most an end send thither one of the Clergy by reason that every one knows that persons of their Character have great credit there and in considerable esteem In England at such time as the Parliament were more powerful than they be at present Thither they sent the Marquiss De Rou'vigni who was of the Reformed Religion and their Delegate General at Court and was of the very same temper that all the other Ministers are and swaid by the same politick designs Into Holland they usually send some well-spoken Man who one would think would ruine his Master by promising from which the King never gets off but by standing to nothing who does what in him lies to insinuate himself into the favour of your Dutch Ladies either by play or a liberal entertainment and as they have a mighty influence upon their Husbands temper and mind they cast about to learn of them what they were not able to know from the Husband himself Now seeing they began to give no credit to him who resides there at present the King as himself confesseth in his destiny of Princes was foret to send him his Holy Spirit of France in all haste so that by this means he might be lookt upon as sincere and infallible in whatsoever he should say To the Courts of Germany they dispatch your Brawny Fellows who are able to bare Wine well thereby that they may be made fit Table Companions for the Prince whither their Commission sends them for at the time when the third Course comes up when the Wine begins to operate they speak divers things which they would not have divulged at another time As saith the Proverb In vino veritas Don't believe that France sends a Church-man to Rome and why Because they are all inferiour to the Pope and there is not the pittifullest Priest but is confident he shall be one day Cardinal as Soldiers are that they shall one day be Captains Thither is sent a Nogaret who bauls aloud and to the Popes Infallibility opposes the Power and Strength of his Master the King. Into other Courts where greediness of Money prevails over their own Interest there is not wanting presents and such a Prince there is who is betrayed even to his Pillow In fine All Weapons are convenient to this Policy of France provided they can but bring about their Design You see in all Courts Roman Catholick Officers and all for sooth for having fought Duels but retiring out of their Country is not their chief business that indeed is their pretence but they have other aims and good instructions and you see them after some time expir'd return into France to receive the reward of their employ who bring along with them information concerning the strength or weakness of the places from whence they come which in due season may be advantagious and useful to France yet what is most deplorable is the blindness of several Princes to intrust such like Men with Imployment even among Protestants Mounsieur Vauban the present chief Enginier of France followed this Trade particularly in Holland 't is confest we must say he serves his Master but it behoves other Princes to have a special care of him You are in the right you say true and it were to be wisht all other Potentates would do the same for the quiet of Europe Another Maxime of the Policy of France is that when any Prince or Princess is to be Married that may be for their turn he causes Marriages to be proposed and doth his utmost to place French Princesses in the Houses of Foreign Princes whom they never fail to teach their Lesson and tell them it is their Duty when time serves and before their departure to make them acknowledge how much they are obliged to the King and the means whereby they may render him their acknowledgments But yet it is of fresh date how the King of Portugal escaped him not but that the French King by his Ministers and Emissaries did what lay in hir power and to his comfort he neglected nothing Spain has been too hard for him at this time At present the Policy of France is set a work to match the Royal Prince of Poland no question with some Natural Daughter of the Kings since they have had the boldness to dare to present such an one to the Duke of Bavaria who values himself as much not to mention his Right to value himself more than the Prince of Poland Nay I believe it had been a thing already done had they but been sure he would have succeeded to the Crown for failing in that he would have brought no great Advantage to France 'T is very improbable the King of Poland would have refused her with a considerable Dowry for he is already much obliged to the King of France Two Hundred Thousand Livers a year bestowed on one of his Sons by giving him the Abbies of St. Germain and St. Dennis deserved well to be hearkned to Besides the Queen ought to be well satisfied therewith her Father is made Duke and Peer of France and they have promised to receive her as Queen in case she comes into France although she be born Subject to the King of France So that it is not at all to be question'd but that if the Crown were secured to the young Prince the business would have been done e're now There are Princesses enough in France to be chosen ready for this Match Is it not to exalt himself like the Chief Monarch of Europe to erect at Metz a Souveraign Court before which the King makes all Kings and Princes be cited who possess any Lands whom he stiles his Dependants for the Territories that no wayes belong to him they upon default of appearing not owning this False Tyrannical Universal Tribunal he gets the Lands adjudged to him takes possession of them without any form of Process but by his Cannon Law. If any one contradict this the King of Sweden the Princes of Monthelliard Pettite Pierre the Duke of Lorrain and a great many other Princes will tell you what a Monster this Chamber is that it devours whatsoever comes in its way and what is yet more unwarrantable is that he dares ground his Right at this day to some Lands in Germany upon the final determination this Chamber of Metz made in his behalf as we shall shortly see in a Memorial he hath lately sent to the Diet at Ratisbone France hath besides a notable Advantage to frame her Pretensions and Titles I mean there are so many cunning Fellows in Paris knowing so exactly to imitate the Ancient Gothick Character of Five or Six Hundred Years date that one would swear they were in reality Authentick Now by this means they hammer out a Dependance far fetcht which the Devil himself as cunning as he is could not contradict And then who knows what is still behind the Curtain and not come to light which will not appear but in due time and place when a
