what past there and chiefly in that very affair wherein Monsieur T. was more exercised than in any other Business that he ever undertook But how he could be know it since neither the Duke of York nor my Lord Treasurer not hardly the King himself if we may believe Monsieur T. knew any thing of it And that these Orders were made in one morning in an hours time at the Dutchess of Portsmouths Apartment by the Interception of Monsieur Barillon Observe now if you please my Lord the Malice of Monsieur T. in Relation to Monsieur Williamson on whom he would give in this place the Character of Perfidy as he hath done in diverse other parts of his Memoirs Monsieur T. ought to have had at least some respect for the King whose Orders Monsieur Williamson did Execute I never talkt of it says Monsieur T. to the Secretary of State Williamson as if he would say that he was sufficiently perswaded that Monsieur Williamson was a Man altogether for France and that he was intirely devoted as well as my self to Monsieur Barillon and that he was the Author of this Dispatch Is it not clear that Monsieur T. would make us imagine that Monsieur the Chevalier Williamson Secretary of State the French Ambassador and the Dutchess of Portsmouth promised these Orders As for me tho' I had the Dispatch given me yet he does not accuse me openly in this place of bearing any other part in this Affair than only as a Messenger entrusted with the Conveyance And not only so but I never went to the Dutchess of Portsmouths Lodgings she having an irreconcilable aversion for me and I for her Can there be a greater absurdity than this To endeavour to perswade his Readers that the most important affair of that time on which depended says Monsieur T. The Fate of Christendom was concluded and made up in one hours time in the apartment of the Dutchess of Portsmouth by the Intervention of Monsieur Barillon Monsieur T. is accustomed so little to spare the King's Reputation that he fears not on this occasion to prostitute it in a strange manner He does not only charge him with partiality and connivance in suffering Valentiennes Cambray St. Omer and several other places in Flanders to be taken without Murmur or Opposition But the King of England obliged as much as could be in the Quality of a Mediator and more through the Interest of his Kingdoms to procure the Repose of Christendom yet corrupted by the French Ambassadours and by the Charms of a Mistress Sacrifices all Europe and his own Estate to a Power that is naturally an Enemy to England And this without Ceremony in an hours time without the advice of his Council and hides himself in the Apartment of a Woman as if he was sensible that he went about an action the most unworthy of the Majesty of a Prince and the most opposite to the Felicity of his People that could be For what other Construction can any one make of what Monsieur T. says and can any man conclude otherwise when he reads this worthy passage in his Memoirs Certain it is that this Dispatch was made up by Monsieur Williamson and by the Kings Order And since the King was pleased to avoid opening his mind hereon to Monsiâ—ur T. giving him no other answer but that I had been more cunning than all of 'em Monsieur T. might possibly Address himself to Monsieur Williamson who it may be might tell him by whose means and how Du Cross had obtained this Dispatch 'T is plain that Monsieur T. despairs of penetrating into this Affair that he knows not where about he is when he speaks of it and that he only seeks to blacken the Reputation of the King and his Ministers If the Peace of Aix la chapelle is his Favourite because he hath the Vanity to believe it to be intirely his own work 't is easie seen that the Peace of Nimiguen is his Aversion because he is ashamed to have had so small a Part in it as he had and that the most glorious part of his Life is not to be sound in that Negotiation I would have this Complaisance for Monsieur T. though he treats me so ill I would at least in some part draw him out of this great incertainty on the subject of the Dispatch which I brought him He is deceived when he imputes this Resolution to the Intrigues and Perswasions of France It was neither managed nor taken nor dispatcht at the Dutchess of Portsmouth's nor was it by the means or intervention of Monsieur Barillon The Ambassadour had no part in it but on the very Instant when the affair was concluding He was not so much as present at the Expedition as he had not been at any time at the Deliberations The Marquiss of Ruvigny the Son carryed the first News to the King his Master the same day that I parted for Nimeguen Monsieur Williamson knew well what was contained in the Dispatch to Monsieur T. in which there was nothing very mysterious But he was never privy to the secret of the Negotiation and tho' he was present when I took my leave of the King in Secretary Coventry's Office yet he was