of the Ministers than the Peoples The Dutch believ'd it at first intended only against De Witt 's Faction in favour of the Prince of Orange and in England some laid it to the Corruption of Ministers by the Money of France and some that pretended to think deeper laid it to deeper Designs The Lord Clifford's violence in beginning it gave it an ill air in general and the disuse of Parliaments a cruel maim in the chief sinews of War The Subsidies from France bore no proportion to the charge of our Fleets and our Strength at Sea seem'd rather lessen'd than increas'd by the conjunction of theirs Our Seamen fought without heart and were0 more afraid of their Friends than their Enemies and our Discontents were so great at Land that the Assembling of our Militia to defend our Coasts was thought as dangerous as an Invasion But that which most press'd His Majesty to the thoughts of a Peace was the resolution of Spain to declare the War with England as they had done already with France in favour of Holland unless the Peace were suddenly made which would have been such a blow to our Trade as could not easily have been fenc'd and lost us that of the Mediterranean as the Dutch War had done that of the Northern Seas So as the necessity of this conjuncture was only kept off by the Honour of our Alliance with France However that Crown being not able to furnish Supplies enough to carry on the War without a Parliament could not oppose the calling one upon this occasion When the Parliament met tho' they seem'd willing to give the King Money yet it was to make the Peace with Holland and not to carry on the War And upon His Majesty's demanding their Advice they gave it unanimously That the Peace should be made There were too many Parties engag'd in this Quarrel to think of a General Peace tho' a Treaty to that purpose had been set on foot an Cologn under the Mediation of the Swedes between the Ministers of the Emperor Spain Holland and some Princes of the Empire on the one part and His Majesty and France on the other but without any the least appearance of success For tho' all the Confederates had a mind to the Peace between England and Holland yet none of them desir'd it with France This made both the Dutch and the Spaniards set on foot all the engins they could to engage His Majesty in some Treaty of a separate Peace to which the necessity of His Affairs the humour of his People and the instances of his Parliament at last determin'd him towards the end of the year 1673. Upon the first Meeting of the Parliament the Duke of Buckingham to ingratiate himself with the House of Commons whose ill humour began to appear against those they esteem'd the chief Authors of the War had desir'd leave of that House that he might be heard there in his own defence upon that subject In his Speech among many endeavours to throw the odium of the War from himself upon the Lord Arlington he desir'd that Lord might be ask'd who was the Author of the Triple-Alliance As if he understood himself to be so The Lord Arlington coming afterwards upon the like desire into the same House of Commons and answering some parts of the Duke's Speech when he came to that Particular He told them he could easily answer that Question of the Duke's by telling them That the Author of that Alliance was Sir William Temple This I suppose gave the occasion for Reflections upon what had pass'd in the course of my former Ambassies in Holland and at Aix and His Majesty and his Ministers the resolution to send for me out of my private retreat where I had passed two years as I intended to do the rest of my Life and to engage me in going over into Holland to make the separate Peace with that State Upon the 2d of February 1671 4. His Majesty receiv'd the certain Advice of the States having passed a resolution That the Charges and Dignities possessed by the Prince of Orange and his Ancestors should become Hereditary to his Children And at the same time he also receiv'd a Letter from the States with the desire of Pasports for the Ambassadors whom they were resolv'd to send to His Majesty with Instructions and Powers to treat and conclude a Peace and in the mean time they offer'd a suspension of Arms. This offer coming upon the neck of the Parliaments advice to His Majesty to enter into Treaty with the Spanish Ambassador upon the Propositions he had advanced and which the King had order'd to be sent to the Parliament It was not believ'd by the Ministers that a Treaty could be refus'd without drawing too much odium upon themselves and reflection upon the Government On th' other side it was suspected what Practices might be set on foot by Dutch Ambassadors upon the general discontent reigning against the present War Therefore that very afternoon a resolution was taken at the private Juncto to send rather than to receive an Ambassy upon this subject and that I should be the Person imploy'd Two Gentlemen were sent to my House within half an hour of one another from the Earl of Danby then Lord Treasurer and the Earl of Arlington first Secretary of State to order my attendance upon His Majesty My Lord Arlington told me he would not pretend the merit of having nam'd me upon this occasion nor could he well tell whether the King or Lord Treasurer did it first but that the whole Committee had joyn'd in it and concluded That since the Peace was to be made there was no other Person to be thought of for it And accordingly the King gave me his Commands with many expressions of kindness and confidence to prepare for my Journey and the Secretary to draw up my Instructions I told the King I would obey him and with a great deal of pleasure to see His Majesty returning to the Measures upon which I had formerly serv'd him but that I might do it the better I begg'd of him that I might go over without the Character of Ambassador which would delay or embarras me with preparations of Equipage and with Ceremonies there that were uncessary to so sudden a dispatch His Majesty thought what I said very pertinent and so order'd that I should go only as Plenipotentiary but that I should have in all kinds the appointment of Ambassador and that I should take upon me the Character too when the Peace was concluded Within three days I was ready and the morning my Dispatches were so too the Marquess of Frezno Spanish Ambassador sent my Lord Arlington word while I was with him that he had receiv'd full power from the States to Treat and Conclude a Peace and was ready to enter upon it whenever His Majesty pleased My Lord Arlington surpriz'd was at first of opinion the King should go on his own way and I my Journy and give
to my Father upon this Subject he was so violent against my charging my self with this Ambassy that I could not find any temper to satisfie him and upon it was forc'd to make my excuses to the King When I did so His Majesty was pleas'd to assure me he did not at all take it ill of me and that on the contrary he intended me a better Employment That he was at present engag'd for the Secretary's Place upon my Lord Arlington's removal to Chamberlain but that he resolv'd the next removal should be to make room for me This I told my Lord Arlington who presently said That he believ'd I could not refuse the Spanish Ambassay but upon design of the Secretary's Place and since I desir'd it and the King fell into it of himself he would play the easiest Part in it that he could He was indeed agreed with Sir Joseph Williamson for 6000 l. and the King had consented that he should enter upon it at his return from Cologn which was every day expected but yet he made such a difference between the Persons that he would find some way to avoid it in case I would lay down the 6000 l. I assur'd his Lordship I had no such design nor such a Sum of Money to lay down while my Father enjoy'd the Estate of the Family That if I had I should be very unwilling to pursue it so far as to give his Lordship any strain in a matter already promis'd concluded therefore desir'd him to think no further of it But he was not of opinion I could stick at any thing but the Money and acquainted Mr. Montague and Mr. Sidney who were Friends to us both with this transaction and set them upon me to bring it to an issue before the other came over they both endeavoured it with great instances and Mr. Montague was so kind as to offer to lend me the Money but I was positive in refusing it yet at the same time I told my Lord Arlington That not to seem humorous in declining the offers he had made me from the King or from himself I was content they should both know That if his Majesty had occasion to send an Ambassy into Holland upon the Peace I would very willingly seave him there where I knew the Scene so well So that matter slept for the present In the mean while France had thought fit to accept and approve the King's offer of Mediation That of Sweden being enden by the Assembly at Cologns breaking up in expostulations and quarrels upon the Emperor's seizing the person of Prince William of