Stadtholder Admiral c. and to deprive themselves of the so necessary and Auspicious Assistance and Conduct of that most Illustrious House and thereby exposed even almost to be made a Prey to the dangerous Ambition of the French Monarch And therefore now when they had so newly re-enter'd into their true Interests and happily re-fixed all things on the old Foundation by restoring the present Prince to the Dignity of his Ancestors and calling him to the Helm of the Tempest-beaten State and had by his Courage Conduct and Interest recovered the Common-wealth to a very hopeful Condition of Power and Prosperity again it would be no less than a Madness to venture the Ruin of all those fair Hopes by a second Match with England when by the former they had been almost all Shipwrack'd and to suffer a Prince who was now wholly their own to espouse in such a Marriage as was then in Agitation a Foreign Interest and such as in all probability could not in time but interfere with theirs And therefore desired it might not be 1. Because though the Prince's Intentions should happen to continue never so right and firm to the Interest of the Republick yet this Match could not but be still very detrimental both to him and them by causing incurable Jealousies Factions and Animosities amongst them without end and which could not but be of pernicious Consequence to them both 2. That by reason of the little probability of the Duke of York's having any Vivacious Male Issue this would give the Prince such a near Prospect of the British Crowns that it could not but engage him in that View upon all Occasions to strain his Power and Interest in the United Provinces to the utmost for the advantage of the English Nation to the prejudice of the Dutch increase of Power and Interest 3. That if he ever came to be King of England the Power he would thereby obtain added to that he had already in the United Provinces as Stadt-holder Captain General c. and to the great Influence he had among the Soldiery in the States pay would undoubtedly be a great temptation to him for to reduce that State under the English Crown and influence the others to assist him in it And that if he should have Issue by his Princess as it was likely enough he might the danger under that Circumstance would be in a manner inevitable It s likely my Lord our Politicians here forsaw very great Difficulties would arise in making any manner of Impressions upon the States against the Prince's Match for by the foresaid Remonstrances it does appear to me their Master-battery was turned on that side but though all their Politicks have failed them for the prevention of the Marriage yet they have not failed to put some of these Arguments foâ—â—ards to render the Prince and all his Proceedings suspect to the States and they have already bragged that all the Constancy his Highness is well known to be Master of will find work enough to ver-come the Jealousies entertained of him and which they are resolved never to be wanting on their part to foment and to make it believe that all he has acted since his marriage has been to the aggrandizing of himself and his Authority and the Diminution of that of the Republick I fear I have already too much transgrest by my tediousness and shall therefore only subscribe my self as I am in sincerity My LORD Your Lordships Most humble Servant Paris Sept. 20. 1679. N. S. LETTER LXII Of the Solemn Embassy sent by the French King to King Charles II. in the Year 1677 in order to break off the Match with the Prince of Orange c. My LORD PUrsuant to what I have already mentioned to your Lordship of the Designs concerted between his Royal Highness and the French King about getting of the Lady Mary by a Stratagem into France if their other Measures about hindring the Match were broken was the late solemn Embassy sent over from hence into England whereof the Count d' Estree was the head accompanied with the Duke de Vendosme the Archbishop of Rheims one of our great Minister the Marquiss de Louvois's Sons and at least fifty Lords more of principal Note and whose publick instructions tho' they imported nothing more then a great Complement and some overtures about forbiding any recruits to be sent over to our Land Forces in the service of the Confederates yet privately they were to endeavour a French match and if they saw they could not succeed therein to concert closer measures with the Duke about puting in practise what he had before consented to about geting the Princess his daughter privately convey'd away in Company of this Embassador into France and perhaps your Lordship will not be dissatisfied if I recount what I have heard discoursed one day at this Court between our Commissioner and some other Courtiers concerning the Embassy Said one of them to theother What needed so splendid and costly an Embassy at this time of day to the King of England when there is so little hopes that he durst give his Consent to what we desire of him if he were of himself disposed thereto Yes says the other 'T will be well worth the Cost let things go as they will upon this occasion for 't is a greater honour our King now does to the King of England than he has ever yet done to any other Prince or ever to the Emperor himself when at Peace with him and such an Honour cannot but work sensibly upon the heart of a Prince who is so easily wrought upon and may work some good Effects for us in time if not for the present And however if the worst come to the worst this extraordinary Honour now done him by our Monarch will make his Parliament and People so fully persuaded that he hath entred into an extraordinary