then ignorant of the true subject of my Voyage and perhaps he never knew it The King was not at all precipitate and the affair was not concluded and dispatcht in an hours time It was treated on and deliberately considered near Three weeks There was time given to the Ambassadours of Swedeland to resolve themselves and make their Answer The King's design was doubtless aimed for the good of Europe and the publick tranquility but in truth he had not in his Eye nor did he certainly believe that happy Fate of Christendome for which Monsieur T. labours so earnestly in consort with some particular Persons Enemies to the State Seditious and Disturbers of the Publick Repose But the King said pleasantly adds Monsieur T. that the Rogue Coquin du Cross had outwitted them all If Monsieur T. had not made the King say this and had said it himself I might have applied to him with as much Justice as any man in the World these Verses which I have read somewhere Coquin he calls me with mighty disdain Doubtless I should answer Monsieur T. thus Seek your Coquins elsewhere you 're one your self But the Person of Kings is sacred Besides Can that be an abuse which is spoken pleasantly without the least design perhaps of offending For Coquin is a word which the Late King of England often used when he spoke of People for whom he had notwithstanding Respect and Consideration 'T is true he used the word also very familiarly when he was angry but at such times he spoke with indignation and not pleasantly The Parliament presented an Address to the King as Monsieur T. reports in which they represented the Progress of the French Arms and desired him to stop it before it became more dangerous to
England and the other Neighbouring Countries Den Bernard de Salinas continues Monsieur T. said to certain Members of the Commons that this Address had so exasperated the King that he said those who were the Authors of it were a Company of Coquins I remembred at my Arrival in England in 1675. before I was to go into France in Quality of an Envoy whither I acknowledge his most Christian Majesty would not permit me to come either because they had informed him that I had embraced the Protestant Religion or it may be because the King of France would not receive his own Subjects in the Quality of Ministers of other Princes It happened I say that the King of England to whom also I had a Commission bid the Marquiss of Ruvigni one Evening bring me to his Cabinet and himself come in with me The King enquired of me at the first what news I could tell him of the Condition of the Swedes Army in Pomerania through which I past and exprest much concern that the Constable Wrangle not minding to pass forward into the Empire as Monsieur T. says had thereby different pretences had attacked the Elector of Branderburg as vigorously and with as much success as he could I told the King the reason which concerns not my present subject to report here Afterwards I having informed the King of the State of Germany the King believing that I was to pass into France spoke to me in these very words Monsieur tell the King my Brother that it is much against my mind that I have made Peace with these Coquins the Hollanders Monsieur the Marquiss of Ruvigny who stands here knows it well Sometime before the making of this Peace the King talking with Monsieur de Shrenborn Envoy from Mayence told him also in Relation to the Hollanders In a little time Monsieur I will bring these Coquins to Reason Monsieur de Barillon writ to the Count d' Auaux the French Ambassadour at the Hague certain Discourses which the King had concerning the Hollanders The Count d' Auaux made use of this to encrease the just Suspicions of the Esttates He carried the Letters of Monsieur Barillon to Monsieur Fagel Whereupon the States made a terrible Complaint and the King of England said on this Occasion to the Duke of Lauderdale that Monsieur Barillon and the Count d' Avaux were Coquins Had the King called me Coquin seriously I ought not to think it any very strange thing since he hath treated in the same manner the most powerful and wisest Republick of the World to whom he had so great Obligations two Ambassadours of his most Christian Majesty of extraordinary merit and as honest Men as France ever had and also the greatest Lords of his own Kingdom who were Authors of the Address which the Commons presented him There is also this difference that the King speaking of those Lords those Ambassadours and the Hollanders he called them Coquins in anger but when he spoke of me he said it pleasantly according to Monsieur T. and that I was a cunning Coquin more cunning than the Duke of York my Lord Treasurer the Secretary of State Williamson and even the King himself Either I am much deceived or all the Ministers of the Consederates that were then at London would have been all Coquins at this rate and Monsieur Temple himself and would have