Furstenburgh a subject of the Empire but an instrument of France as his Brother the Bishop of Strasburgh had been in all the late designs and invasions of that Crown upon their Neighbours The King told me That being resolv'd to offer his Mediation to all the Confederates as he had done already to France and finding I had no mind to engage in either of those imployments which had of late been offer'd me He was resolv'd to send me Ambassador Extraordinary into Holland to offer His Mediation there as the Scene of the Confederates Common Councils and by their means to endeavour the acceptance of it by the rest of the Princes concern'd in the War That I knew the Place and Persons better than any Man and could do him more Service both in this and continuing all good correspondency between Him and the States which He was resolv'd to preserve That I should have the Character of Ambassador Extraoadinary and the same allowance I should have had in Spain Upon this offer I made no demur but immediately accepted it and so my Ambassy was declared in May 1674. But to make way for my entring upon this great Scene it will be necessaay to deduce in short the course of Affairs abroad from the first Period of the present War to this second of His Majesty's separate Peace with Holland and the several Dispositions among the Parties that were likely to facilitate or to cross the design of the King 's intended Mediation No Clap of Thunder in a fair frosty Day could more astonish the World than our Declaration of War against Holland in 1672. first by matter of Fact in falling upon their Smyrna Fleet and in consequence of that however it fail'd by a formal Declaration in which we gave Reasons for our Quarrel while France contented themselves to give no other for their part of it than only the Glory of that King The Dutch could never be possest with a belief that we were in earnest till the blow was given but thought our unkindness and expostulations of late would end at last either in demands of Money or the Prince of Orange's Restitution to the Authority of his Ancestors The Princes concern'd in their Safety could not believe that after having sav'd Flanders out of the hands of France we would suffer Holland to fall into the same Danger and my Lord Arlington told me at that time that the Court of France did not believe it themselves till the Blow was struck in the Attack of the Smyrna Fleet. But then they immediately set out their Declaration and began their Invasion This surprize made way for their prodigious successes The Dutch had made no provision for their Defence either at Home or Abroad and the Empire Spain and Sweden stood at a gaze upon the opening of the War not knowing upon what Concerts between us and France it was begun nor how far we would suffer it to go on upon the French Conquests Besides the Animosities of the Parties in Holland long express'd under their new Constitution and de Witt 's Ministry began to flame again upon this misfortune of their State The Prince's Friends talk'd loud and boldly that there was no way to satisfy England but restoring the Prince and that the Baseness and Cowardice of their Troops were the effects of turning out all Officers of Worth and Bravery for their inclinations to the Prince and mean Fellows brought in for no other desert than their Enmity declar'd to the House of Orange Upon this all Men expected a sudden Change the States were in disorder and irresolute what to do the Troops were without a General and which is worse without heart and tho De Ruyter by admirable Conduct kept the Infection of these Evils out of his Fleet which was our part to deal with yet Faction Distrust Sedition and Distraction made such entrances upon the State and the Army when the French Troops first invaded them that of all the Towns and Fortresses on the German-side held impregnable in all their former Wars not one besides Mastricht made any shew of Resistance and the French became immediately Masters of all the In-land Parts of the Provinces in as little time as Travellers usually employ to see and consider them Mastricht was taken after a short Siege as Skinsconce by the help of an extreme dry Season that made Rivers fordable where they
the bare and common Offices of this Mediation in the Place and Forms of a Treaty and the Austrians held off from the Progress of it as well as the Northern Allies and as they had all hitherto done it would certainly follow that the French and Dutch would fall into private Negotiations and by what I could observe on both sides were like to adjust them in a very little time and leave them ready to clap up a Peace in two Days when the Dutch should grow more impatient of the Slowness or Unsincereness of their Allies Proceedings in the General Treaty or whenever the violent Humour of the People should force the Prince to fall into the same Opinion with the States upon this Matter This I esteem'd my self oblig'd to say that His Majesty might want no Lights that were necessary upon so nice and yet so dangerous a Conjuncture I had His Majesty's Answer in a long Letter of his own Hand complaining much of the Confederate Ministers in England caballing with Parliament-Men and raising all Mens Spirits as high against the Peace as they could and that they had done it to such a Degree as made it very difficult for him to make any Steps with France towards a General Peace unless the Dutch Ambassador would first put in a Memorial pressing His Majesty from the States to do it and declaring That without it they saw Flanders would be lost From Secretary Williamson I had no other Answer material upon all the Pensioner's Discourses nor my own Opinion upon the present Conjuncture but that His Majesty and the Lords of the Foreign Committee wondred I should think the French were so ready for a Separate Peace if the Dutch should fall into those Thoughts and that they did not remember they had ever received any thing from either Me or my Colleague at Nimeguen that look'd that way Upon which I told him the frequent Conversations I had had with Monsieur Colbert upon that Subject and the several Letters the Pensioner had shewn me from the Mareschal d'Estrades or his Instrument at Mastricht But to all this I received no Answer nor so much as Reflection tho' I thought this part was my duty as Ambassador at the Hague whether it were so as Mediator at Nimeguen or not The Prince and Pensioner were both willing the King should be comply'd with in the Government of Monsieur Van Beuningham's Paces and Language at London but press'd me to write once more to know His Majesties Opinion upon the Terms of a Peace or else he said it would be too late while the Season advanc'd towards the Campania Upon which I desir'd him to consider there might be three Weeks difference between his first telling his own thoughts to His Majesty and receiving His Majesty's Opinion upon it or sending first to know His Majesty's then returning his own and afterwards expecting the King 's again in case they differ'd besides I believ'd His Majesty would take it kinder and as a piece of more confidence if His Highness made no difficulty of explaining himself first The Prince paus'd a while and then said To shew the Confidence he desired to live in with His Majesty he would make no further difficulty of it tho' he might have many reasons to do it That if the King had a mind to make a sudden Peace he thought he must do it upon the foot of Aix la Chapelle which he would have the more ground for because it was a Peace he both made and warranted That for Exchanges he thought there should be no other propos'd upon it but only of Aeth and Charleroy for Aire and St. Omer which two last he thought imported a great deal more to France than the others unless they would declare that they intended to end this War with the prospect of beginning another by which they might get the rest of Flanders That this was all needed pass between France and Spain and for the Emperor and this State that the first having taken Philipsburgh from the French should raze it and the French having taken Mastricht from the Dutch should raze it too and so this whole War should pass Comme un tourbillon qui avoit cesse apres avoir menace beaucoup fait fort peu de remvements au monde I was surpriz'd to hear a Proposition so on the sudden so short and so decisive and that seem'd so easie towards a short close if His Majesty should fall into it and I esteem'd it a strain in the Prince of the most consummate knowledge in the whole present Scheme of Affairs and most decisive Judgment upon them that he could have given after the longest deliberation and maturest advice I observ'd however to His Highness upon it That he had not explained what was to become of Lorain and Burgundy and next Whether he believ'd it at all likely that France after such acquisitions made in this War and so many more expected should come to such Restitutions of what they possess'd without any equivalent The Prince replied Both were explain'd