Territories lye closer and rounder than they wert then left That when this should be concluded His Majesty would be ready to enter into the strongest Guaranties they could desire and might with Honour enter into a War to preserve it though He could not to obtain it The Pensioner first gave me thanks for my good Offices in the late Peace and in all the measures of Friendship that had interceded between His Majesty and them since the first breach he Applauded the King's resolution in so pious and generous an offer and acknowledg'd his Interest might lead him to other dispositions That he doubted not the States willingness to accept it all the difference would be about the time and the manner of doing it As to this he said they could not do it without the communication at least of their Allies but would immediately give them part of His Majesty's offer and the States dispositions to receive it That for the terms of a Peace as to their own parts they would be content to make His Majesty the Arbiter of it That they had already recover'd all the Towns they had lost except Grave and Mastricht the last of which was in some manner engag'd to Spain when it should be recover'd and for the other they doubted not to have a good account of it very soon orders being already gone to invest it But he doubted whether their Allies would be so easy in their expectations or demands and that 't was impossible for the States to leave them who have sav'd their Countrey from ruin when two so great Kings had invaded them nor to break the Treaties which they had made Offensive with the Emperor Spain and Brandenburgh That the term stipulated with Spain oblig'd them to reduce France to the Treaty of the Pyrenees but only a reserve was made by one Article which was Unless it should otherwise be agreed by consent between them That whatever Spain would be content with should satisfy them though they were both equally sensible of the Designs and Ambition of France as well as of their ill talent to the States That they could never hope for such another conjuncture to reduce them to such bounds and measures as might be safe to their Neighbours and give quiet to Christendom That it was now an ill time to enter into the terms of a Peace between France and Spain because he knew they should have ill Grace to demand the restitution of any Towns the Spanjards had lost in Flanders by the last War and given up by the Peace that succeeded it and yet His Majesty knew as well as they that without it a Peace could neither be safe for Flanders nor for Holland nor consequently for England But he believ'd there would not pass many days before some decisive Action would happen between the Armies now not far distant in the Field which would make room for the Negotiation of Peace that might succeed next Winter in which His Majesty would find the Interests and Humours of a Trading Countrey as theirs was very strong and dispos'd to press their Allies as far as was possible to facilitate so great and so good a work And for the rest of the Allies besides Spain He had no reason to suspect any great difficulties would arise so little having yet pass'd in the War between France and them The Pensioner was right in expecting some sudden Action between the Armies for about the middle of August came the news of the Battel of Seneffe between the Confederates under the Command of the Prince of Orange and the French under the Prince of Conde But it prov'd not an Action so decisive as was expected between two Armies of so great Force and so animated by the hatred and revenge of the Parties as well as by the Bravery and Ambition of the Commanders The success of this Fight was so differently reported by those engag'd in it that it was hard to judge of the Victory which each side challeng'd and perhaps neither with any great reason The Confederates had for some days sought a Battel with great desire and endeavour and the French avoided it with resolution not to Fight unless upon evident advantage whilst both Armies lay near Nivelle and not far distant from one another The Reason of this was thought to be of one side the ardour of the young Prince of Orange to make way by a Victory into France it self and there revenge the Invasion of his Countrey and at the same time to make his first essay of a Pitch'd Battel against so great and renown'd a General as the Prince of Conde On the other side this old Captain had too much Honour to lose and thought he had not enough to gain by entring the lists with a Prince of three and twenty years old bred up in the shade of a contrary Faction till he was forc'd into the Field by the French Invasion of his Countrey Nor was the Advantage less on the French side in the Reputation of their Troops than of their General compos'd of excellent Officers chosen Soldiers exactly disciplin'd long train'd for action before they began it and now flesh'd by the uninterrupted Successes of two Wars But the Dutch Troops when the Prince of Orange enter'd upon the Command were old or lazy Soldiers disus'd with long Peace and disabled with young unskilful Officers chosen by no other merit than that of a Faction against the House of Orange then fill'd up when the War broke out with hasty and undistinguish'd Levies and disheartn'd with perpetual Losses of Towns and defeats of Parties during the two first Campagns The Prince of Conde had another restraint upon the usual boldness of his nature in such occasions which was the ill posture he had been in at Court since this King's Reign and in regard how much more he would have to answer for than another man upon any great misfortune to his Army which must have left the way open for the Confederates to enter France unguarded on that side by any strong Frontier so as no man knew what shake it might give to the greatness of that Crown with the help of great and general Discontents whereof this Prince was thought to have his share Upon these Dispositions in the Generals the Battel was for some time industriously sought and avoided Till the Prince of Orange believing there was no way of coming to a Battel but by the siege of some place that might be thought worth the venture to relieve broke up march'd away towards Seneffe his Army divided into three Parts whereof the German Troops under the Count de Souches had the Van the Spanish under Prince Vaudemont the Reer and the Dutch under the Count Waldeck the main Battel with whom the Prince marched and Commanded the whole Confederate Army The Prince of Conde observing their march which was not far from one side of his Retrenchments and that by the straitness of some Passages they were forced to file off in small