at which they whom they thus incited did not so much as dream of Thus while many in our Parliaments were so fierce against Papists Arbitrary Power and the French Interest and cried out against all of the Court-party as French Pensioners tho' 't is true too many of them were so as does appear yet little thought they that they were likewise so themselves and never imagined the same French were Abettors of both Parties And the better to cover this underhand play they drew off most of the Money they employ'd to this latter sort by the way of Genoa Florence Amsterdam and Hamburg that it might not be discovered it came Originally from France Nay my Lord by the by be pleased to take notice that one main cause of the French King's Indignation against Genua tho' it be a very secret one and known to few was their Bankers cackling and discovering to the Agents of the House of Austria the Money privately sent and dispersed and sent towards Poland Hungary Turky and some other Parts not named and has made them imploy none ever since almost but what are openly or covertly Jews who serve the French King with great Fidelity for these Reasons 1. He is in their Esteem the most Powerful in Christendom 2. Because he Favours the Grand Turk where they have so great a Commerce and are in such numbers 3. Because he gives them a liberty by connivance tho' not open Toleration 4. Because he is so great an Enemy to the Austrian Family who have been so Cruel to them by the Inquisition and by Banishing them not only out of the Spanish Territories but likewise out of the Emperor 's Hereditary Countries 5. And lastly Because he seems to them to be of no Religion but almost as great a Scourge to the Christians in general both Popish and others as the Turk Tartar or Barbarian their Principles naturally leading them to admire and revere any thing they think a Plague to Christians whom they are taught to Curse daily even in their Solemn Prayers and therefore England had need have a Care of them in this Juncture But as for the Pensions they gave the Courtiers they Industriously affected the transmission of those Moneys from France and had their Agents busie to buzz it abroad in order to render them odious to the People and to incite the Patriots the more violently against them And tho' a great part of the Money they allowed the King from time to time were sometimes transmitted from the abovementioned Places and some from Venice yet private notice was presently given to their Agents in England and elsewhere with positive Orders to inform the World of the Truth of that Intrigue unless it were some time when a particular Critical Juncture might require a contrary Procedure My Lord this is the Sum of what I could learn in respect to their Correspondence in England either from the Minutes or private Conversation of which your Lordship is sensible I have as great an Opportunity as any other and with which I shall at present conclude who am My Lord Your Honour 's most Humble Servant Paris Iuly 11. 1684. N. St. LETTER XVI Of the French King 's frequent Reviews of his Troops in 1670. and of the umbrage taken in England thereupon and of the Duke of Buckingham's Embassy into France My Lord I Have formerly given your Lordship an Account of the great Levies in France and vast Preparations for War both by Sea and Land what Care had been taken to secure the Domestick Peace in the mean time and what the Opinion of the French Ministers of State were in regard to what Country should be Invaded by them And I am now to acquaint your Lordship that when their Military Preparations were pretty forward which was in the Year 1670. they began to make frequent Reviews of their Troops which to amuse they continued till the end of the next Year in several Bodies towards as many different Frontiers that their Neighbour Nations being used to them and seeing no Effects follow might think they were only done out of a Vanity to make Ostentation of the French Power and Grandure to keep their Soldiers in Discipline and find their Nobility and Active Spirits Employment who else might busie themselves for want of Occupation in disturbing the State The Artifice took so that most of their Neighbours tho' now and then they were troubled with a Fit of Thoughtfulness and Suspicion begun to grow secure and particularly the Hollanders who thought the French King so much in Jest that they tauâ—tingly called him Le Roy des Reveues till more extraordinary and more visible Preparations and Movements did by degrees begin to convince them of their Errour for when they had thus finished their Reviews they suddenly drew a very considerable Army composed of the Flower of all their Forces towards Calais and Dunkirk the Dutch being in the mean time tampered with as I am apt to believe concerning the Invasion of England but yet now full of Jealousie at their Proceedings and here it was the Council was held about the Eligibility of employing their Force the Debates whereof I have already given your Lordship an Account And as the Dutch were Jealous upon this approach the English were much more as your Lordship may well remember to see such a Power brave England on the opposite Shore and look with an Amorous Eye towards it and the more because of the unprepared Posture the Nation was then in insomuch that it was thought advisable to dispatch an Embassy to sound the Intentions of the French Monarch in regard to England whereupon Choice was made of the Duke of Buckingham who admirably well maintained that Character and the Glory of Great Britain on that Occasion and demeaned himself with such an Intrepidity of Mind and Conduct