by the Terms he proposed of Aix la Chapelle That for Lorain France never pretended to keep it but from the last Duke only That Burgundy could not be parted with by Spain without the French restoring so many Towns for it in Flanders as would raise endless debates draw the Business into lengths and so leave it to the decision of another Campania For the second he said He had reason to doubt it and did not believe it would be done but by His Majesties vigorous interposition by that he was sure it would be easily effected but if His Majesty would not endeavour it the War must go on and God Almighty must decide it That all the Allies would be glad of it and believ'd that upon Don John's coming to the Head of the Spanish Affairs there would be a new World there That however one Town well defended or one Battel well fought might change the Scene That for himself he would confess the King could never do so kind a part as to bring him with some Honour out of this War and upon some moderate Terms but if he was content that France should make them insupportable they would venture All rather than receive them And for Holland's making it a separate Peace let the Pensioner or any others tell me what they would they should never do it while he was alive and was able to hinder it and he would say one thing more to me That he believed he was able to hinder it That if he died he knew it would be done next day but when that should happen this matter must be some others care and perhaps We in England were the most concern'd to look after it I promis'd to represent all he had said directly to His Majesty and so I did immediately and the Prince went next day to Dieren within six Leagues of Nimeguen where I promis'd to come to him as soon as I should be possess'd
have supported him in it or turned it only to ruin the Ministers by the King's Necessities 'T is certain no Vote could ever have passed more unhappily nor in such a Counter-Season nor more cross to the humour of the House which seem'd generally bent upon engaging His Majesty in the War and the Person that moved it was I believe himself as much of that mind as any of the rest but having since the loss of his Employment at Court ever acted a part of great animosity in opposition to the present Ministry in whose hands soever it was This private ill humour carried him contrary to his publick intentions as it did many more in the House who pretended to be very willing to supply the King upon occasion of the War or even of his Debts but that they would not do it during my Lord Treasures Ministry In short there was such fatal and mutual distrust both in the Court and Parliament as it was very hard to fall into any sound measures between them The King at least now saw he had lost his time of entring into the War if he had a mind to it and that he ought to have done it upon my Lord Duras's return and with the whole Confederacy And my Lord Essex told me I had been a Prophet in refusing to go into Holland to make that Alliance which had as I said pleased none at home or abroad and had now lost all our measures in Holland and turn'd theirs upon France But the turn that the King gave all this was That since the Dutch would have a Peace upon the French Terms and France offered money for his Consent to what he could not help he did not know why he should not get the money and thereupon ordered me to Treat upon it with the French Ambassador who had Orders to that purpose I would have excused my self but he said I could not help seeing him for he would be with me at my House by Seven next Morning He accordingly came and I told him very truly I had been ill in the night and could not enter into Business The Ambassador was much disappointed and pressed me all he could but I defended my self upon my illness till at length he left me without entring upon any thing When I got up I went immediately to Sheen writ to my Lord Treasurer by my Wife May the Tenth 1678. how much I was unsatisfied with being put upon such a Treaty with the French Ambassador that belonged not at all to my Post and which they knew I thought dishonorable to the King and thereupon I offered to resign to His Majesty both my Ambassy at Nimeguen and my Promise of Secretary of State 's Place to be disposed by his Majesty as he pleased My Lord Treasurer sent me word The King forced no man upon what he had no mind to but if I resolved this should be said to him I must do it my self or by some other for he would not make my Court so ill as to say it for me and so it rested and I continued at Sheen without stirring till the King sent for me In the mean time from the beginning of May the ill humor of the House of Commons began to break out by several Discourses and Votes against the Ministers and their Conduct which increased the ill opinion His Majesty had conceived of their intentions in pressing him to enter upon a War yet notwithstanding all this he had as I was told by a good hand conceived such an Indignation at one Article of the private Treaty proposed by Monsieur Barillon that he said he would never forget it while he lived and tho he said nothing to me of his Resentment yet he seemed at this time more resolved to enter into the War than I had ever before seen or thought him Monsieur Ruvigny the Son was dispatched into France to know the last intentions of that Court upon the terms of the Peace proposed by His Majesty but brought no Answer clear or positive so as His Majesty went on to compleat his Levies and to prepare for the War but May the eleventh the House of Commons passed another Negative upon the Debate of money which so offended the King that he Prorogued them for ten days believing in that time his Intentions to enter into the War would appear so clear as to satisfie the House and put them in better humour Monsieur Van Lewen distasted with these delays and the Counterpaces between King and Parliament begins to discourse boldly of the necessity his Masters found to make the Peace as they could since there was no relying upon any measures with England for carrying on the War and the Season was too far advanced to admit any longer delays Upon these Discourses from him His Majesty began to cool his Talk of a War and to say The Peace must be left to the Course which Holland had given it and tho' upon May the twenty third the Parliament met and seemed in much better temper than they parted yet news coming about the same time that Monsieur Beverning was sent by the States to the French Court at Gant to propose a Cessation of Arms for six Weeks in order to negotiate and agree the Terms of the Peace in that time the Affairs began now to be looked upon both in Court and Parliament as a thing concluded or at least as like to receive no other motion than what should be given it by Holland and France And indeed the dispositions were so inclined to it on both sides that the Terms were soon adjusted between them These Articles having been so publick I shall not trouble my self to insert them but only say they seemed so hard both to Spain and to the Northern Princes who had made great Conquests upon the Swedes that they all declared they would never accept them and when the French Ambassadors at Nimeguen desired Sir Lionel Jenkins to carry them to the Confederates he refused to do it or to have part in a Treaty or Conditions of Peace so different from what the King his Master had proposed and what both his Majesty and Holland had obliged themselves to pursue by their late Treaty at the Hague About this time France by a Conduct very surprizing having sent Monsieur la Feuillade to Messina with a common expectation of reinforcing the War in Sicily shewed the Intention was very different and of a sudden ordered all their Forces to abandon that Island with whom many Messineses returned fearing the Vengeance of the Spaniards to whom they were now exposed and this was the only important Service done that Crown by all his Majesty's Intentions or preparations to assist them for no man doubted that the abandoning of Sicily was wholly owing to the apprehensions in France of a War with England which they thought would give them but too much occasion for imploying of their Forces and indeed the eyes and hopes of all the Confederates were now turned so