makes much of some threatens others The Dolphin of Frances Marriage concluded with the Princess of Bavaria was a bait to draw in the Prince of that Family to the King's Interest and so inspire his Body with a French Spirit That Pension the King allowed him for some time made him much in the Kings Books and devoted to his Interest nay over and above the Marriage every one was in the mind that this Prince would be perpetually devoted to his Benefactor but the unbecoming unworthy Matches that France offered this Prince made his Ministers look about them who knew so well how to disabuse him that he alter'd his mind and tack't about to the better and more glorious side whether we consider it in respect of the Marriage he contracted with the Emperours Daughter or by the Lawrels he won in Hungary This is a thing he durst not so much as have dreamt of if he had remained in the French Interest because the Conquests of the Imperial Army did not at all correspond with the Kings designs as we told you before No sooner had Mounsieur Baviere forsaken the French Party but the King to comfort himself up for that loss entering Madam la Dauphines Chamber told her that he just came from winning Eight Hundred Thousand Crowns of her Brother We all know how the Elector of Brandenburg is beset on all sides with the Emissaries of France and how the chief persons of his Court which discretion makes me forbear mentioning have taken but too large a Dose of that same Spirit Gall so that there is nothing transacted in the Electors Court but the French Envoy hath presently notice of it and by Mounsieur de Rebenack's good leave Men are sufficiently informed of all his Intrigues of all the Presents he bestows if it were less secret one might not perchance know it but he wanting the retentive faculty to keep his own Counsel he must give others leave to disclose it who are not so much concern'd to keep a secret If the late Prince Lewis had been surer to the French Interest than he was perhaps he might have been alive to this day Well I know the French Envoy had not an hand in the fact but did suggest and promote it I know that the Prince Elector is not ignorant neither whence the Distemper proceeds he hath reason to countermine them and stand upon his Guard but I could wish he may not be too slow and that he shut not the Stable door when the Horse is stoln If so be the Elector of Brandenburg had an insight into his real true Interest and Forces could but get rid once of these French Spirits that encompass her he might safely say he was one of the most puissant Princes of the North make others dread and stand in awe of him Be sure which way soever he takes he casts the scales France knows it very well too and that 's the reason why they court him so much Let him but stand Neuter and espouse no Cause she is satisfied The Persecution of the Protestants of France had in a manner opened the eyes of the Elector yet Mounsieur de Rebenack backt by Mounsieur D'espense managed things so finely that people gave more credit to what they said than to so many thousand Witnesses that arrived dayly at Berlin This I 'le say that the Elector hath this benefit that all those that flie to him for refuge people his Country But France out of spite to thwart his designs to make the Electorship fall after the Decease of Frederick William to some Prince or other who will be more favourable to him than those who were born by the Princess Lewis of Nassau and Orange and there is all the probability imaginable she will accomplish her designs in this matter at leastwise they are in a fair way towards it if God Almighty do not prevent it by preserving the Prince Elector alive to whom he may give Issue As for the Elector Palatine of the Rhine when France mediated a match between the Princess and the Duke of Orleans she had two things in her eye the first was thereby together with a Pension to allure the late Prince Elector into her Interests not being able to do that he might evermore devise pretensions for the Right of Madam of Orleans After that we know but too well how the Electors Palatines Father and Son were treated by Lewis XIV how the Palatinate hath been trodden under foot by his Troops and the people of that Country ruin'd and laid waste But last of all Death having deprived the World of these two Princes in a short time without Male Issue and seeing that at present the Palatinate is fallen to the House of Newburg pursuant to a Treaty with the Emperour to that purpose the King of France is perswaded there is no other resolution to take with the Elector now Reigning that he is too near an Allie to the Emperour to whom he is beholden for what he hath ever to abandon his Interests or quit his Party so that it is not thereabouts neither that France attacks it the pretenses of Madams Rights are now in debate The Popes medling in the matter signifies nothing the business is not ripe it