and with such a Grandure and Unconcernedness at the Formidable Armed Powers he saw before his Eyes that those who had been Strangers to the then Condition of our Nation would have thought he had been sent from a Prince that was at the Head of twice as big an Army as the French King at that time shewed the Duke And that Conduct did not a little appall the Presumption of that Ambitious King and contributed much to the inclining of him to acquiesce in Monsieur Le Tellier's Counsel but then withal making him take notice of the Rare and more than ordinary Parts and Abilities of the said Duke it put him naturally upon concluding that it was well worth the while to endeavour to gain such a Person over to his Interest whose Influence might be great either in bringing his Prince to such a Compliance as he desired or at least in briguing for France against him in case he proved inflexible To this end such Complements were past upon the Duke and such extraordinary Honours done him and Presents made him as never no Embassador before nor since hardly ever received insomuch as the Duke suffered himself
their Compliance that there was no occasion to scruple it since they knew well enough that our Government was but a qualified Monarchy wherein the Subject owed rather more Allegiance to their Country than they did to their Prince And that since their King went about to deal so unfairly and injuriously with their Country as to enter into Leagues and Treaties and that underhand with a Foreign Prince contrary to their true Interest and deceived his Embassadors by transacting things different from and opposite to what they had received in their Instructions and trusted not his own Ministers but only Forreigners with his main Secrets of State it could not be thought any great infidelity in them to deceive such a Prince and to enter into private Intreagues against such Designs as were pernicious and destructive to their Country and would be so to the Prince himself if not prevented in time with a great deal more matter still more invidious than that to the same purpose Such Methods as these My Lord I find in the minutes of the Instructions prescribed from time to time to those who are imploy'd to converse with our English Embassadors or Envoys and after-notes do also remark they had success enough with some of them whom your Lordship may so well guess at that I need not name them However this opinion they entertained of most of the English whom they gained into Intrigue except it were the Duke of Buckingham and one or two more that they served them with the same mind with which they imploy'd them for this was and is still an usual saying with them We imploy'd them not for any love we have had to them or any good we intended them but only for the Interest and Advantage of our own King and the Dishonour and Disadvantage of theirs So they as we believe and have by experience found by most served us not for any love to our Interest but to our Money and with intent to make what we intended for the disservice of their Country turn in the end for the good and benefit of it or at least to the Factions and Perswasions they themselves were off I could inlarge much more upon this Head but I have been already tedious and therefore I must conclude and remain My Lord Your Lordships most Devoted and Humble Servant Paris March 19. 1678. N. S. LETTER XXVIII Of the French Resolutions to elude any Advantage the English might receive by the War My Lord HAving already given your Lordship an account how our King was brought into the Alliance with France and to engage in a second Dutch War I shall now proceed to set forth the insincerity of the French Friendship and how little Benefit our King was to reap thereby in case of Success and the Methods they had to elude him Tho' their chief Design was to destroy Holland yet they intended England should reap no Benefit thereby but rather decrease and truckle under them for that they meant nothing less then the real Performance to our King of his Share in the projected Division of the Enemies Countrey as if it had been their Motto Pereat Hollandus nec non subsidat Anglus And therefore they so resolved to carry things on by Sea as that they seemed to be rather unconcerned Spectators then Actors for us in any of the Engagements tho' your Lordship well knows that afterward when they were left alone with the War they could Fight well enough to Defeat the Dutch and Spanish Fleets in the Mediterranean and bereave that State of their famous Admiral de Ruyter which was more then ever we in all our Combats with him could effect For as if the French Dealing had been a Graft of old Punick Faith they treated us more like perfidious Africans then generous Romans giving not only private Orders to the Commanders of their Naval Forces which they should send us at Sea to avoid as much as was possible any effectual Fighting for us but only to observe and learn what Improvements they could from us both as to our manner of Fighting and the Situation of our Harbours and in the main to approve themselves not only as Cyphers but as broken Reeds to us who were in expectation of great things from them and this evidently appear'd afterward by their Conduct towards Captain Martel who for falling in bravely with us against the Dutch was first soundly checked and then disgracefully cashir'd for his Honesty and Bravery and as their Instructions by Sea to their Officers was to play the Legerdemain with us in this manner they gave the like Instructions to their Land Commanders on the Holland side and particularly tho' it had been concerted between both Courts