deceived those who abused and deceived them For besides there is more credit methinks on such like Occasions to be a cunning Rogue and to pass for a more able Man than the most able Ministers of State than to be the laughing-stock and the Fool of a Monk and a sort of Agent Sir William Temple and some others were truly so on this occasion But I would acquaint Sir W. Temple of what he has not perhaps heard of as he has done the like to me I do not invent it to revenge my self and â—f I would make use of falshoods I might make recourse to more heinous Affronts the truth of my Remarks upon his Memoirs shall be my full satisfaction What I shall relate may be found in my Letters upon that account to the Prince my Master and his Ministers I took no particular care to divulge it immediately to Mounsieur Barillon to whom I was so much devoted were he alive he might witness that as well as the Aversion the King of England always bore to Sir W. Temple and the little Esteem he had of him at bottom Upon my return from Nimeguen to London I went immediately to Court as soon as I came there I meet Prince Rupert who askt me with a sterne Countenance if the Peace was Concluded I answered him in the Affirmative upon which he cryed out and said O Dissimulation After having had the Honour to give his Majesty an account of what was past I told him of the ill humour I perceived Sir W. T. to be in and what I knew of his neglect of his Majesties Orders The King seemed very angry with Sir W's Proceedings and said he was a very impertinent R to find fault with my Commands But if the late K. of England did not approve of my Conduct in the affairs of Nimeguen which in effect he declared at first in Publick not to be pleased with in which he play'd his part to admiration If against his will I had truly inform'd the several Deputies at the Hague how that the two Kings of England and France were intirely agreed upon Conditions of Peace 〈◊〉 this accident changed the Destiny of Christendom and what endeavours soever the English Court had made there were no ways to repair the Breach If I was a Fool a piece of an Agent oâ— a Knave How comes it that the King suffer'd me to stay in England near a year nay as long as my Master thought fit Why was the King so civil to me Why did he recompence me for my Voyage from Nimeguen Upon what account did the King bestow several other Favours upon me How comes it that I haveing made a great Entertainment and Fireworks to shew my joy for the Re-establishment of the Duke my Master to his Teritories that the whole Court should do me that Honour as to be present thereat It was not my quality of Envoy Extraordinary of the Duke de Gottorp that hindred the King to express some kind of resentment against me and thereupon to bid me avoid the Kingdom I do well remember the King was just npon the point of making Mounsieur Van Beuningen Ambassador to the States General to withdraw and get him out of the Land because he had got the word Connivance to be foisted into a Memorial he presented to the King for the recalling of the English Forces which bore Armes in France Don Barnard de Salinas was the Spanish Envoy the King made much of him yea and loved him for the particular care he had in Flanders of the education of the E. of Plym one of the Ks. Sons He
did nothing but report up and down that the King gave the Authors of the Address presented to his Majesty by the House of Commons no better name than Rogues The King had his liberty to reject this Address as indeed he did and no ways apprehended the Consequences of it at that time yet for all that he banished Don Bern. de Salinas not in the least considering his Character nor the Kindness wherewith he had always honoured this Minister Yea and be Banished him too without any respect to the King of Spain But for me who had abused and deceived the D. of York My Lord Treasurer ay and the K. himself who had overthrown all those fair and vast Projects which the Confederates had contrived at London and Nimegaâ—nâ— and Sir W. T. at the Hague which had disclosed the Kings dispatches a master piece of Sâ—â—râ—â—ry who was the cause of quite changing the 〈◊〉 of Christendom for me I say against whom the 〈◊〉 Orange had written and caused to be written so many thundering Letters against whom all the Ministers of the Confederates called for Vengeance against whom Sir W. T. levelled more of his endeavours to destroy me than the Court did to repair this Breach and patch up the business it lets me alone it does not make the least complaint to the Duke my Master the K. does me a great many favours and laughs in his Sleeve at the Surprise at the Sorrow and Complaints of the Confederates and Sir W. T. After all that can any body reasonably believe that the K. of England might have lookt upon me as a Rogue And when he told Sir W. T. after a droleing manner that I was a Rogue and had o◠〈◊〉 thâ—â— all may it not be