State but he and Lord Arlington were soon satisfied to how good purpose he came over for the Prince who is the sincerest Man in the World hating all tricks and those that use them gave him no mark of the least confidence while he stayed and sent him away with a very plain one of the contrary by trusting another hand with all he writ of consequence into England before he went into the Field The truth is the Prince took this Journey of his to have been design'd by my Lord Arlington both out of spight to me and to give jealousies to the Confederates by the suspicion of something in agitation between the King and the Prince that I was not thought fit to be trusted with and indeed several of their Ministers at the Hague were apt to fall into such surmises But Monsieur de Lyra a Spanish Minister a person much credited in his own Court and much in the Prince's Confidence was ever firm in the belief of His Highnesses Honour and Constancy which he us'd to say his Master trusted to more than to any Treaties and so help'd to prevent all such impressions In the mean time all motions necessary towards forming the Congress at Nimeguen began to be made by the several Parties and gave appearances of the Ambassadors meeting suddenly there The great obstruction hitherto had been the point of Prince William of Furstenberg's Liberty which France had absolutely insisted on before they sent their Ambassadors and the Emperor had been induced to promise only upon conclusion of the Treaty But an Expedient was found out to salve the Honour of France upon this point rather than the Treaty should be hinder'd which was at that time thought necessary for their Affairs The Bishop of Strasburg made a formal request to the King of France That no Private Interests or Respects of his Brother might delay the Treaty of a Peace which was of so much consequence to all Christendom and this Request being at this time easily receiv'd and granted no further difficulty was made upon this point His Majesty thereupon invited all the Princes concern'd in the War to hasten away their Ministers to the place of Congress and acquainted them with his having order'd his own to repair immediately thither and having some Months before appointed the Lord Berkly then Ambassador at Paris Sir William Temple and Sir Lionel Jenkins His Ambassadors Mediators and Plenipotentiaries for the Treaty of Nimeguen Sir Lionel was accordingly dispatch'd away and arriv'd at the Hague towards the end of January 1676. and brought with him our instructions for that Ambassy and after some few days stay at the Hague went away for Nimeguen But the Expedition of the Pasports from and to all the Ministers of the several Parties having been for some time under my care and many of them come to my hands tho' others were entangled still in some difficulty or other we both concluded it necessary for me to continue at the Hague till this was dispatch'd whilst Sir Lionel should go upon the place of Congress and by the presence of a Mediator invite the rest to make more haste than many of them seem'd dispos'd to at this time The French Ambassadors were already come to Charleville where they stayed for their Pasports only to go on with their Journey and upon Sir Lionel's arrival at the Hague the Dutch Ambassadors came to us to acquaint us with the States Orders for their immediate repair to Nimeguen and for the Magistrates of that City which they now consider'd as a Neutral Town to receive all Orders from us the Mediators and particularly any we pleas'd to give about our reception upon our arrival there We told them His Majesty's thoughts were upon the successes of the Treaty and that nothing could more obstruct it than the Ceremonies which used to attend those Meetings and therefore he order'd us to introduce as much as we could the method of all the Ambassadors living there as much like private men as could consist with the Honour of their Characters and to this end that we should make no publick Entries and give thereby an example to those that came after us To avoid all punctilio's about the time of the several Parties dispatching the Passports it was agreed that all should be sent to the Hague from the several Courts and there should be put into my hands to the end that when I found my self possess'd I should make the distribution reciprocally to both Parties at the same time Those of France were early with me but short in some points of those from the Confederates the chief whereof was the omission of Liberty granted to the Ambassadors to dispatch Couriers to their Masters Courts upon Passports of the respective Ambassadors which was thought necessary for the progress of the Treaty Another was the omission of Passports for the Duke of Lorain's Ministers in the form usual and expected for whereas the Crown of France had always treated the former Dukes of Lorain with the Titles of Duke and Appellations of Brother their Passports now treated the new Duke only with Cousin and Prince Charles of Lorain the rest were minute differences or mistakes of words which are not worth the mention and were easily surmounted Of all these his Majesty had early notice and imploy'd his Offices towards France for some months without answer upon that of Lorain and with positive refusal of inserting the Clause for liberty of Pasports tho Monsieur Van Beuningham several times during this pause writ to the States That the King often assur'd him their Ambassador at London That there should be no difficulty in the business of Loroin About the beginning of February this year 1676. I receiv'd a Letter from Monsieur Pompone then Secretary for the Foreign Affairs in France to tell me That his Master having been acquainted from His Majesty with the difficulties occurr'd in forming the Congress had order'd him to let me know his Reasons upon them As to that of Couriers That he thought it not fit to have his Countries and Towns lie open to his Enemies Observations and Discoveries upon pretext of such Couriers frequent passage That the inconvenience would be the same to the Confederates and that he ask'd no more than he gave As to the Point of Lorain That his Master could not give Passports with the stile of Duke which carried that of Brother pretending that Dutchy belong'd to His Most Christian Majesty by the Treaty in 1662. between Him and the last Duke Not many days after I receiv'd notice from Secretary Williamson of the same Account having been given His Majesty by Monsieur Ruvigny with order to acquaint the States with it which I had not done upon Monsieur Pompone's Letter as not thinking fit to make any paces in these matters without Orders from His Majesty The States and all their Allies were very much surpris'd with this pretence of Lorain which France had never before advanc'd or so much as
less Mind to it now than they had at the End of the last Campania the new Ministers being less inclin'd to it than the old had been so that there was not one of the Allies that had any Mind to it besides the States That for his own Part he should be always in the same Mind with them and therefore very much desir'd it but did not know which way to go about it at least so as to compass it before the next Campania And if that once began they should be all at Sea again and should be forc'd to go just as the Wind should drive them That if His Majesty had a Mind to make it and would let him know freely the Conditions upon which either he desir'd or believ'd it might be made he would endeavour to concert it the best he could with His Majesty and that with all the Freedom and Sincereness in the World so it might be done with any Safety to his own Honour and the Interests of his Country All this he desir'd me to write directly to his Majesty from him as he knew I had not only Leave but Command to do upon any Occasion that I thought deserv'd it Two Days after I saw the Pensioner Fagel upon some common Affairs incident to my Ambassy at the Hague which had been left in the Hands of the Secretary of that Ambassay When these Discourses were past he ask'd me if I had brought them the Peace from Nimeguen I replyed That since he was so ignorant of what had pass'd there I would tell him That they had carried their Matters there En habiles gens That to bring their Allies to the Congress they had pretended to treat by the first of November whether they came or no. That after that Day past they had found fault with the Powers exhibited had offer'd at new made the Mediators course from one to t'other spun out two Months time in these Paces and thereby were gotten in sight both of Spanish and Imperial Ministers which I suppos'd was the Point they always intended and afterwards to keep Pace with them The Pensioner answer'd me with something in his Face both serious and sad That either I did not know them and the Course of their Affairs since I left the Hague or else I would not seem to know them That they not only desir'd the Peace from their Hearts but thought it absolutely necessary for them That they would certainly have enter'd into Treaty at the time if the French had either exhibited Powers in a Form to be at all admitted or would have oblig'd themselves to procure new ones Nay That they would not insist upon a Peace according to their Allies Pretensions nor could he answer that they would not make a separate one I said That was a matter of such Moment as I was sure they would think of it another Year before they did it With this he drew up his Chair closer to me and began a Discourse with more Heat and Earnestness than agreed well with the Posture of Health he was in saying first That they had thought enough of it already and with thinking much had begun to find it was without Remedy That they