is a Gate France keeps open for to enter into Germany by and all the delayes the Pope obtains do but keep off the Distemper a little longer and do not cure it and you shall see the next Spring if any change happen in Europe France will enter thereinto with Fire and Sword as she uses to do All the Elector must wish for is that Peace may be concluded between the two Emperours this Winter that the Death of a Prince hapning his success may afford work enough to Lewis the Great somewhere else Now these seem to be the only means how this Elector may avoid falling into the clutches of France and this reason ought much to sway with the Emperour and be a principal motive to him to make a Peace with the Turk as he may now do very advantagiously For he must know that if ever the French King break the Ice and gets footing in Germany he will never return back The French are very insolent and domineering especially at the first heat and in prosperity and provided Fortune smiles upon them at the beginning and in their first furie wherewith they undertake all Exploits that is a great incitement to them to drive on farther and farther and then peace with the Turk not being made I cannot tell whether the Emperour will be ever able to make it if he would never so fain at lest upon the same Terms and Conditions they offer him at this time The Elector of Saxony never made much account of all the proposals of France He is a Prince that doth not study all those cunning niceties and tricks that a great many other Courts are full of but one who being well verst in what is good for himself pursues it without disputing
the Swedes the Elector of Brandenburg and the States of the Vnited Provinces whose pecial Interest it is to hold fast and be firmly united as well by reason of the nearness of their States as upon the account of Trading and that fair correspondence which hath alwayes reigned amongst them So that a Man may safely avouch they serve to maintain and mutually preserve one another Now France hath a design in it in meaning to oblige the Princes of Lunenbourg to come over to her Interest for should the King of England or Spain chance to dye suddenly she would have occasion for those three forementioned Powers to be able to oppose them with the French Troops joyned to theirs in case any one of them should be in action 'T is most evident that Lewis XIV ought to labour as he doth to procure himself Allies to second his Designs upon the same score as he doth for Denmark whether it be to hinder the Prince of Oranges passage into England or when he means to fall upon Holland in good earnest these two concerns go to his heart and is his sole grief considering the Grand Conquest of the Emperour who will be like to grieve him to the heart with his Victorious Army after peace made nay and perhaps make him lose his longing to put some of his great designs in Execution for which he labours tooth and nail and now begins to cool upon it to the end he may so well order his business that he may neither meet with any impediment or at least that he may divert and busie those who mean to withstand it I dare safely affirm that the Prince of Orange is the only Man the French King dreads and that the very thoughts of the Succession of a Royal Princess to the English Crown puts him in a deadly fright which gives him a Stool without a Pill knowing withal that this as great a Politician as Captain not knowing what Corruption means perfectly verst in the true interest of Europe will say as Q. Elizabeth did that none had any thing to do to pretend to the Low Countreys and will not endure that either the King of France nor any other should make himself Master of it which will be very feasable when he shall be advanced to this Dignity and this is the reason why the Spirit of Lewis the Great encompasseth the Earth and would fain associate himself with as many Princes as possibly he can to shelter himself from the impending Storm and Tempest and secure him from that Thunder that is ready to break out against him Poland is at a great distance from France can neither hurt it by Sea or Land but can do him great service indirectly as crossing the Designs of the Emperour or by falling upon Swedeland especially Swedeland when France thinks good for there wants not a plausible excuse when a Prince means to make an attempt Casimir Son of Sigismond had a lawful one indeed for this Sigismond being as yet King of Sweeden was elected King of Poland He kept nevertheless his first Kingdom until Prince Charles his Uncle was proclaimed King in the absence of his Nephew King Sigismund who sent a Senate consisting of Forty Jesuits to have full power of deciding all State-Matters and were to reside at Stockholm being dispatched with full instructions by Patent impowering them with Royal Authority But when the Senate was arrived in Stockholm Road Prince Charles with all the Nobility went out to meet them with Twenty or Thirty Ships to do the more Honour to these new Senate This Squadron coming round about the Vessel of their Reverend Senators gave them a broad-side seeming to welcom them Their Ships immediately sprung divers leaks and the Jesuits went down to hold their first Session in Quality of Senators at the bottom of the Salt Sea none using any means to save one of them In the upshot Prince Charles was Elected King the Arch-bishop dispensed with the Subjects Oath of Allegiance which they took to Sigismond and his Uncle was proclaimed King. The French King thinks himself concern'd in the Election of a King of Poland thither he usually sends an Embassador with some Lewisses to carry on the Election in favour of some Prince of his Faction but especially that he may not be true and stedfast to the Faction of the House