probable that he had a mind to jeer him and to make him sensible that he was taken but for Fool Iâ— was very like so to he I have not gone about My Lord to say iâ— this place what I might say to wipe of all those scandalous impressions that Sir W. T. hath such a desire to fasten upon me I suppose I have given your Lordship sufficiently to understand that what he hath been pleased to say upon this Theme of me proceeds from inveterate Spite and Malice But what way is there to get clear of one of the most Haughty and most Revengeful of men who in his Memoires falls foul upon the reputation even of the greatest Minister who casts aspersions on the Duke of Lauderdale that most Zealous and most Faithful Minister that ever the King was Master of on My Lord Arlington whom Sir W. is bound to respect as his Master who was his Benefactor that raised him from his sordid obscurity and as it were from the Dunghill to bring him into play This ingreatful person forsooke him that he might catch at the shadow and appearance of mending his Fortune he would not have stuck to ruin My Lord Arlington by base indirect means This is no hard matter to make out even by Sir W. T. his own Memoirs but yet I am acquainted with some particulars upon this Subject that make my hair stand an end nay and I have not only learnt them from My Lord Arlingtons own mouth but also from a noted Minister of those times What a piece of impudence to call in question and tax the Principal Ministers and the soberest Magistrates of Holland viz. Monsieur de â—everning Monsieur Valknier and others generally esteemed by every body To arraign them I say some for A varice others for Partiality I had almost said for betraying their Trust But above all to give such disad antagious representations of the E. of Rochester and of Sir Leoline Jenkyns that it would have been all one if he had said that Sir Leoline was a man of the other World a plain downright Ideot void of insight and Experience And that Law Hyde now E. of Rochester was a Lord altogether unacquainted with and no ways fit for the imployment the King gave him at Nimeguen neverthetheless Sir Leoline was made Secretary of State and no notice at all taken of Sir W. As for Laurence Hyde Sir W. speaks first of him as if he were a Youth that should have been sent to the University I plainly perceive saith he that the chief design of that Commission was to introduce Mr. Hyde into this sort of employment and to let him understand the manner how the men behave themselves in the same then he adds He excused himself out of modesty to have any thing to do with any Conference and Compiling Dispatches Was it out of the respect he owed to Sir W. T. or for want of Capacity that My Lord shewed so much modesty that he would neither make Dispatches nor meddle with Conferences what he who had been ingaged already as he was afterwards in very important Affairs who had been Embassadour in the principal Courts of Europe who was chosen as Chief of the Embasie at Nimegnen one who in all respects is so far above Sir W. T. for all these great qualities yet My Lord affords Sir W. just as much difference as a petty Scholar does a famous Pedant And to reward him Sir W. T. would make him pass in the world for an Embassadour that was but at best his Scholar I make account to tell you what Sir W. dare not acknowledge Mr. Hyde being more subtile and of greater Abilities than Sir W and of that quality too that was not to be exposed would not intermeddle in a Mediation which was like to suffer so gross Indignities as the Mediation of England suffered at the Treaty of Nimeguen One time or other I shall publish those Indignities in my Memoires together with the weakness and tameness wherewith they were content to suffer them But now if Sir W. T. hath not spared such Illustrious persons as these No not so much as My Lord Treasurer at present Marquis of Caermarthen laying something to his charge whom also he does not do that right and Justice which is due to so great a Minister of State one of the greatest Wits of the Age for business a person so Loyal to the King his Master that he sacrificed himself for his sake and after all so full of zeal for his Country that he hath bethought himself of all expedients and hath not feared to expose himself to peril and utter undoing that he might deliver it from the mischiefs that throaten it If Sir Will. hath not spared the Kings person whose Dignity and Reputation he so often sacrifices can I hope to escape his foul mouthed Language Peradventure he had better have done something else something wiser great Confident of Princes and Ks. the sole preserver of Flanders as he is than to have entred the lâ—st with a Monk with a kind of an Agent and with a cunning Knave But his desire of revenge hath prevailed he believes himself cruelly wrong'd and he is in the right on 't for that at the Hague