had great Obligations to Spain for entring the War to save their Country and thereby to save Flanders too but they had made them no ill Return by continuing it now three Years only for the Interests of Spain since there remain'd nothing of Consequence between France and them That they had further engag'd themselves to carry it on this following Year and so would have done with the Forces they did the last if their Allies had perform'd the Parts they had likewise engag'd But for Spain they took no Care but to let them see they were resolv'd to perish That they had sent their Fleet home from Sicily without the Payments agreed on and left them to be paid by the States at their Return That not a Penny could be got of a great Sum they ow'd them for Carriages and Provisions the last Summer and which was design'd for Magazines against next Year in Flanders without which their Armies could not march in that Country where they were sure to find none of the Spaniards providing That they had represented to Spain the necessity but of keeping so many Forces well regulated and paid as might defend their Towns while the Prince should take the Field with the Army of the State and hinder or divert any great Sieges there but not a Word of Answer That they had then desir'd them to receive so many of the Troops of the German Princes their Allies as might defend their most important Places but instead of this they drove them out of their Country That for the Emperor they had always told him That unless his Army would march into France or at least force them to a Battel by such Forces as might draw great Detachments of the French out of Flanders that Countrey would not be sav'd the last Summer or at least not the next unless his Army took up their Quartiers this Winter in Alsatia or on that side of the Rhine But at Vienna they consider'd Flanders as much as the Dutch do Hungary and because the Imperial Officers could better find their private Account by Winter-quarters in Germany than in a Country harass'd like Alsatia their Armies must repass the Rhine this Winter and thereby lose all the Advantages of the last Campania and Hopes of the next That for want of Magazines in Flanders two or three strong Frontiers would be lost there next Spring before the Imperialists could take the Field and if Cambray Valencines and Mons were taken all the rest would revolt considering the Miseries they had already suffer'd and must by a longer War That the Prince would not be able to prevent it or be soon enough in the Field to march for want of Provisions in Flanders the Country growing desolate by the unsettled Contributions or at least not with such an Army as to venture a Battel or raise a Siege while the Spanish Troops were so weak and the French would be so strong at a time when they had no Enemy to divert them upon the Rhine That the Prince's Friends could not suffer him to go into the Field only to see Towns lost under his Nose and perhaps all Flanders while He was expected to defend it and at the same time was rendred incapable of doing it by the Faults of the Spaniards who yet would not fail to reproach Him as well as his Enemies abroad and Ill-willers at home that would be glad of the Occasion In the mean time from France they could have whatever Conditions they pretended either by restoring Mastricht a Reglement of Commerce or any Advantages to the House of Orange and as to this last whatever the Prince himself would demand That to this Purpose they had every Week pressing Letters from Monsieur d'Estrades to make the Separate Peace and tho' he
France upon the exchange of Cambray Aire and St. Omer for Aeth Charleroy Ondenarde Conde and Bouchain That this Scheme was what his Majesty thought possible to be obtain'd of France tho' not what was to be wished I observ'd the Prince's Countenance to change when I nam'd Cambray and the rest of the Towns yet he heard me through the many nice Reasons of Sir J. W. upon the matter as of a double Frontier this would give to Flanders the safety whereof was the thing both His Majesty and the States were most concern'd in and many other ways of cutting the Feather After which the Prince said He believ'd Dinner was ready and we would talk of it after we had din'd and so went out but as he was near the Door he turn'd to me and said Tho' we should talk more of it after Dinner yet he would tell me now and in few words That he must rather die than make such a Peace After Dinner we went again into his Chamber where he began with telling me I had spoil'd his Dinner That he had not expected such a return of the Confidence he had begun towards His Majesty He observ'd the offer of Alliance came to me in a Letter of His Majesty's own hand but That about the Terms of a Peace from the Secretary only That it was in a Stile as if he thought him a Child or to be fed with Whips Cream That since all this had been before the Foreign Commitee he knew very well it had been with the French Ambassador too and that the Terms were his and a great deal worse than they could have directly from France He cast them up distinctly and what in plain Language they amounted to That Spain must part with all Burgundy Cambray Aire and St. Omer which were of the value of two other Provinces in the consequences of any War between France and Spain and all for the five Towns mention'd That in short all must be ventur'd since he was in and found no other way out I told the Prince that I hop'd he would send His Majesty his own thoughts upon it but that he would think a little more before he did it He said he would write to the King that Night but would not enter into the detail of the business which was not worth the pains but would leave it to me He desir'd me further to let His Majesty know that he had been very plain in what he had told me of his own thoughts upon this whole matter and had gone as low as he could with any regard to the safety of his Country and his Allies or his Honour That he doubted whether Spain would ever have consented to those very Terms but for these he knew they could not tho' they were sure to lose all Flanders by the War And for himself he could never propose it to them but if Flanders were left in that posture it could never be defended upon another Invasion neither by Holland nor England it self and he was so far of the Spaniard's mind That if Flanders must be lost it had better be so by a War than by a Peace That whenever that was Holland must fall into an absolute dependence upon France so that what His Majesty offer'd of an Alliance with them would be to no purpose for they would not be made the Stage of a War after the loss of Flanders and wherein they were sure no Alliance of His Majesty nor Forces neither could defend them He concluded That if His Majesty would help him out of this War with any Honour and Safety either upon kindness to him or consideration of what concernment his own Crowns were like to have in the issue of this Affair he would acknowledge and endeavour to deserve it as long as he liv'd if not the War must go on be the event what it would and for his own part He would rather Charge a Thousand Men with a Hundred nay tho' he were sure to die in the Charge than enter into any concert of a Peace upon these conditions I gave His Majesty an account of all that pass'd in this interview and return'd to my Post at Nimeguen The Allies had taken great Umbrage at my journey to the Hague as designed for Negotiating some separate Peace between France and Holland but the Prince and Pensioner seem'd careless to satisfie them and made that use only of it to let them know that no such thing was yet intended but that Holland would be forced to it at last if the Emperor and Spain fell not into those measures that they had propos'd to them both at Vienna and Madrid for the vigorous prosecution of the next Campania which had some effect at Vienna but little in Spain or Flanders as was felt in the beginning of the Spring At my return to Nimeguen I found that in my absence Count Kinkski was arriv'd who was a person of great parts of a sharp and quick apprehension but exact and scrupulous in his Conduct rigid in his Opinions never before vers'd in these sort of Imployments and thereby very punctilious This had ingag'd him in difficulties upon the Ceremony of Visits both with my Colleagues and the French upon his first arrival which lasted with these till the end of the Congress so as to hinder all Visits between them but I had the good Fortune to retrieve all ill correspondence that had happen'd between the Mediators and him I found likewise that a secret intelligence was grown between the French and Dutch Ambassadors which was manag'd by Monsieur Olivecrantz the second Swedish Ambassador and wholly apart from my Colleagues whose intervention had been only us'd when the matter was first agreed between those Parties That Monsieur Beverning drove on very violently towards a Peace and with little regard of his Allies and said he had order from the States De pousser l'affaire tant qu'il lui seroit possible That those Ambassadors had come to a sort of Agreement about the from and number of Powers which was That the Mediators should be desir'd to draw up a form of Preamble which should be common to all the Parties and contain nothing more but that such and such Princes out of a sincere desire of Peace had sent such and such Persons to Nimeguen which had been chose for the Place of Treaty by the intercession of the King of Great Brittain That the Mediators should likewise draw up an Obligatory Act to be sign'd by the several Ambassadors and put into their hands on the same day for the procuring new Powers within Sixty days after the date That the Titles in the new Powers should be inserted bona fide according to the usual Stile of the Chancellary of each Court and that an Act of Salvo should be sign'd by the several Ambassadors for no consequence to be drawn hereafter for the use or omission of any Titles in these Powers I found likewise that these Points had been agreed
