mention'd either upon the seisure of that Dutchy or since that time in the Accounts of it by their Ministers in the several Courts of Christendom they had only profess'd to have found such a seisure necessary for preserving the Peace wherein Christendom then was from the dangerous or uncertain dispositions of that present Duke with whom His Most Christian Majesty could take no certain Measures and his Enemies would be practising but that it was without any intention of retaining any part of that Dutchy otherwise than for this end of preserving the Peace of Christendom All this with many more Circumstances Monsieur Serinchamps the Lorain Envoy alledged at the Conferences with the States and Allies upon this occasion and for the Treaty of 1662. he seem'd to wonder it should ever be mention'd as a thing wholly invalid and as every body thought thereupon long since forgotten That the last Duke had no power to dispose of that Dutchy from his Nephew because if the Salique Law had place in Lorain it was unalienable from the next Heir-male if the Feminine Succession then that Duke himself had no Title at all to it but it belong'd to the present Duke even in the life of his Uncle Secondly That it was invalid by the French non-performance of the only condition on their side upon which the Old Duke pretended to have made it which was That the Princes of that Family should be assum'd into the Rank of Princes of the Blood in France and that upon registring that Treaty of 1662. in the parliament of Paris without that Clause the Old Duke had declar'd it void within three weeks after it was made Thirdly That a Treaty was concluded the year after being 1663. at Marsal between the Most Christian King and the said Duke by which he was to continue the possession of all his Territories besides Marsal in the same manner as he enjoy'd them by the Treaty of 1661. as he did till the seisure of them by France in 1670. during a profound Peace and with the Professions above-mentioned made by France to His Majesty at that time as Monsieur Serinchamps averred as well as to the other Courts of Christendom These Arguments were of such force with all the Confederates that they were unanimous and firm in positively insisting upon the Pasports of that Duke with the usual forms and the more since France had advanc'd a pretence to that Dutchy which was never thought of before among the Allies The Austrian Ministers told me frankly That the Treaty should never be without this allowance of the Duke of Lorain's Title nor the Peace without his Restitution The States said They for their parts would willingly refer his and any other matters concerning the Treaty to His Majesty's arbitration but that they were bound already by other Treaties to their Allies and particularly to the Duke of Lorain and could not break from them upon a Point of such apparent Right as this The Prince spoke the same Language and said further That he was bound by his Oath of Stadtholder among other things to endeavour to the utmost of his power to keep the States to the due observance of their Treaties and so by the Grace of God he would do in This as well as Others All this being signified to His Majesty and by Him to France that Court continued peremptory in the matter and the Allies persisting in the same disposition the Congress began to be look'd upon from all sides as a thing ended before it began The Allies took this pretence for a Declaration from France of their Resolution there should be no Treaty at present and grounded it upon some great expectation or design they had upon further progresses in Sicily or new ones in Naples or else from hopes of bringing in the Poles to the assistance of Sweden But the truth was That France had been forc'd to discover upon this Incident what they had always at heart and I ever observ'd in the course of all these Negotiations that there were three Points for which France thought the War worth continuing to the last extremity which were rather than restore Lorain or Burgundy or leave a good Frontier on both sides of the Spanish Territories in Flanders The last would hinder the progress of their great Design whether of extending their Empire only to the Rhine or beyond it The two first would hinder their Conquest of Flanders whenever they pursu'd the finishing of that Adventure by leaving a passage for the Germans to relieve it and by so great and dangerous a diversion as entring France through Lorain or Burgundy His Majesty most certainly disapproved and was surpriz'd with this pretence of France to the Dutchy of Lorain but yet was prevail'd with by Monsieur Ruvigny to offer the expedient of His Majesty as Mediator giving all Pasports necessary to the Congress at Nimeguen Monsieur Van Beuningham in this matter acted the part rather of a Bourgomaster of Amsterdam than an Ambassador of the States and to make court to that Town who began to express great impatience for the Peace he assur'd His Majesty That his Masters could not