that whilst we should attack Zealand which was the Province alotted to our share their General in the Low Countreys should divert all Relief from it by a great and sudden Irruption into their other Provinces which in the Consternation they then must needs be put to he might most effectually do yet not only their Minutes but the Event clearly shewed it was the least of their Thoughts we should have a foot of Ground for our share on that side for you may very well remember that when our Army was afterward actually Embarqu'd for that Enterprize in which in all probability had he done his part they had succeeded yet in that critical Moment wherein he should have acted according to the Lesson given him he did upon some frivolous Pretences neglect the same and so frustrated that Expedition which obliged our Forces with no small Confusion to return back and Land without attempting any thing It 's most certain My Lord and by their Minutes it doth appear that they had concerted before hand that in case they met with any powerful Resistance by Land that then their Auxiliary Squadron at Sea should act in earnest with us and vigorously second us in humbling the Enemy but if they made any considerable Conquest in the Dutch Territories which according as they had laid their Measures they supposed they could not fail of then they were to observe the Cautions since practised by them for that their Interest required no further then that we should with as much Damage to our selves as might be without Advantage to the Hollanders divert and debilitate their Force but to suffer us to be absolute Masters of the Seas or of but one Maritine place on the Belgick Shoar was too great an Error in Pollicy for them to commit but in case there were an appearance that our Fleet notwithstanding their base Prevarications should master that of the Dutch and that at the same time their Armies by Land made progress in the Conquest they thought themselves sure of that then they should by their Emissaries both in our Court and Countrey sow Jealousies but more especially to propagate a strong Suspition of the Duke's having embraced the Roman Religion which they were sure would work the same if not a greater Effect
then the publick certain Knowledge of it could do for it would cause such Factions and Divisions therein and such an Aversion to that Prince that he should be forced to yield up his Command into other hands and to alienate them from the Quarrel that it would most effectually hinder the English Success from passing the Bounds they intended them and hence would arise such a Disreputation to the King and such a Dissatisfaction in the People in general as should conjure up such devilish Factions as with all the Art he had he should never be able to lay quiet enough to leave him at liberty to act any thing considerable against the French Interest in case he should attempt that way to regain his Subjects Confidence and Esteem and consequently would deter him from the very Thoughts of disobliging such a Friend and quitting such Alliance of so near so present and of so potent a Protector as the French King had made himself pass with our deluded Prince against the so much dreaded Practices of the Republicans which those Emissaries still took care tho' covertly to represent in the frightfulest Colours their most Romantick Inventions could supply them and so with my humblest Respects to your Lordship Concludes My Lord Your Lordships most humble Servant Paris March 31. 1678. LETTER XXVIII Of the Success of the French Arms against the United Provinces in the Year 1672. Their further Resolves to Elude us and their Wheedles to induce the Amsterdamers to yield My Lord THE States being at length roused up out of their sleepy Security and beginning to dread that notwithstanding all the French Wheedles and Delusions those vast Preparations by Land and the lasie Movements of their Armies boded no good to them did by their Embassador at Paris who was a Son of Hugo Grotius offer the French King all the Satisfaction imaginable But that haughty Monarch had concerted his Measures so well and thought himself now so sure of his Game that all their Offers were laughed at Your Lordship knows well enough what a bustle was made in England by Summoning of the East India Company to give an account of the Insults of the Dutch upon their Factories since the Peace at Breda who answered and gave it under their Hands that they knew of none and such other stuff as that was yet the French King did not think fit to trouble his Brains with any such Pretensions but his chief Motive to undertake this War was that that State did eclipse his Glory and must be humbled c. And accordingly gave his Armies Orders to enter the Dutch Territories I need not recite to your Lordship the Success he met with in his Enterprize and how like a Torrent he carried all before him how Rhinburg Dossery Deudekâ—m Rees Wesel Emerick Doesburg Turesume Nimeguen Swoll Daventer Grave Arnheim Skinenschon Creveceer fell quickly into his hands and Coventer to the Bishop of Munster his Confederate and the greedy Monsieur now began with an amorous Eye to look upon Amsterdam which he did not question but to be speedily Master of and it was the least of his Intension to allow our King any Share or Part of the Repartition before concerted on between them And tho' it were privately suggested unto him by a grave Minister that attended him that if he proceeded any further he doubted his Conduct would be contrary to his Interest as tending how much soever he doted on their friendship to alienate the King of England's Affections from them