the Service of the Allies Who took this Answer however for an ill Sign of that Prosecution which they hoped from His Majesty for the Relief of their Languishing Affairs The Hopes of those great Actions promised by the Imperialists this Summer on the Rhine began to Flat Their Troops finding no Subsistence in those Countries which had been wholly desolated by the French in the Beginning of the Year to prevent their March The Prince of Orange observing all these Circumstances and foreseeing no resource for the Interests of the Allies unless from his Majesty and that it was likely to prove an unactive Summer in Flanders the French resolving not to come to a Battel and he not able to form a Siege and oppose a French Army that should come to relieve it he sent Monsieur Bentinck over into England about the beginning of June to desire his Majesty's leave that he might make a Journey thither so soon as the Campania ended He received a civil Answer but with Wishes from the King That he would first think of making the Peace and rather defer his Journey till that were concluded About the middle of June my Son came over to me at Nimeguen and brought me Letters from my Lord Treasurer to signify his Majesty's Pleasure that I should come over and enter upon the Secretary of State 's Office which Mr. Conventry had offered his Majesty to lay down upon the payment often thousand Pounds That the King would pay half the Money and I must lay down the rest at present tho his Lordship did not doubt but the King would find the way of easing me in time of that too I writ immediately to my Lord Treasurer to make my Acknowledgment to his Majesty but at the same time my Excuses That I was not in a condition to lay down such a Sum my Father being still alive and keeping the Estate of the Family and desiring that the King's Intention might at least be respited till he saw how the present Treaty was like to determin In return of my Letters on the second of July Mr. Smith one of the King's Messengers being sent Express and making great diligence arrived at Nimeguen and brought me his Majesty's Commands to repair immediately over in a Yatcht which he had sent on purpose for me In obedience to this Command I left Nimeguen but without any Ceremony pretending only a sudden Journey into England but saying nothing of the Occasion further than to my nearest Friends At my Arrival the King asked me many Questions about my Journey about the Congress draping us for spending Him so much Money and doing nothing and about Sir Lionel asking me how I had bred him and how he passed among the Ambassadors there and other Pleasantries upon that Subject After a good deal of this kind of Conversation He told me I knew for what he had sent for me over and that 't was what he had long intended and I was not to thank him because he did not know any Body else to bring into that Place I told his Majesty that was too great a Compliment for me but was a very ill one to my Country and which I thought it did not deserve that I believed there were a great many in it fit for that or any other Place he had to give and I could name two in a breath that I would undertake should make better Secretaries of State than I. The King said Go get you gone to Sheen we shall have no good of you till you have been there and when you have rested your self come up again I never saw him in better humour nor ever knew a more agreeable Conversation when he was so and where he was pleased to be familiar great Quickness of Conception great Pleasantness of Wit with great Variety of Knowledg more Observation and truer Judgment of Men than one would have imagined by so careless and easy a manner as was natural to him in all he said or did From his own Temper he desired nothing but to be easy himself and that every Body else should be so and would have been glad to see the least of his Subjects pleased and to refuse no Man what he asked But this softness of temper made him apt to fall into the Perswasions of whoever had his kindness and confidence for the time how different soever from the Opinions he was of before and he was very easy to change hands when those he employed seemed to have engaged him in any Difficulties so as nothing looked steddy in the Conduct of his Affairs nor aimed at any certain end Yet sure no Prince had more Qualities to make him loved with a great many to make him esteemed and all without a grain of Pride or Vanity in his whole Constitution nor can he suffer Flattery in any kind growing uneasy upon the first Approaches of it and turning it off to something else But this humour has made him lose many great Occasions of Glory to himself and Greatness to his Crown which the Conjunctures of his Reign conspired to put into his Head and have made way for the aspiring Thoughts and Designs of a Neighbour Prince which would not have appeared or could not have succeeded in the World without the Applications and Arts imployed to manage this easy and inglorious Humour of the King 's I staid two days at Sheen in which time some of Secretary Coventry's Friends had prevailed with him not to part with his Place if he could help it unless the King would let him recommend the Person to succeed him who should pay all the Money he expected and which the King had charged himself with When I came to Town the King told me in his Closet all that had passed between Him and Mr. Coventry the day before upon this occasion That He did not understand what he meant nor what was at the bottom for he had first spoke to His Majesty about parting with his Place said his Health would not go through with it made the Price he Expected for it and concluded all before He had sent for me over That now he pretended he did not mean to quit it unless he might present one to succeed him and hoped he had not deserved His Majesty should turn him out But the King said upon it That under favour He was resolved to take him at his Word and so He had told him and left him to digest it as he could Upon this I represented to the King how old and true a Servant Mr. Coventry had been of his Father's and His how well he had served him in this Place how well he was able to do it still by the great credit he had in the House of Commons where the King 's great Business lay in the ill state of his Revenue how ill such a Treatment would agree with his Majesty's Nature and Customs and for my own part that it would be a great favour to me to respite this change till he
observing the remaining Paces of the General Peace by that of the North which was left to be made at the Mercy of France And though Denmark and Brandenburgh looked big and spoke high for a time after the Peace between the Empire and France pretending they would defend what they had conquered from the Swedes in Germany yet upon the march of the French Troops into the Brandenburgh Countrey both those Princes made what haste they could to finish their separate Treaties with France and upon certain sums of Money agreed on delivered up all they had gained in this War to the Crown of Sweden Thus Christendom was left for the present in a General Peace and France to pursue what they could gain upon their Neighbours by their Pretensions of Dependences and by the droit de bienseance which they pursu'd with such imperious Methods both against the Empire and the Spaniardt as render'd their Acquisitions after the Peace greater at least in consequence than what they had gained by the War since not only great Tracts of Country upon the score of Dependences but Strashurgh and Lutzenburgh fell as Sacrifices to their Ambition without any neighbouring Prince or States concerning themselves in their Relief But these Enterprises I leave to some others Observations Very soon after my Arrival at the Hague the King sent me Orders to provide for my return as soon as I could possibly be ready and bid me acquaint the Prince and the States That he had sent for me over to come into the Place of first Secretary