of Austria King John now Reigning his Queen being a French Lady hath contributed very much to the Bishop of Beauvais the French Embassador to solicite in her behalf because the Most Christian King always thought that by the Queens Intercession he should prevail with the King to come over to his Interests and he was not altogether mistaken True indeed the repulse she suffered from the King of bestowing the Titles of Duke and Peer upon the Marquiss D' Arquier her Father and acknowledging her to be his Daughter and of giving her the honour of Queen in case she should come into France had a little cooled her but when it will cost the King but a little sheet of Parchment to please a Prince the King is extraordinary liberal of it at Court especially if he have need of him So likewise out of acknowledgment of these favours you see the King of Poland doth whatsoever his Benefactour will have him and St. Lewis is in great power in that Realm Yet I don't look upon it as the true interest of Poland to make such a stop the wayes being so good since the deliverance and relief of Vienna the issue and result of his great exploits would have Eternized his memory by giving a peace to the Grand Seignior upon advantageous terms for Poland but the best of all was he might have secured the Crown upon his Sons head for questionless they could not in Justice have denyed it him as an acknowledgment of all his Victories We are not ignorant that the Spirit of France very prodigal of promises and fertile in cunningness do ascertain the King and Queen that Prince Alexander their Son shall not fail of a Crown and your Golden Lewisses work wonders But who pray will give Lewis a lease of his Life till then I must needs say he caused to be put under his Statue Viro immortali but I have found also in the same place Cum fistula in ano So that he may dye before the King of Poland and if he do dye it may so come to pass that his Successour may have so many Irons in the fire at home that he will never think of seeking any more abroad But now France offers the young Prince Royal of Poland for pledge of their Truth and Friendship the Princess de Conti la Valliere whom they also offered to the Prince of Bavaria as if there were no more Legitimate Princesses in Europe I am perswaded the King of France thinks he doth the Polonians a great deal of Honour by offering them one of his Natural Daughters for to be their Queen This would be fine to employ
to an Universal Monarchy he would advise his King to beg of God to prolong the World as much as he can This Malady ceasing in Spain hath passed into France but France being wiser doth not grasp so much and her King's Ambition is only confined to Europe a wish worthy of such a great Prince and who if we consider him aright could scarce demand less his Neighbours ought narrowly to watch his water for certain it is France cannot aggrandize her self without encroaching upon her nearest Neighbours as she doth really every day already When the House of Austria made broad signs of her design upon the Universe all the Princes of Christendom rose up against her and entered into an Association to prevent her Charles V. after the Battel of Pavia where Francis was taken Prisoner thought himself above all but he found business enough The Pope King of England the Venetians the Grand Duke of Tuscany the Swisse made a League against him to hinder this Emperour from bringing France and consequently the rest of Italy under his subjection It was not for any kindness the Pope and King of England bore King Francis that they combin'd together to relieve him but because Charles V. became so great that he would by his good Will have made himself Master of the World. Now at present forasmuch as this Itch is past into France All Princes of Europe for some time have run counter to whatsoever their Ancestors did in the Reign of Charles V and Philip II. and instead of opposing they have abetted and concurr'd with the designs of France some out of base compliance others out of fear There are none but the Princes of Nassau alone who have alwayes been fatal to whosoever had a mind to aspire to this sublime Monarchy of the Universe Do not Men admire with me the wretched Policy of several Princes and States in the World who look on with their Armes a cross and behold the French King to advance so fast and take Luxemburg a City of such grand Importance to Europe only the Prince of Orange presented himself upon the breach with the Low Countreys but who not being in a capacity to do any thing by himself was forced to retreat The French King would never have taken it had England and the States withstood it he hath no cause to brag of it it is a truth all the World knows but too well he was so cunning to get the King of Great Britain on his side that he consented to take what was not his own and to baffle the rest by illusory promises of an Universal Peace after the taking in of Luxemburg which they suffered him to do and this gross valiant Captain of a Trencher-man the Marquess of Grana Governour of the Low Countreys who was not promoted to this place but upon his demonstrating the means of being able to preserve this most Important place to the Court of Spain a place I say so necessary to Spain for the preservation of the Low Countreys by the assistance of Germany and albeit he should have minded nothing else but the preservation of that same City his own Honour as well as Duty to and interest of his King his Master being all engaged therein Instead of doing which this Fat-gut put into it only a pitiful Garrison of Twelve or Fifteen Hundred Men instead of Four Thousand and was wholly taken up in fortifying the City of Namur with his Regiments and some other places which were Cities