A LETTER FROM Monsieur de CROS Who was an Embassador at the Treaty of Nimeguen and a Resident in England in K. Ch. the Second's Reign Which may serve for an Answer to the Impostures of Sir W m Temple heretofore Ambassador from England at the Hague and at Nimeguen Till such time as a more ample and particular Relation be made of the Business in hand Together with some REMARKS Upon his MEMOIRS To make appear how grosly he is mistaken in the greatest part of the most important matters he relates concerning what passed from the Year 1672 until the Year 1679. LONDON Printed in the Year 1693. A LETTER from Mons de Cros c. My Lord I Have been informed of the Calumnies that Sir W. T. hath caused to be Printed against me I know very well that Sir W. is of great Worth and deserves well and that he hath been a long time employed and that too upon important occasions but I am as certain that he had but a small share in the Secrecy of the late King Charles's Designs in the greatest part of the Affairs for which he was employed from 72 till 79 which is the main Subject of his Work This Consideration alone might not perhaps have given me the curiosity or at least any great earnestness to read his Memoirs and I might have very well judged that I could draw from them no sufficient light and insight for the discovery of so many Intrigues Nay besides I might have doubted whether or no these Memoirs might not have been his own Panegyrick upon himself and the diminution and undervaluing of the real Worth and Glory of several Persons of Quality and distinguished by their Merit whose Fortune and Reputation Sir W. T. hath so much envied for I am particularly acquainted with Sir W's Pride He looks upon himself to have the greatest Reach to be the wisest and ablest Politician of his Time and a man may perceive abundance of Satyrical Reflexions scattered here and there in his Work against most illustrious Persons and that he hath stuffed his Memoirs with his own Praise and the fond over-weening Opinion he hath of himself Without doubt this is quite different from that Sincerity and Modesty which reigns throughout the Memoirs of Villeroy in the Negotiations and Transactions of Jeanin in the Letters of Card. Dossat those mighty and truly eminent Persons esteemed as such by the greatest Princes of their Age and even still are to this day by the ablest Politicians with much more Justice and Glory than Sir W's Book-Seller stiles him One of the Greatest Men of this Age. It had been Sir W's duty to have regulated himself according to their most excellent Pattern I shall at present only quote one Passage which I accidentally light on at the first opening his Book whereby one may easily guess at the greatness of his presumption in a shorttime My Lord I shall give you occasion to observe many others The Negotiations saith he that I managed and transacted at the Hague at Brussels at Aix la Chapelle which saved Flanders from the French Clutches in 68. made People believe I had some Credit and Reputation amongst the Spaniards as well as in Holland 'T was a Piece of strange Ingratitude of the Hollanders and Spaniards as well as of his own dear Country-men so much concern'd for the preservation of Flanders not to rear him a Statue which he saith some-where else Mr. Godolphin had promised him Could Sir W. T. have done any thing to deserve it more or was there any thing more worthy of Triumph than to have preserved Flanders a Country so important to the Spaniard and the only Bulwark of Holland and England But Sir W. was apt to believe he could not find any one who was better able to hammer out his own Glory than himself and he flattered himself with the Opinion that he should erect himself as many Statues as there are places in his Memoirs crouded with intolerable and ridiculous Vain-glory. It was not the Negotiations my Lord that Sir W. tells us he managed at the Hague Brussels and at Aix la Chappelle which saved Flanders from the hands of the French in 1668. The French published that they were beholding to the most Christian Kings Moderation for that Peace who was willing to put a stop to the progress and course of his victorious Arms. But the truth of it is they most justly ascribed all the Merit and all the Glory of the Peace and of the Triple League to the generous resolution and stedfastness of the States-General They made use upon this occasion of a Minister of State far beyond Sir W. in Prudence Experience and Capacity one who was in the Opinion even of his Enemies the most able Manager of Affairs of his Age. I shall not undertake my Lord in this place strictly to examine Sir W. Temple's Memoirs I will do it shortly if God spare me with Life nay and I promise you a Volume of Remarks at least as large as his Book If like him I had the Vanity to procure the printing of Memoirs during my life-time I could now have a fair pretence so to do and without all question I should publish more just and