of State in Mr. Coventry's room My Lord Treasurer writ to me to the same purpose and with more Esteem than I could pretend to deserve telling me among other things They were fallen into a cruel Disease and had need of so Able a Physician This put me in mind of a Story of Dr. Prujean the greatest of that Profession in our time and which I told my Friends that were with me when these Letters came A certain Lady came to the Doctor in great trouble about her Daughter Why what ails she Alas Doctor I cannot tell but she has lost her Humour her Looks her Stomach her Strength consumes every day so as we fear she cannot live Why do not you Marry her Alas Doctor that we would fain do and have offer'd her as good a Match as she could ever expect but she will not hear of marrying Is there no other do you think that she would be content to Marry Ah Doctor that is it that troubles us for there is a young Gentleman we doubt she loves that her Father and I can never consent to Why look you Madam replies the Doctor gravely being among all his Books in his Closet then the case is this Your Daughter would Marry one Man and you would have her Marry another in all my Books I find no Remedy for such a Disease as this I confess I esteemed the Case as desperate in a Politick as in a Natural Body and as little to be attempted by a Man who neither ever had his own Fortune at heart which such Conjunctures are only proper for nor ever could resolve upon any pusuits of it to go against either the true Interest or the Laws of his Countrey One of which is commonly endanger'd upon the fatal misfortune of such Divisions in a Kingdom I chose therefore to make my excuses both to the King and to my Lord Treasurer and desir'd leave to go to Florence and discharge my self of a promise I had made some years past of a Visit to the Great Duke the first time I had leisure from my Publick Imployments Instead of granting this Suit the King sent a Yatch for me towards the end of February 167 8. with Orders to come immediately away to enter upon the Secretary's Office about the same time with my Lord Sunderland who was brought into Sir Joseph Williamson's Place I obey'd His Majesty and acquainted the Prince and States with my Journey and the design of it according to his Command who made me Compliments upon both and would have had me believe that the Secretary of State was to make amends for the loss of the Ambassador But I told the Prince that tho I must go yet if I found the Scene what it appear'd to us at that distance I would not charge my self with that Imployment upon any terms that could be offer'd me We knew very well in Holland That both Houses of Parliament believed the Plot That the Clergy the City the Countrey in general did so too or at least pursu'd it as if they all believ'd it We knew the King and some of the Court believ'd nothing of it and yet thought not fit to own that Opinion And the Prince told me He had reason to be confident that the King was in his heart a Roman Catholick tho he durst not profess it For my own part I knew not what to believe of one side or t'other but thought it easie to presage from such contrary Winds and Tides such a Storm must rise as would tear the Ship in pieces whatever Hand were at the Helm At my arrival in England about the latter end of February I found the King had Dissolv'd a Parliament that had sat eighteen years and given great testimonies of Loyalty and compliance with His Majesty till they broke first into Heats upon the French Alliances and at last into Flames upon the business of the Plot I found a new Parliament was called and that to make way for a calmer Session the resolution had been taken at Court for the Duke's going over into Holland who enbarqu'd the day after my arrival at London The Elections of the ensuing Parliament were so eagerly pursu'd that all were in a manner engag'd before I came over and by the dispositions that appear'd in both Electors and Elected it was easie to presage in what temper the Houses were like to meet My Lord Shaftsbury my Lord Essex and my Lord Hallifax had struck up with the Duke of Monmouth resolving to make use of His Credit with the King and to support it by Theirs in the Parliament and tho the first had been as deep as any in the Councels of the Cabal while he was Chancellor yet all Three had now fallen in with the common Humour against the Court and the Ministry endeavouring to inflame the Discontents against both and agreed among themselves That none of them would come into Court unless they did it all together Which was observed like other common strains of Court-Friendships Sir William Coventry had the most Credit of any man in the House of Commons and I think the most deservedly not only for his great Abilities but for having been turn'd out of the Council and the Treasury to make way for my Lord Cliffora's Greatness and the Designs of the Cabal He had been ever since opposite to the French Alliances and bent upon engaging England in a War with that Crown and assistance
of the Confederates and was now extremely dissatisfied with the conclusion of the Peace and with the Ministry that he thought either assisted or at least might have prevented it and in these dispositions he was like to be follow'd by the best and soberest part of the House of Commons For my Lord Treasurer and Lord Chamberlain I found them two most admirable Emblems of the true and so much admir'd Felicity of Ministers of State The last notwithstanding the greatest skill of Court and the best turns of Wit in particular Conversation that I have known there and the great Figure he made in the First Part of these Memoirs was now grown out of all Credit and Confidence with the King the Duke and Prince of Orange and thereby forc'd to support himself by Intrigues with the persons most discontented against my Lord Treasurer's Ministry whose Greatness he so much envy'd and who was yet at this time in much worse condition than himself tho not so sensible of it for he had been very ill with the late Parliament upon account of Transactions with France which tho He had not approved yet He durst not defend Himself from the imputation for fear of exposing his Master He was hated by the French Ambassador for endeavouring as he thought to engage the King in a War with France He was in danger of being pursued by his Enemies next Parliament for having as they pretended made the Peace and endeavoured to stifle the Plot and yet I found within a Fortnight after I arrived that he sat very loose with the King his Master who told me several reasons of that change whereof one was his having brought the business of the Plot into the Parliament against his absolute Command and to compleat the happy and envied state of this Chief Minister the Dutchess of Portsmouth and Earl of Sunderland were joined with the Duke of Monmouth and Earl of Shaftsbury in the design of his ruin What a Game so embroyled and play'd on all sides with so much heat and passion was like to end in no man could tell But I that never had any thing so much at heart as the Union of my Countrey which I thought the only way to its greatness and felicity was very unwilling to have any part in the Divisions of it the deplorable effects whereof I had been too much acquainted with in the Stories of Athens and Rome as well as of England and France and for this reason tho I was very much pressed to enter upon the Secretary's Office immediately after my arrival yet I delay'd it by representing to His Majesty how necessary it was for him to have one of the Secretaries in the House of Commons where it had been usual to have them both and that consequently it was very unfit for me to enter upon that Office before I got into the House which was attempted and failed But how long this excuse lasted and how it was succeeded by many new and various accidents and how I was prevailed with by the King to have the Part I had afterwards in a new Constitution of Councel and how after almost two years unsuccessful endeavours at some Union or at least some allay of the heats and distempers between the King and His Parliaments I took the resolution of having no more to do with Affairs of State will be the Subject of a Third Part of these Memoirs FINIS In troth I think you love us as you do yours That a King of England who will be the MAN of People is the greatest King in the world but if he will be something more he is nothing at all And I will be the MAN of my people Birdlime never catches great Birds * Whence come you It answer'd From Marinnâ—n The Prince to whom do you belong The Parrot To a Portugez Prince What do you there I look after the Chickens The Prince laugh'd and said You look after the Chickens The Parrot answered Yes I and I know well enough how to do it With Blows That there are some wounds among you that will bleed still if there be not care taken of them What do you intend then Sirs to make us be torn in pieces by the Rabble * The Lilly shall Invade the Land of the Lion bearing