on the boundaries which France would not have dared so much as to touch Would you not swear such a Fellow conspir'd to aggrandize France and concurr'd with the Designs of Lewis XIV When the King in 1667 would have undertaken the Conquest of the Spanish Netherlands England Swedeland and the Vnited Provinces associated together by the Triple League forced him soon to quit his hold they obliged him to re-procure and make a Peace with Spain and to restore to it some part of what he had usurped and taken away It would have been just so if the Neighbouring Princes had done the same at such time as he attacked Luxemburg Resist the Devil and he will fly from you But France cunning and subtle had sufficiently tryed how prejudicial this League was to her she could never be at rest till she had pluckt this Thorn out of her Foot and so soon as ever the term was expired she could not be satisfied till she had found out a way to hoodwink England and so got her disingaged from the Tripple-knot The Dutchess of Portsmouth like another Dalilah came over out of France into England to lull asleep the Sampson of this Kingdom France found out the way to act and speak so fair that she hook't in Dunkirk by Promises and Money at the beginning of the Reign of Charles II King of Great Britain A Town of so great Consequence to England in as much as it affords a good entrance into Picardy and Flanders 'T is no new thing for France to be troubled with this itching mind to sieze on the places of her Neighbours and to enlarge her Dominion from one end of Europe to the other The Duke of Rohan told us heretofore that Princes commanded People but that Self-Interest commanded Princes Without question he would have added something else had he lived in this Age and especially Lewis the XIV We may see Examples of it day by day and to secure his Ambition all times and seasons are good for him in Peace in War in Cessation of Arms. Interest is the evil Angel hath so long reigned through France we are taught out of History how Godfrey of Bulloign having a mind to take a Journey for the Conquest of the Holy Land and coming short of Money to put himself in a capacity to do it sold many of his Cities and Lands amongst others the City of Metz with the Country adjoyning which its own Citizens and Inhabitants purchased of him for the Sum of an Hundred Thousand Crowns They enjoyed this their purchase till the Year of our Lord 1551 in which Charles V. did so evilly intreat the Protestants of Germany Henry II. King of France under a pretence seemed forward to send Relief to the said Protestants of Germany In effect he dispatched the Constable of Monmorency with Four Thousand Men in all probability for this Expedition but it was quite and clean for another design as the sequel will make appear He demanded passage of the City of Metz who were for the most part of the same Religion with those who were molested in Germany between whom and the Emperour there was no good understanding They granted to the King with abundance of joy whatsoever he required of them in reference to his Troops passage and in testimony of their good will they caused Tables to be set up in the Streets to make the Soldiers eat and drink on their passage with huge demonstration of Friendship and Rejoycing But alas Their Laughter was
upon their heads We see after what fashion the Men who are there now are paid and the inconsiderable number of them and to say the truth there ought to be Twenty Thousand effective Men beside what is there already in Garrison to secure the Countrey and Ten Thousand more in case of a Rupture and since Spain can't furnish them with so many Men You must let the Towns there levy Men and pay them who will be willing to do it to secure themselves and avoi'd falling under the barbarous Dominion of the French or be quite ruin'd perhaps before it comes to that as many Towns and Cities have been before them and that flat Country now of late in which the most Religious places were not spared I know very well that that proposal has been debated in Council long since and that the Council of Spain has ever rejected it for slight reasons A good careful Governour especially the Duke of Lorrain who is so brave a Commander and adorn'd with Conquests at the head of Forty Thousand Men supported by the Prince of Orange would make France shake France has its Emissaries in the Council at Madrid as well as at other places to oppose every thing which may possibly thwart her designs and I am of opinion that it will turn to better account for the King of Spain to secure his Low Countries with the help of a Militi a payd by the Cities who wont abuse him than to lose that Countrey for want of Men to defend it The latter of these is almost irretrievable but that former would be effectual were it not for an ill-grounded Jealousie which possibly heretofore might have deserved consideration but is now quite out of doors for in my judgment we ought ever to take in hand the thing which is most urgent when the one is inevitable and the other may probably never come to pass I say once more that France can never compass her great design but by being first of all Master of the Low Countreys 'T was for this reason that Du Plessis advised his Master to set upon it that way and 't is that pass alone which Spain and its Allies ought necessarily to stop with the same care and diligence as they would the breach in a Bank through which the raging Sea is ready to come in upon them and this we shall see hereafter The French Kings Ambition and Interest is a Torrent whose Impetuosity neither Affinity of Blood nor Alliance Peace Treaties Truce Swearing nor even Mutual Oaths are able to withstand I 'le go farther no not the very bounds which God by his