solid ones than his are Not that I have the presumption to judge my self more capable to do it but in several places he relates some things falsly whereof I am much better informed The only Hero of my piece shall be Truth without Complaisance or Flattery without Passion no not so much as against him So that I shall do him the satisfaction and kindness to instruct him better even touching divers Matters which he performed and executed without knowing so much as the reason why he was made to act so It is not likewise because I have been one of the Council of the King his Master yet I have had the Happiness during some Years to partake in the Confidence of a Minister of State who was in several important weighty Occasions as it were the Primum Mobile of that Conduct and Management that surprized all the World You know my Lord what Credit he had and of what nature his Intelligences were Sir W. may well imagine that I did not ill improve this able Ministers Confidence when Sir W. tells us That I had wholly devoted my self to him Men are not ignorant likewise that oftentimes I have had some access to the King's Ministers of State and even near to the King himself it did more especially appear in the business for which I took my Journey to Nimeguen and it would be a great shame that a Man more cunning and subtil than them all according to the King 's own Testimony as Sir W. relates it should not have had considering so much freedom of access and easiness the address and cunning to dive into the most hidden Springs of Deliberations and Resolutions wherein the Swede and my Master had so great an Interest Be therefore assured my Lord that
Execution of the Undertakings of this great Monarch There arrived said Sir W. at that time from England one whose name was de Cros. I shall not stop my Lord upon this Term of Contempt One called it is a very malicious Expression in respect of my self the late King of England himself did me the Honour to treat me in Passports in his Letters in his Commissions which he charged me with It is very impudent and rude to speak so of a Man who is of a good Family who has had the honour of being employed for almost twenty years and whom a great Prince and a King have not disdain'd to use as Councellor of State He was continues Sir W. a French Monk who had lately quitted his Frock for a Petticoat Here is a reproach which ill becomes an Ambassador of a Monarch who is Defender of the Faith and of the Protestant Religion of one who declared so openly at Nimeguen that he would have nothing to do with the Pope's Nuncio I do not know my Lord that it is a disgrace to be a Monk and much less to have been one formerly There are indeed amongst them as well asamongst the rest of Mankind some miserable Wretches of a mean Birth and of a disorderly and infamous Life People of no use without Honour and without Reputation Sir W. T. thought without doubt that I was of that Number but there are likewise several very famous for the Sanctity of their Lives of an extraordinary Merit and of the greatest Quality Sons of Princes and Kings and Kings themselves and Popes But if this sort of Life is not now as formerly it was so certain a Character of a good and honest Man do's Sir W. think he can dishonour me in reproaching me for leaving a Profession which himself thinks so contemptible for a Petticoat It will not be material in this place to say how I was engaged therein in my tender years There is nothing more usual in France Spain and Italy where ancient Houses do sacrifice a good part of their Families in Monasteries 't is a Maxim to say the truth most cruel and horrid Neither will I relate how and after what manner I came out of it however it was not for a Petticoat I have remained several years without so much as having any inclination to it and it hath been apparent that I have had much a-do and was very much unresolved as to this Choice There was too great advantage to throw off my Frock for the Petticoat that I have taken not to do it It is a Petticoat of a Scotch Stuff and which hath been a greater Ornament and done the Crown of England more good than Sir W. himself if he do not know it the History of England and Scotland in these late Times may inform him I shall enlarge no further that I may not engage my self to publish the Misfortunes and Disorders of Sir W's Family which I suppose would not be like a Gentleman I have no reason that I know of to complain neither of his Lady nor his Son nor of his Daughters Besides had I even cast off the Monk's Habit for a Petticoat I should have done no more than a great many worthy deferving Persons have done yea some of the Pope's Nuncio's Cardinals Bishops Kings and Princesses too who have quitted the Veil for the Breeches whose Posterity I make no question is highly esteemed and reverenced by Sir W. I did so well insinuate my self saith Sir W. into the Court of Sweden that I obtained