wild Beasts in its Arms the Eagle shall move its Wings and the Son of Man shall come to his assistance from the South then there shall be great War throughout the World but after four Years Peace shall shine forth and the Son of Man be deliver'd by those from whom his ruin was expected 1. That for avoiding the Inconvenient that may happen by the great number of Coaches in the streets that are so narrow and the Corners so incommodious the Ambassadors Mediators propose Not to make any Visits tho' they be Visits of Ceremony with more than Two Pages and Four Lackeys to each Ambassador and to have but one Coach with two Horses and not to go to the Place of Conference or other publick places with more than one Page and two Lackeys to every Ambassador 2. That when Coaches meet in these narrow places where there is not room to pass by one another every one instead of contending for Place or precedency shall mind rather to make the passage easie to one another and stop the first if he have the first notice that the Pass is too strait and also give place to the other if it be more easily done on his side than on the other side 3. That no Lackey shall carry either sword staff or stick in the streets nor Pages any more than a little stick 4. That the Ambassador upon any Crime committed against the publick Peace by any of their Domesticks shall renounce all Protection of the said Domesticks and deliver them up into the hands of the Justice of the City desiring and authorizing them to proceed against them according to their ordinary rules 5. That in case any insult or quarrel should be made by the Domesticks of one Ambassador with those of another Ambassador or any other publick Minister the Ambassadors will deliver up such of their Domesticks into the hands of the Master of the Party offended to be punisht at his discretion That the Mediation was always on foot for to go on with its business Full Powers Like able Men. Their Strength and their Weakness And in this distress of their State by so long a War All means were first to be tried An incurable Wound As a Storm that has ceased after it had threatned much and made but little alterations in the World To push the business on as far as it is possible The Will of the King Whipt Cream And when one is at High Mass one is at it Had been wanting in respect to the King their Master Rascal I 'll set a mark on thee at least that I may hang thee afterwards Of a sound mind A sorry wight That he had still life for one half hour of Conversation The French Fools are dead An easie Governess Unseasonably Right of Decency
saw what was like to become of the Treaty or the War and therefore I begged of him that he would not force a good Secretary out and perhaps an ill one in against both their Wills but let Mr. Coventry keep it at least till he seemed more willing to part with it The King said well then He would let it alone for the present but did not doubt in a little time one or other of us would change our mind In the mean time the Design of my Journey was known my Lord Arlington and others still asking me when they should give me joy of it and many making Applications to me for Places in the Office which made the Court uneasier to me and increased my known Humour of loving the Countrey and being as much in it as I could However when I came to Court the King fell often into Conversation with me and often in his Closet alone or with none other present besides the Duke or my Lord Treasurer and often both The Subject of these Conversations were usually the Peace and the Prince of Orange's Journey into England The King always expressed a great desire for the First but not at all for the other till that was concluded He said his Parliament would never be quiet nor easy to Him while the War lasted abroad They had got it into their Heads to draw Him into it whether He would or no. That they pretended Publick Ends and Dangers from France and there might be Both meant by a great many honest Men among them but the Heats and Distempers of late had been raised by some factious Leaders who thought more of themselves than of any thing else had a mind to engage Him in a War and then leave Him in it unless they might have their Terms in removing and filling of Places and he was very loth to be so much at their Mercy as he should be if he were once engag'd in the War That besides he saw the longer it continued the worse it would be for the Confederates more of Flanders would be lost every day the Conduct of Spain must certainly ruin all in time and therefore he would fain have the Prince make the Peace for them if they would not do it for themselves That if He and the Prince could fall into the Terms of it he was sure it might be done And after several Discourses upon this Subject for near a Month his Majesty at last told me He had a great mind I should make a short turn to the Prince and try if I could perswade him to it and assure him That after it was agreed he should be the gladdest in the World to see him in England The Duke and my Lord Treasurer both press'd me upon the same Point but I told them at a long Conference upon it how often I had been employ'd upon this Errand to the Prince how unmovable I had found him and how sure I was to find him so still unless the King would consider of another Scheme for the Peace than had been yet propos'd to him and wherein he might reckon upon more Safety to Flanders as well as to his own Honour That I had spent all my Shot and was capable of saying no more to him than I had done in obedience to all the Instructions I had receiv'd That his Answers had been positive so that some of my good Friends at Court pretended they had been my own Thoughts rather than the Prince's That His Majesty would do well to try another Hand and he would the better know the Prince's Mind if his Answers were the same to both if not he would at least know how ill I had serv'd him The King said It was a thing of Confidence between Him and the Prince and must be so treated and he knew no Body he had besides to send I told him if he pleased I would name one He bid me and I said Mr. Hyde was idle ever since his return from Nimeguen had been entred into the Commission of the Mediators there staid with us a Fortnight or three Weeks might pretend to return thither to exercise the same Function in my absence since the Commission run to any two of the Number and might take the Prince of Orange's Camp in his way to Nimeguen perform the King's Commands to His Highness inform himself of his last Resolution upon the Subject of the Peace go on to Nimeguen without giving any jealousy to the Allies or without the noise that my going would make since Sir Lionel had wrote to Court and to Me That Monsieur Beverning had desir'd all Paces should stop there till my return which he heard would be sudden and that the King would send by me his own Plan of the Peace The Duke fell in first to the Proposal of Mr. Hyde's going and after some debate the King and my Lord Treasurer and that it should be as soon as was possible He was sent for accordingly and dispatch'd away in all Points as I had proposed He found the Prince at the Camp but unmovable in the Business of the Peace upon the Terms His Majesty had Thoughts of proceeding gave Account of all that passed in that Conference to the King and went straight away to Nimeguen and writ me word of his Conversation with the Prince and that he never saw such a Firmness in any Man I knew Mr. Hyde's going to reside at Nimeguen would be of great comfort and support to Sir Lionel who was in perpetual Agonies as his word was after he was left alone in that station having ever so much distrust of his own Judgment that tho he had the most great desire that could be to do well yet he many times could not resolve how to go about it and was often as much perplexed about the little Punctilio's of Visit and Ceremony that were left to busy that Ambassy as if greater Affairs had still attended it Besides he lay under the lash of Secretary Williamson who upon old Grudges between them at Colen never fail'd to lay hold of any occasion he could to censure his Conduct and expose it at the Foreign Committee where his Letters were read to His Majesty It happen'd about this time that the Spanish Ambassadors first appearing in Publick upon a new Commission to all Three gave immediate notice of it to the Imperialists who made their Visit upon it and were within two hours revisited by the Spaniards After which they sent their formal Notifications to all the other Ambassadors and to the Mediators in the first place Sir Lionel was in pain having Orders to pretend the first Rank of Respect before the Imperialists as well as other Ambassadors there and not to yield it if it came in competition He had likewise another Order which was that upon Matters in Ceremony doubtful and not admitting the delay of new Orders he should consult with the other Ambassadors especially French and Swedish who used to carry those Points the highest