wise Providence has set to the limits of every Monarchy which seems to speak to each Monarch Hither shalt thou go and no farther But Lewis XIV has sworn not to rest satisfied with the Lot which the Supreme Monarch of the Universe has given him Who can tell had he once Conquered the World but he would begin again another Tower of Babel to scale the very Heavens Ambition knows no bounds but Pride goes before a fall Oh that Spain would not suffer her self to be lull'd asleep by this deceitful Truce 'T is a Dalilah which all on a sudden cry out to the Spaniards the Philistians are upon thee But I am afraid it will be so as 't was with Sampson who when he awoke finding himself fast bound could no longer avoid becoming a Prey and Conquest to his Enemy The Grandees of Spain are a great help to France and contribute without dreaming on 't very much to the advancing of her Interest and support of her Ambition whil'st they inrich themselves at their Masters Expence and in the mean time disable him to keep up Men for their common defence but if they were well advised they should reflect seriously upon the Condition they are in at present and upon that they are like to be in when they fall under the Tyranny of France How happily would such a comparison obviate the misery which is coming upon them For they must think when a French Man comes to the Crown that the Spaniards will be but little considered and at best be only pittied or despised The natural antipathy between those two Nations wont suffer the new King to trust himself with them and all their stateliness will serve only for the French Court to laugh and jeer at The Spaniards must not flatter themselves if that comes to pass that the Dauphin after his Fathers Death will leave France to go and live in Spain The King 's of France will alway value Versailles beyond the finest City in Spain They will send Vice-Roys thither who shall be Frenchmen both by nature and disposition Mortal Enemies to the Spaniards that thus they may be secure that they wont join in any thing with the Spaniards against the French Interest These Governours and Vice-Roys will bring along with them for their necessary use their French Tax the Mal tote which will in a little time bring forth a whole swarm of Impositions as the Taille Taillon Aide Grant or Octroit Preciput Equivalent Free Gift Gratification Aid upon Wines Gabels upon Salt Corn and Flower Tobacco and Perriwigs on all sorts of Stuffs Linnen-cloth Le pied fourchu Impost upon Flesh the Mark of Paper upon Silver and Tin upon Milled and Silk Stockings Impost upon Ice Controlle des Exploits Tax upon Fee-Farms Tax upon the New Conquests Quint and Requint Mortmains the price of Valuations the Mark of Gold the two Sols a pound the right of Sealage right of Controlle of Register and Oath La Paulette abatement of Wages Custom appointment of a Governour the Eighth Peny Impost and the re-union to the Crown of whatsoever hath been given or sold with some others not worth naming Again after that the Spaniards would have for their hosts some of those Devilish Farmers of the Kings Revenue who would fasten upon them as if they were a Conquered Countrey and at first dash would lay a Tax upon the Sun knowing they make use of that instead of a Fagot Therefore I maintain that Spain should endeavour above all things to dispose the Emperor to accept of a Peace or at least a Truce with the Grand Seignior To look out while this present King is living for a Prince to succeed him and that this Prince may betake himself in time to Madrid to be well known to the people and be in the Heart of the Kingdom To Defend it and get Crown'd immediately upon the Kings Death To possess himself of the great Seal and all Instruments relating to the Crown And to make the Grandees of Spain side with him as their Lord and Master Moreover by this means Spain may make an early provision for the security of the Low-Countries and be justly undeceived in that pernicious Opinion which the Council of Spain has that England and the Vnited Provinces must necessarily defend them for their own Interest I own 't is true they ought to do it
the Pens of those Droll-Wits Pasquin and Murforio 'T is certain if the King of Poland should give way to this aukward Contract of Alliance it would be as much as to declare plainly that he no longer pretended to have the Crown of Poland for his Son and that this Marriage was an act wholly disclaiming it I would have him rather follow the King of Portugals example he was cunning enough to get himself disentangled from the importunities of France to strengthen himself by his alliance with the House of Austria and the Emperour by his Marriage with the Princess Palatine of Newbourgh he knew too well that if ever Lewis XIV got footing in Spain that his Kingdom would depend on his disposal One of the two Teeth this same Lewis was born with is called Usurping the other Cruel from the one proceeds dependance decorum or convenience of Scituation from the other Treachery and Persecution you need not question if the King of France should become King of Spain but Portugal would be first of all invested because the Spaniard possest that Kingdom from Philip II. until Philip IV. time which was about the year 1640 when the Portugueze shook off the Spanish yoak Threescore years of possession may plead prescription whereon to ground his right of dependance there needs only thirty for a private man besides the right of decorum or commodious Scituation for Portugal joyns upon the Kingdom of Castile Aragon and Granada he had not so good a Title to the Kingdom of Austrasie nay he hath quite turned out the Princes who possessed one part of the Lands of that Kingdom for near 600 years Fear keeps the Vineyard as the