by degrees and convert the Confidence he had in their Sincerity into utmost Detestation especially the main Charms being by the Death of his principal Charmeress his late lovely and beloved Sister in a manner dissolved and tho' he should be over-awed by other Considerations as to smother his Resentments yet it would so loudly awaken the Old Aversion of our Nation against them that far from being able to continue much longer in League with them it would be impossible for him during such a Juncture and under such Provocations to contain his irritated Subjects within the Bounds of a stupid Neutrality or restrain their Fury from recoiling upon himself and the Royal Family any other way then by letting of them loose upon the French and suffering of them to wreak their Revenge and long curbed Inclination in an open and vigorous War on their old Adversaries to oblige them to regorge those delicate Morsels of which they had so perfidiously and unfairly defrauded them of their stipulated Share whilst their Allies and Confederates Yet My Lord Excess of Prosperity had so blinded the French King that like the Emperour Charles V. of Austria when he had taken Francis the first then King of France Prisoner at the Battle of Pavia he fancied they had all the World now in a String and had partly already provided and partly concerted such excellent Salves against all Inconveniencies of that kind that as secure against all Contingencies or the jadish Tricks of Fortune whom they imagined to be now fastned with too strong and well-contrived-harness to their triumphant Chariot to kick against her Drivers much less break her Rains they thought they might incontrouledly play what Tricks they would with the English tho' to flatter us with the hopes of our Repartition would be necessary yet for a time as it would be easie after the Reduction of Amsterdam and the entire Conquest of those Countreys both by specious Arguments to justifie against our precarious Plea their intended retention of the whole to themselves and to back their Usurpations by force when once in Possession As did the Lion in the Fable to the Beasts who on the plausible Condition of being allowed an equitable Share had entred into a Confederacy of hunting with his Brutish Majesty but he when all was done making himself to be Judge and Sharer had upon Alamode Pretences the Brutish Conscience to take and by force to keep all from them And accordingly the French when they found that on their side Victory advanced not on Tortoise Claws but Eagles Wings and saw themselves before either Neighbours or Allies were aware Masters of the best part of the Territories of that distressed State and with their Swords in their Hands point almost to the Vitals of it As they were most surprisingly active in taking all they could for themselves most liberal in allotting our Auxiliaries in their Armies their full share in the Fatigues of the War most false to the Faith of our mutual League by declining in their turn to second those Advances we were ready to make towards the like Success and in fine most perfidiously busie in casting Rubs in our way as I have before hinted to your Lordship to balk and in planting those Lights to misguide and shipwrack our Designs So by their Conduct as well as Minutes it did appear that they intended not to stop there but that after those stupendious Progresses that favoured their Beginnings It was resolved by them
to push on their Conquest to the utmost without demurring upon any Points or Scruples relating to us even into those Parts belonging to our Repartition and especially to seize on Amsterdam it self if possible before we could reflect on and much less oppose so sudden an Exploit which Capture alone they not without Reason thought would be succeeded with a voluntary Cession of all the remaining Places and Provinces and with the Accession of the most part of the Fleets Merchants and Colonies of that potent Republick who would not fail to conceive partly for fear of losing otherwise their whole Proprieties in the Moneys and Effects leâ—t by them in that great Magazine of both Hemisphears and partly to enjoy the pretended Liberties and Immunities mighty Priviledges and other prodigious Advantages with which their Agents contrary to their League withus had already privately tempted and had Instructions further to allure those industrious and thriving People with to come over perfectly to them and decline us Against whom their Emissaries imployed so many Arts to exasperate those People That tho' both Enemies and the French much more formidable then we to what by them and all free-born People was most Prizable viz. Liberty Property and Religion yet the English was at that time the more hated name of the two to their depraved Apprehension And as for our King they reckoned him so enchanted with the Opinion both of the Necessity and Integrity of their Friendship to him and so intent in that confidence on his beloved Pleasures with another She-Magitian of theirs newly sent him for that purpose tempered with the most intoxicating Venom known to Female Arts that they never thought he could have any sense at liberty to mind what they did and therefore knowing on the other side there could arrive no disturbance time enough from the Empire to spoile their Game it thundring from thence yet but a far off they were moving with all greediness their Harpy-Talons to seize on t his important Prey And had without all doubt attained their purpose in the strange and pannick Terror that at that time seemed to disable the Hands and lock up the Senses of the otherwise couragious and politick Inhabitants of that famous Emporium had not Divine Providence just in that Moment by two most unlikely Accidents but yet most effectual Expedients interposed between them and Destruction of which I may give your Lordship some hints in my next who am in the mean time My Lord Your Honours most humble Servant Paris Apr. 29. 