fail of consenting to this expedient I foresaw it would be refus'd and gave his Majesty notice of it before I propos'd it to the States as thinking His Honour and that of the Mediation concern'd in such a refusal but receiving direct Orders to propose it I did so The States told me They would of themselves consent to this or whatever else His Majesty should propose but having communicated it to their Allies they would not hear of it some refusing it with heat and reflection upon His Majesty's partiality to France others with sullenness and silence referring themselves to new Orders from their Masters Hereupon the Congress grew wholly desperate and all Parties prepar'd for the Field without any other View for the three months following the first rise of this Pretention In the mean time there pass'd a Fight between the French and Dutch and Spanish Ships near Messina wherein de Ruyter was shot in the Heel by a cannon-Cannon-bullet of which he died within few days after and determined the greatest loss to have certainly happen'd on that side by that of the ablest Sea-Captain of his Age and the best Servant that any Prince or State could have For the rest the Advantage was not considerable of either part in this Fight nor the consequence material in the progress of the French Arms in Sicily or in any prospect of great Enterprises upon Naples On the other side the Swedish Affairs went very ill in Pomerania and were threatned with great Invasions the following Campaign both from Denmark and Brandenburgh This decry'd the Councels of those Persons that engag'd them in this Quarrel Two Ambassadors Count Oxenstorn and Olivacrown were appointed for the Treaty at Nimeguen who had been ever of contrary Sentiments or Faction which now began to prevail in the Swedish Court They grew impatient for a Peace and
treating upon the Peace before he was married but that before he went the King must chuse how they should live hereafter for he was sure it must be either like the greatest Friends or the greatest Enemies and desired me to let His Majesty know so next morning and give him an account of what he should say upon it I did so early in the morning told the King all the Prince had said to me the night before and the ill consequences of a breach between them considering the ill humour of so many of his Subjects upon our late measures with France and the invitations made the Princes by several of them durig the late War The King heard me with great attention and when I had done said Well I never yet was deceived in judging of a man's Honesty by his Looks of which he gave me some examples and if I am not deceived in the Prince's face he is the honestest man in the world and I will trust him and he shall have his Wife and you shall go immediatly and tell my Brother so and that 't is a thing I am resolved on I did so and the Duke at first seemed a little surprized but when I had done He said The King shall be obeyed and I would be glad all His Subjects would learn of me to obey Him I do tell Him my Opinion very freely upon any thing but when that is done and I know his pleasure upon it I obey Him From the Duke I went to the Prince and told him my Story which he could at first hardly believe but embraced me and said I had made him a very happy Man and very unexpectedly and so I left him to give the King an account of what had passed and in the Prince's Anti-chamber met my Lord Treasurer and told him the Story who undertook to adjust all the rest between the King and the Prince which he did so well that the Match was declared that Evening at the Committee before any other in Court knew any thing of it and next day it was declared in Council and received there and every where else in the Kingdom with the most universal joy that I ever saw any thing in the King's Reign The French Ambassador and my Lord Arlington appeared the only two Persons unsatisfied upon it at Court the first not knowing how he should answer it to his Master that an Affare of that importance should pass without his Communication much less Advice in a Court where nothing before had been done so for many years and my Lord Arlington That it should pass without his knowledge who still endeavoured to keep up the Court opinion of his Confidence with the Prince who told me the Complaint his Lordship had made him upon it That some things good in themselves were spoiled by the manner of doing them as some things bad were mended by it But he would confess this was a thing so good in it self that the manner of doing it could not spoil it Within two or three days the Marrriage was consummated and immediately after they fell into the debates upon the Terms of the Peace to which as to that of the Match none but my Lord Treasurer and I were admitted The Prince insisted hard upon the Strength and Enlargement of a Frontier on both sides of Flanders without which France he said would end his War with the View of beginning another and carrying Flanders in one Compania The