French say and distrust is the mother of safety If I had to do with Salvages or with the King of Bantam or China not knowing occurrences in our parts it would be requisite to enter upon an Historical Relation of all the slippery tricks France hath played this last Age of all the Deceits Cheats Usurpations Injustices and Cruelties this present King hath put in practice to be Master of the Estates and the Possessions of his Neighbours But I speak to Europeans and they Christians too who have seen with their Eyes heard with their Ears and have dayly before them Princes dispoyled and stript of their Possessions so many People ruined so many Cities taken so many Houses now nothing but ruins and rubbish Thousands of Christians reduced to Beggery nay and the Blood of his own Subjects still a gushing out in mighty streams all over the Country These I say are speaking Books where all up and down you may find in huge Characters Lewis the Great Sacrifices all to his Ambition and Interest Now although all the World knows it and though scarce a Prince but hath been couzen'd by him yet he is so skilful to hush them asleep by the mild gentle raine of Lewisses that some part of them cry Lord what wouldst thou have us do and run headlong insensibly and with a kind of delight to the ruin and destruction of their Issue O how much need hath Europe of a good Oculist to remove the Scales from the Eyes of a great many Princes and once in their lives to open them for them to the end that every one knowing what 's good for himself may lay aside and forsake the interest of France they ought all unanimously to endeavour with might and main to procure him a Competitour to balance him and retain and bind him up within his just bounds and so disable him that he may no more trouble the earth by his ambition One blow is sufficient to do it what need I tell you all Europe sees it This will come to pass when it shall please the Divine Wisdom of the true Universal Monarch King of Kings to make it evident We cannot but wish Lewis XIV long life that he may be witness of all these things and may have another Joshua to stop the course of his Sun for which the people of the earth so much long and put up their continual Prayers for The Spirit or Policy of France and its Maximes in regard of the Suisse Cantons his Allies and of Savoy THE Cantons of Switzerland being free and absolute are governed by themselves hold of none but of God and their own valour they are partly reformed and partly Roman Catholick 't is by reason of this difference of Religion that they have often variance amongst themselves and give the King of France occasion to lay hold on the opportunity who makes good use of the easiness of the latter to sow the seed of dissention among them In time past they did no way border upon France which was a great happyness for the Cantons but since the peace Hen. IV. made with the Duke of Savoy the Country of Gex belonged to that Prince then after that France which alwayes gets ground did make encroachments in Alsatia Franche Conte and towards Burgundy is at this time Neighbour to the Swisse on three several sides But Lewis XIV not content with that had a mind to be a nearer Neighbour to his fellows by the Fort of Huninghen within Canon shot as we all know from Basil the Governour hath lately attempted it the Suisse were too much overseen in being a little to well acquainted witsi the King of France who thereby hath found out where their strength and weakness lyes and which way soever their affairs turn whensoever they are forced to quarrel with these Princes it will alwayes fare with them as the Fable tells us it did with the Earthen pot and Iron pot Secondly To lend so many Regiments to France are as so many men lost out of the Cantons who it may be one day may like young Vipers destroy their common Mother their Countrey there are few Swisse Officers in the French Kings Service but let themselves be corrupted by Marriages then suffer their Eyes to be dazled by good places and your Louis do'r and so at once renounce both their Religion and Party sacrifice as Stoupa the Lieutenant General would have done twice sixteen Cantons to the Interest of France He is not alone in his own gang he hath God knows too many Disciples you 'l find but very few who imitate the Sieur Dasselouer of Berne heretofore Captain in the King's Service who chosed rather to give over his employ and break his Pike then do any thing contrary to the Treaty which his Superiours had entered to about the passage of the Rhine against the Hollanders they have also committed a notable fault in tying up their own hands that they cannot send to Spain the like number of Soldiers as they do to France This restriction hath more of the Frenchman in it than the Cantons are aware of They cannot but grant that they have suffered themselves to be curb'd by the Fort at Huninghen which but too much discovers the Kings design every chink in it are like so many open Mouths crying out