1678. N. S. LETTER XXIX Of the Massacring the De Wits the Revolution in Holland and the Restitution of the Prince of Orange to all the Authority of his Ancestors with Offers made him by the French King of the Soveraignty of the United Provinces and his Rejection of them My Lord. IN my last to your Lordship I gave you some account of the Progress of the French Army in their Conquest of the United Provinces the Resolutions they had taken both to elude the Crown of England of receiving any Benefit by the War to push on their own Conquests and Wheedles to induce the City of Amsterdam to yield to them And I have more over hinted to your Lordship that there fell out two unexpected Accidents at that time which put a full stop to their Arms The first whereof I shall briefly run over to your Lordship For while the French Armies were ready to seize that important Place and that every individual Person was in that Consternation that they only thought of saving their own Families without otherwise concerning themselves about the Interest of their Countrey nay and that without staying for the French King 's sending a Summons for the Town to yield a Council was held in the City whether they should not go out to meet him to desire he would be pleased to take it into his Protection as well as all the Inhabitants thereof there was very great Danger of their coming to this Resolution when the Divine Providence wonderfully appeared by inspiring a couragious Citizen tho' till then no very remarkable one neither whose Name and perhaps your Lordship ne'er heard it before was Offe and ought certainly to be consecrated to Posterity so as never to be left out of the Annals of Time and who was immediately seconded by another called Hassenaer to stand up alone in the dreadful Gap and with a Voice like a Trumpet to awaken his dispirited Country-men out of the Lethargy of black Despondency with which the cowardly Tyrant Fear had bound up both their Limbs and Intellectuals and to excite them as the poor Geese formerly did the drowsy Romans at least to make some Defence for that Capital and Capitâ—l of the Batavian Commonwealth and not rashly to deliver up that great Palladium viz. The vast Bank of Riches therein on which seemed to depend the state of Europe into the Hand of a Prince who wanted only Manacles from thence to enfetter her and whose Courage to attack said the same Citizen and I have heard the French-men themselves mention his Name with many Elogiums depended solely on the Fears which the Artifices of his treacherous Correspondents within their Walls more then the Noise of his Armies had raised among them and consequently on the least shew of Unity and Resolution among them would sink with their Cause nay continued he rather then fall into the Hands of him who however his Emissaries here have represented him slily to the contrary will assuredly prove a merciless Tyrant unto us let us call in the Sea it self whom we shall find a much more merciful Element to our assistance And this my Lord being seconded by the Dutch Mob now astonished and confounded with the loss of their Country by Land and opposed by two the most potent Kings in the World by Sea they in a Rage assassinated the two De Wits as the Betrayers of their Country and Causers of that same Calamity and then deposed the States who they looked upon to be of the Lovestein or De Wits Faction and then restored the Prince of Orange now at Age to the hereditary Authority and Command of his Ancestors which sudden and violent Proceedings did more then stun the French King but after a little recovery and finding that his Friends in Amsterdam and other places yet unconquered were dispossest of all Authority and that now the Prince of Orange managed all the Affairs of the State with Pensionary Fagel he made an Essay to catch the Prince in a Net he with his Council had finely spun for him by proposing to make him Soveraign of the United Provinces under his and his Brother of England's Protection I never could learn who it was they employed to the Prince upon this occasion and what Arguments they induced to gain his Consent tho' they may be easily guest at they being never entred into their Cabinet Minutes and perhaps it was because they met with such a Success upon the
Dominions that were Romdâ—-Catholicks and especially Frenchmen would wound his Reâ—â—tation very deep and quite alienate the Nations Affections from him and be a confession of all the Rumors which had been seatter'd abroad of a private League made between him and France for oppressing both the Liberty and Religion of his Country And besides the King had Forces enough of his own and to spare for the resisting of all the Efforts of Holland That his Fleet alone was able to stop them and that let it be as it would his Land Army could not fail of being Conquerors over them being both much more numerous and withal better disciplin'd had entirely fixed him in the said Resolution I do not question but this Court will do the Earl all the Disservice they can for spoiling so brave an opportunity of their getting â—ooting with their Troops in England however he has served his Country and deserves well of it whatever his Fate may be I am My Lord Yours in all humble Observance Paris Nov. 2. 