King was content to leave that business a little looser upon the confidence that France was so weary of this War that if they could get out of it with Honour they would never begin another in this Reign That the King grew past his Youth and lazy and would turn to the pleasures of the Court and Building and leave his Neighbours in quiet The Prince thought France would not make a Peace now but to break the present Confederacy and to begin another War with more advantage and surprize That their ambition would never end till they had all Flanders and Germany to the Rhine and thereby Holland in an absolute dependance upon them which would leave Them in an ill condition and Us in no good one And that Christendom could not be left safe by the Peace without such a Frontier as he Proposed for Flanders and the restitution of Lorain as well as what the Emperour had lost in Alsatia Upon this I told the King That in the course of my Life I had never observed Mens Natures to alter by Age or Fortunes but that a good Boy made a good Man and a young Coxcomb an old Fool and a young Fripon an old Knave and that quiet Spirits were so young as well as old and unquiet ones would be so old as well as young That I believed the King of France would always have some bent or other sometimes War sometimes Love sometimes Building but that I was of the Prince's Opinion That He would ever make Peace with a design of a new War after He had fixed His Conquest by the last and the King approved what I said The Points of Lorain and Alsatia were easily agreed to by the King and Duke but they would not hear of the County of Burgundy as what France could never be brought to tho' the Prince insisted much upon it so as the King imagined He was touched by the interest of his own Lands in that County which are greater and more Seigneurial than those of the Crown of Spain there and thereupon told him That for his Lands he would charge himself with either his enjoying them as safely under France as Spain or if he should rather chuse to part with them than have that dependance he would undertake to get him what price he should himself value them at But the Prince answered briskly and generously That he should not trouble himself nor the Peace about that matter and that he would be content to lose all his Lands there to get one good Town more for the Spaniards upon the Frontier of Flanders so all difficulties began to terminate upon what was esteemed necessary there This admitted great debates between the King and Prince one pretending France would never be brought to one Scheme and t'other that Spain would never consent to the other But at the last it was agreed That the Peace should be made upon these terms All to be restored by France to the Empire and Emperor that had been taken in the War the Dutchy of Lorain to that Duke and all on both sides between France and Holland and to Spain the Towns of Aeth Charleroy Oudenard Courtray Tournay Conde Valenciennes St. Gillain and Binch That the Prince should endeavour to procure the Consent of Spain and His Majesty that of France for which purpose he should send some person immediately over with the Proposition who should be instructed to enter into no Reasonings upon it but demand a positive Answer in two days and after that term immediately
the Treaty His Majesty propos'd upon this occasion he would move the Parliament to have my Statue set up the Success whereof may deserve a further Remark in its due place Monsieur Van Lewen and I went over in July 1678. in two several Yatchs but met soon at the Hague where upon my first Conference with the Commissioners of Secret Affairs one of them made me the handsomest Dutch Compliment I had met with That they esteemed my coming into Holland like that of the Swallow's which brought fair Weather always with it The Prince received me with the greatest joy in the World hoping by my Errand and the Success of it either to continue the War or recover such Conditions of the Peace for his Allies as had been wrested out of his hands by force of a Faction begun at Amsterdam and spread since into the rest of the Provinces To make way for this Negotiation I concerted with Monsieur Van Lewen to dine at his Country-house with Monsieur Hoeft of Amsterdam Van Tielt of Harlem Patz of Rotterdam and two or three more of the Chief Burgomasters who had promoted the Peace or rather precipitated it upon the French Conditions After Dinner we entred into long Conferences in which Monsieur Van Lewen assur'd them with great confidence of the King's sincereness in the resolutions he had taken and seconded very effectually all I had to say upon that Subject which had the more credit from one who had gone as far as any of them in pursuit and acceptance of the Peace The Prince was impatient to know what had passed in this Meeting which made me go to him that evening and I told him what I was very confident to have found That Monsieur Patz was incurable and not otherwise to be dealt with but