ever they find that grand Usurper to advance for he is now taking his aim and so well play'd his Cards that he hath made the Duke of Savoy to sneak and truckle not daring so much as to put his Nose towards France In times past the Dukes Ancestors did defend the City of Geneva as well as the Inhabitants they had a great deal more reason for it then France now a days upon the account of the pretensions to it and the rights the Counts of Geneva have yielded up to the Duke of Savoy Charles IV. Proclaimed that Duke Prince of Geneva and of all the Territories thereunto belonging and they have inherited it till the Year 1532. But the present Duke is so far from making any opposition against France that he would rather deliver up all his Rights and Claims to it and let himself be cullyed out of it under pretence of reinvesting the Bishop now although that Prelate should be setled and France master of it what course would the Duke of Savoy take if the King would not remit to him Would he have recourse to Menaces or Reprisals If he should do so the King of France would jerk him soundly like a Boy and would make him kiss the Rod to boot So that I would not have Geneva to flatter her self with the treacherous promises of the French King nor yet with the Assistance which Policy and Reason might oblige the Duke of Savoy to send them Let her e'ne rely on her Allies the Swisse Cantons upon her own though slender Forces and upon so many French Officers who have fled for refuge thither who will be sure upon the first news of it to run to her assistance or otherwise they must have lost common Sense and all sentiments of Honour and Thankfulness Again if so be the Emperour make his Peace with the Turk he must send for the Duke of Lorain to help him who is a great Captain and even laden with Victorious Lawrels whose very name will make France quake I and he may serve him for a inlet whereat to enter into his Dutchy of Lorrain where his Subjects quite spent with the Tyrannical Dominion of France expect him as their Moses and deliverer The King is a Lyon in a Foxes Skin he is not so formidable as men believe him his only end is to make himself be feared and he obtains his desire by threatnings but shake off this panick fear look upon France nearer mind her soberly and seriously consider the continual running away of her Inhabitants the punishment and imprisonment of another part of them is as so much Bloud flowing from her Veins which by little and little weaken her Add hereto the just complaints of the Catholicks the decrease of her Revenues and what is worst of all for her the death and the going away of so many Generals within these few years and so suddenly one after another doth she not seem to behold that Scene Heaven hath contrived on purpose to humble her for indeed she is at a lower ebb then one would imagine I 'll engage she is as sick as her King and that they be both smitten to the heart The first Enemy that sets upon her will not be long alone he will be soon seconded but it will be just as in the Fable of the Counsel of Rats who consulted together to go hang a Bell at the Cats neck their sworn Enemy but not one of them durst venture to do it first Who would ever have said the Pope would have contributed his assistance to the Union of the Switzers Yet 't is true he did so as we may have observed in the business of Glaris which I have above recited Nay his Nuncio is very intent at his leisure hours to open the eyes of the Catholick Cantons for those silly people provided the King tell them of intending to re-establish a Bishop 't is enough for them that 's all they care for but they are not sensible of what is behind the Hill that the grand Usurper lyes hid under the Bishops Mitre I have but one Admonition more to give the Right Honourable Cantons of Switzerland that is to say the King hath no respect nor good will towards them He takes them for Scaffolds to be made use of when need requires and when that is over he looks upon them as no body I desire no other proof of what I say then what of a fresh date happened to the Ambassador which the Cantons not long since sent to the French King After he had wrangled with them about their Commission not being in general Terms on purpose to refuse them Audience well this difficulty once removed by a second Commission dispatched to them they were e'ne fain to go away as they came without so much as seeing the King or obtaining one only Audience This is the greatest undervaluing and most sensible affront that ever Free-born men had given and if the Cantons pass by this and don 't shew their just Resentments of it they 'l be despised by all the Princes of Europe and it will not be the last ill turn of this nature that will befall But that I may fully certifie you of the truth of what I here deliver see here word for word the Harangue or rather Complement these Gentlemen past upon Mounsieur Colbert Croissi Minister of the Foreign Affairs at their departure Sir Our Lords and Superiours sending us hither to do what in us lyes and make use of all importunities to endeavour to win the Kings affection to the end he might be inclined to uphold the City of Geneva their Allie in the possession of what they have hitherto been above One Hundred and Eighty Years grounded upon Authentick Treaties But his Majesty being resolved to commit to his Parliament of Dijon a business which is plainly acknowledged for an affair of State which depends upon Treaties of Peace Covenants and Alliances the which said Parliament our Superiours will never acknowledge as just no nor give their Allies the Citts of Geneva counsel to yield to their Treaty which is theirs also Moreover his Majesty giving us to understand by your Excellency that he would no more then you confer with us touching this matter and because we are afraid that a longer stay here might be as unwelcome as our coming we could not do better then withdraw home again to make a faithful report of what hath past to our Lords and Superiours We are come to take our leaves of your Excellency and to give you many thanks for the patience you have had in several Conferences beseeching you that in pursuance of the reiterated Orders we have had given us in behalf of our Lords and Superiours who notwithstanding they be much troubled at the bad success of this Embassy seeing they take more into consideration the prosecution of 25 Canons then the fidelity of many thousands of the best and most stedfast Allies of that Crown who have shed their Blood and