1688. N. S. LETTER XLIX Of Mr. Skelton's Negotiations in France with the Reasons of his being recoeli'd and committed Prisoner to the Tower of London My Lord I Cannot conceive but they are as much in the dark with you about Mr. Skelton's Imprisonment in the Tower upon his arrival in England as they are concern'd for it here I have already given your Lordship an account of some of his Negotiations both in Holland and at this Court and with your Honour's leave shall endeavour a little further to unriddle this Mystery of his Imprisonment When all the Arguments of this Court used by Monsieur Bonrepos to induce the King to admit of some French Troops into his Country under pretence of assisting him against the Prince of Orange were obviated by my Lord S 's Remonstrances and Assiduities you cannot conceive the concernedness that appeared here at the grand Disappointment Mr. Skelton was almost oppress'd with Enquirers into the reason of such a Procedure not knowing well then from what Quiver the Arrow was taken that shot down the Goliah of all their Hopes of once nestling in England who examin'd interrogated him and almost laid it to his charge that their Advice was not follow'd But having at length found it to be otherwise they resolved to put him upon another Expedient mention'd first by himself to serve his Master as they said tho' nothing is more certain than that it is their own Interest they design'd mainly thereby For one day after Monsieur de Croissy had prest him hard still to sollicite his Master to accept of the Troops and Ships offered him by France and that Mr. Skelton answer'd That it was in vain he having Orders to meddle no further in that matter and therefore durst not move in it He also added That yet he was of Opinion that if his most Christian Majesty would order his Ambassador to acquaint the States-general what share he took in the Affairs of the King his Master and to threaten to attack them in case they undertook any thing against him he did believe that would quickly put a stop to the intended Invasion and spoil the Measures the Prince of Orange had concerted thereupon without giving the English occasion to complain their King had called in Foreigners into their Country That this would be an effectual means to keep part of the King's Enemies on this side the Sea and they might have leisure enough to break off the Cabals which the other formed at home against him This Discourse made Monsieur de Croissy hasten to acquaint the King with it who liked it so well that he immediately dispatched away a Courier to Monsieur the Count d'Avaux his Ambassador at the Hague with Orders to declare to the United Provinces That they could not attack the King of England who was so intimate a Confederate with him but that he must be obliged to succour him with all the Assistance he could The States having paused a little for an Answer to this Memorial and presently upon it being encounter'd with another from the Marquess de Albeville the English Ambassador there they answered the latter They were long since convinced of the League between the two Kings That they had armed in Imitation of other Princes c. which being interpreted here that the States were resolved to go on with the Invasion It raised the Expectations of this Court that the tender of their Troops would be still accepted of by the King But the vigilance and sagacity of my Lord S disjointed also this Project and ended in the Recalling and Imprisonment of Mr. Skelton for moving in an Affair for which he had no Orders And this also my Lord has stopped Verace the Genevese whom I have formerly mentioned to your Lordship who is come to Paris from proceeding on his Journey for London as supposing it to no purpose to give such Informations as would not be regarded and he is now I hear about returning back to his own Country I hope things are well with your Lordship in these times of difficulty had it been otherwise I do suppose I should have heard it that I might have stopped my Intelligence and that all may continue to be well with you is the unfeigned Desire of My Lord Your Lordships most obedient Servant Paris Nov. 8. 1688. N. S. LETTER L. Of the Prince of Orange's landing in England and Success with King James's Speech to his Chief Officers My Lord THo' the French Arms this year have had mighty success on the Rhine yet the landing of the Prince of Orange in England without any opposition and the success he has met with since his arrival together with the desection of some Horse to him under my Lord Cornbury tho' they say here but a very small number has damped all their Rejoycings And indeed if we may judge of their Hearts by their Looks we may see plainly that they have given over not only their own Game on that side of the Water for lost but that they look upon that of the Kings so too almost beyond all hopes of recovery but yet that they may make some semblance of Zeal still for his Service their Creatures have advised him to call together his chief Officers and to tell them That he had given Orders for the calling together of a Free Parliament as soon as a more setled time would give him room to hope for such That he had resolved to provide for the Security of the Religion Liberties and Privileges of his Subjects as far as they themselves could desire or wish for Could there any more he expected from him he was ready to grant it but desired if after all this there was any one dissatisfied that they might declare it That he was ready to give unto such as thought not fit to tarry with him Pasports to go to the Prince of Orange and that he would freely pardon them their shameful Treason This Speech and the effects