from thence a Commission to be a kind of an Agent in England That is very dirty I have had the management of Affairs and the Quality of Envoy when Sir W. had no more than that of an Agent or Resident at Brussels I was Envoy at the Court of England before ever I was in Sweden or before ever I had any acquaintance there I went the first time to Sweden just at that time the late King of England sent me into Sweden and Denmark about the beginning of the Year 1676. The Pretence was for to demand the free passage of Letters which the King of Denmark refused for hastening the Congress of Nimeguen in procuring the expedition of Passports requisite to the Ministers of State who were to compose the Assembly and also to urge the Departure of the Embassadors belonging to those two Northern Crowns But now the true Cause was quite another Matter and of greater consequence not for the King of England but indeed for another Potentate That shall be made appear some time or other in my Memoirs Had I been a kind of a Swedish Agent I should not have defended my self in that Point I should have held it as a great piece of Honour since it could not chuse but be very glorious and splendid to have the Affairs of so great a King in such important Conjunctures as those were committed to ones charge and care but at the very time Sir W. speaks of I was dignified with the Quality of Envoy Extraordinary from the Duke of Holstein Gottorv acknowledged and received at the Court of England for such Sir W. knows that very well there was sent him divers Memoirs to Nimeguen whilst the Mediation lasted which I had delivered in at London concerning the re-setling my Master but the Interest and Concerns of this Prince were so indifferent to him that I was fain to beg of my Lord Treasurer to recommend them more particularly to Sir Leoline Jenkyns Moreover you may see Sir W. T. mentions in his Memoirs all the Potentates that had any interest in the Peace of Nimeguen except the Duke of Holstein Gottorp notwithstanding he had two Ministers at the Congress and although France had stipulated for his re-establishment in the second Article or Condition of the Peace such who shall peruse the Memoirs of Sir W. might be apt to think that the Duke of Holstein was reckoned as no body in the World and that he had no part at all in what pass'd in Christendoom from the commencing of the War in 1672 until the conclusion of the Peace 1679 But Thanks be to God Sir W. is not the Steward of Glory and Immortality Sir W. therefore must have often read my Name and Character in the Letters and Orders of the Court and cannot have forgot that he came to render me a Visit at my Lodgings at such time as he by the King's Order was to confer with me upon what account Monsieur Olivencrantz might be obliged to pass from Nimeguen into England That Swedish Embassador lodg'd at that time in my house 'T is true indeed as the Interests of my Master were inseparable from those of Sweden I found my self engaged to be very much concerned in the Interests of that Crown in whatsoever might depend on my care There was an Envoy extraordinary from Sweden at London and yet for all that the Swedish Ambassadors did me the Honour to maintain a very regular Correspondence
by Letters with me The King of England was also graciously pleased to hear me in what concerned the Affairs of the Swede although I was no otherwise authorized for it Monsieur Olivencrantz his Voyage to London was contrived first of all by the King and my self without the least medling or intervention of any one of his Ministers and then again in the Negotiation whereof my Voyage to Nimeguen was a Consequence the Restitution of Sweden was especially insisted upon All this made many Men believe that I was intrusted with the Management of the Affairs of this Crown and Monsieur Van Beuninguen believed it so to be in the Letter he writ to the Lords States-General which hath since been printed where he speaks with so much uncertainty concerning the Voyage I was about to make to Nimeguen and about this Negotiation that it was evident it was a very great Secret Since his being at London saith Sir W. speaking of me he hath wholly devoted himself to Monsieur Barillon the French Ambassador under pretence to act for the Interests of Sweden Monsieur Barillon was not at that time in London when I was sent thither he came not thither till a long time after I found Monsieur le Marquis de Ruvigni there whom Monsieur Courtin succeeded and after that Monsieur Barillon came to take the place of Monsieur Courtin I never devoted my self to this Ambassador and I never had any Correspondence or was in League with him prejudicial to my Duty Nay it happened the King of England one day having a design more especially to take into Consideration the Swedish Interests Monsieur de Barillon diverted him from it whether for fear lest a particular Peace should be clapp'd up