that all the rest were good and well meaning persons to their Countrey abused first by Jealousies of His Highness's Match in England by apprehensions of Our Court being wholly in the Measures of France and by the plausible Offers of France towards such a Peace as they could desire for themselves That they were something enlightned by the late refusal of delivering up the Spanish Towns till the satisfaction of Sweden and would I doubted not awaken their several Towns so as to make them receive favourably His Majesty's Proposition upon this Conjuncture It happen'd accordingly for Monsieur Hoeft proposing at Amsterdam to make a tryal and judgment of the sincerity of France upon the whole proceeding of the Peace by their evacuating the Spanish Towns and without it to continue the War he carried his Point there in spight of Valkeneer and the same followed in all the rest of the Towns So that when I fell into this Negotiation I concluded the Treaty in six days by which France was obliged to declare within fourteen after the date thereof That they would evacuate the Spanish Towns or in case of their refusal Holland was engag'd to go on with the War and England immediately to declare it against France in conjunction with Holland and the rest of the Confederates It is hardly to be imagined what a new life this gave to the Authority and Fortunes of the Prince of Orange who was now owned by the States to have made a truer judgment than they had done of the measures they were to expect both from France and England the last having proceeded so resolutely to the offers of entring into the War which was never believed in Holland and France after raising so important a difficulty in the Peace having proceeded in the War so far as to Block up Mons one of the best Frontiers remaining to Flanders which was expected to fall into their hands before the Term fixed for the conclusion or rupture of the Peace should expire Preparations were made with the greatest vigour imaginable for his Highness's Expedition to relieve Mons and about Ten thousand English already arrived in Flanders were ordered to March that way and joyn the Prince He went into the Field with a firm belief that the War would certainly go on since France seemed too far engaged in Honour to yield the Evacuation of the Towns and tho' they should yet Spain could not be ready to Agree and Sign the Peace within the Term limited And he thought that he left the States resolved not to conclude otherwise than in conjunction with that Crown And besides he hoped to engage the French Army before the term for Signing the Peace should expire and resolved to relieve Mons or dye in the attempt whether the Peace succeeded or no so as the continuance of the War seemed inevitable But no man since Solomon ever enough considered how subject all things are to Time and Chance nor how poor Diviners the wisest men are of future Events how plainly soever all things may seem laid towards the producing them nor upon how small accidents the greatest Counsels and Revolutions turn which was never more proved than by the course and event of this Affair After the Treaty concluded and signified to France all the Arts that could be were on that side imployed to elude it by drawing this matter into Treaty or into greater length which had succeeded so well in England They offered to treat upon it at St. Quintin then at Gant where the King Himself would meet such Ambassadors as the Dutch should send to either of those Towns But the States were firm not to recede from their late Treaty concluded with His Majesty and so continued till about five days before the term was to expire Then arrived from England one De Cros formerly a French Monk who some time since had left his Frock for a Petticoat and insinuated himself so far in the Swedish Court as to procure a Commission or Credence at least for a certain petty Agency in England At London he had devoted himself wholly to Monsieur Barillon the French Ambassador tho' pretending to pursue the Interests of Sweden About a Week after I had sent a Secretary into England with the Treaty Signed This man brought me a Packet from Court Commanding me to go immediately away to Nimeguen and there to endeavour all I could and from His Majesty to perswade the Swedish Ambassadors to let the French there know That they would for the good of Christendom consent and even desire the King of France no longer to defer the Evacuation of the Towns and consequently the Peace upon the sole regard and interest of the Crown of Swden I was likewise Commanded to assure the said Ambassadors that after this Peace His Majesty would use all the most effectual Endeavours he could for restitution of the Towns and Countries the Swedes had lost in the War It was not easie for any man to be more surprized than I was by this Dispatch but the Pensioner Fagel was stunned who came and told me the whole Contents of it before I had mentioned it to any man and that De Cros had gone about most