between the Northern Crowns or else out of Jealousie that he might leave the Glory of the Restitution of this Crown to the King his Master and depriving it of all other relief might keep it in the mean time in a greater dependance I was so much put to it and fell out with Mr. Baâ—illon so much thereupon that I did not so much as â—peak to him in 3 or 4 months nay one day as the King was at Dinner I cast in his teeth what had past â—n the presence of Monsieur Wachmeister Envoy-Exâ—raordinary from the King of Sweden I do not question but Monsieur Wachmeister remembers it well enough he is no less worthy to be believed than he â—s brave and undaunted And now after this manner I became all one with â—he Ambassador of France But yet I must confess â—hat at such time as he stickled for my Master's Inâ—erest and that of the Swede I was intirely devoted â—o him thinking my self most happy that I was â—nabled to pay my most humble Services to such a â—reat Monarch whose Subject I have the honour to â—e without failing in my Loyalty and Allegiance â—hichlought to pay him before all others whatsoever Whereupon my Lord I shall tell you one thing in â—hich Monsieur de Revigni at present Lord Galloâ—ay cannot but agree with me no nor Monsieur â—livencrantz neither The departure of this Amâ—assador for England occasioned shrewd suspicions both at Nimeguen and London to the French Ambassadors Monsieur Barillon was much alarm'd at it especially when he saw that Monsieur Olivencrantz lodged at my House and when he knew that I had offered a Project upon which I had the Honour sometimes to be in debate with my Lord Treasurer Monsieur Barillon put all in practice to sift him to the bottom nevertheless all the offers of this French Embassador proved ineffectual and wrought thing upon this Man who if a man would give credit to Sir W. T. was intirely devoted to Mons Barillon and yet Mons Barillon found him not to be corrupted or bribed One would think my Lord that Sir W T. has a mind to make Men believe that I was only sent into Holland to carry him a Dispatch from the Court for he is always harping upon this String when he mentions my Voyage Yet please to take notice my Lord That he confesseth that it was I who procured this Dispatch What means the King then when he says That I had been too cunning for them all There is not so much Prudence and great Abilities required in a Courier it is sufficient that he be expeditious But this Message must needs have been Honourable to employ an Envoy extraordinary of one of the greatest Princes of the Empire except it be what Sir W. hath been pleased to say That I was so much devoted to the King yea and to Monsieur Barillon too and so little tender of my Master's Dignity that I would comply with any Offices If I were a Courier or Messenger Monsieur T. hath at least done me a good Office in representing me to be what I would not have the Confidence to believe my self namely that I was an able Messenger a Courier of the Cabinet and very deep in the King's Trust and Confidence For before ever Monsieur T. spoke of this Dispatch which as he says the Court sent him to be kept as a mighty Secret Pensioner Fagel says he knew all the Contents and was quite stun'd at it Dâ— Cross had industriously informed the Deputies of the Town I Copy from Monsieur T. and had told them that the two Kings were intirely agreed an the Conditions of Peace that he had carried Orders to Monsieur T. to go to Nimeguen and that at his Arrival there he would find the Letters of my Lord Sunderland the English Ambassador at Paris with all the Articles as they are concluded between the two Crowns Here is I acknowledge a very expert Messenger very knowing in the Secret and very forward in the work in 4 or 5 hours time that I had been at the Hague Monsieur T. will be much more stun'd than Monsieur Fagel was when he shall know hereafter what past at the Hague in that little time that I was there not having discovered what it really was neither then nor since It was most certainly something of greater importance than to tell the Deputies of the Towns the Contents of the Dispatch with which I was intrusted And Monsieur T. will see cleerly one day how far this only incident did change the Fate of Christendome I pretend not adds Monsieur T. to determine by whose means and how du Cross obtained this Dispatch And a little lower All that I could learn at Court about this matter was that his Orders were made up one morning in an hours time at the Dutchess of Portsmouths apartment by the intervenâ—i n of Monsieur Barillon It 's pity that an English Ambassadour that all the King his Master's Council if one can believe it that a Man who if he had pleased himself might have been several times Secretary of State should be so little informed I will not say during his absence while he remained at the Hague and at Nimeguin but even since his return into England of