wholly upon England for any resource in their Affairs after Holland had deserted them as they thought by such precipitate terms of a Peace that many of the chief Ministers at Nimeguen left that place as of no more use to the Treaty it was designed for and went into England where they thought the whole scene of that Affair then lay among whom was Count Antoine the Danish Ambassador and soon after Monsieur Olivecrantz the Swedish with the Elector of Brandenburgh's Envoy and several others However the Negotiation continued there between the French Ambassadors and Monsieur Beverning till he was sent to the French Camp where he concluded the Terms of the Peace towards the end of June and a Cessation from all Hostilities in Flanders for six weeks which was given to the Dutch to endeavour the Spaniards entring into the Peace upon the Terms they had proposed for them And in the whole Course of this Negotiation France seemed to have no regards but for Holland and for them so much that the most Christian King assured the States That tho' Spain should not agree yet he had such care of their satisfaction that he would always provide such a Barriere in Flanders should be left as they thought necessary for their safety and that after the Peace should be made and the ancient Amity restored he would be ready to enter into such Engagements and Measures with them as should for ever secure their Repose and their Liberty This was by all interpreted an invidious word put in on purpose to cajole the Enemies of the Prince who ever pretended the suspicions of his affecting more Authority than they desired and thereby kept up a Popular Party in the State the chief of whom had been the chief promoters of the present Peace and indeed the Prince was not at all reserved in the Endeavours of opposing it but used all that was possible and agreeable to the Forms of the State yet all in vain the humour having spread so far at first in Holland and from thence into the other Provinces that it was no longer to be opposed or diverted by the Prince In the mean time England was grown pretty indifferent in the matter of the Peace and Spain seemed well inclined to accept their part of it But the Emperor the King of Denmark and Elector of Brandenburgh fell into the highest Declarations and Reproaches against the States that could be well invented ripping up all they had ventured and suffered in a War they had begun only for the preservation of Holland how they were now abandoned by them in pretending to conclude Imperious and Arbitrary terms of a Peace upon them without their consent That they were willing to treat with France and make a Peace upon any safe and reasonable Conditions but would never endure to have them imposed as from a Conqueror and would venture all rather than accept them especially those for the Duke of Lorain whose case was the worst treated tho' the most favoured in appearance by all the Confederates and the least contested by France Notwithstanding all these storms from their Allies the Dutch were little mov'd and held on their course having small regard to any of their satisfaction besides that of Spain in what concern'd the Safety of Flanders and the necessities of that Crown made them easie tho' as little contented as the rest So as the Peace was upon the point of signing by the French and Dutch Ambassadors when an unexpected Incident fell in which had like to have overturn'd this whole Fabrick and to have renew'd the War with greater Heats and more equal Forces by engaging England to a share of it in favour of the Confederates which they had been long practising without Success and now without Hopes In the Conditions which Holland had made for the French restoring the six Towns in Flanders to Spain there was no particular mention made of the time of that Restitution the Dutch understanding as well as the Spaniards That it was to be upon the Ratifications of the Peace with Spain and Holland whether any of the other Allies on each side were included or no. But when the Dutch Treaty was near signing the Marquess de Balbaces either found or made some occasion of enquiring more particularly of the French Intentions upon this Point The French Ambassadors made no difficulty of declaring That the King their Master being obliged to see an entire Restitution made to the Swedes of all they had lost in the War could not evacuate the Towns in Flanders till those to the Swedes were likewise restored and that this detention of places was the only means to induce the Princes of the North to accept of the Peace Monsieur Beverning gave Account to his Masters of this new pretence and the States order'd him to let the French Ambassadors know he could not sign the Peace without the Restitution of the Places in Flanders upon the Ratification of the Treaty The French Ambassadors were firm on t'other side and said Their Orders were positive to insist upon the Restitution of Sweden The States hereupon sent to Monsieur Van Lewen to acquaint his Majesty with this unexpected Incident and to know his Opinion and Resolution upon a point of so great moment to the Peace of Christendom on the one side and to the Safety of Flanders on the other The King was difficult at first to believe it but sending to the French Ambassador at London to know the Truth of it and finding him own his Master's intention not to evacuate the Towns till the General Peace was concluded and Sweden satisfied He was both surpriz'd and angry at this proceeding of France and next morning sent for me to the Foreign Committee and there declar'd his resolution of sending me immediately into Holland with Commission to sign a Treaty with the States by which they should be obliged to carry on the War and His Majesty to enter into it in case France should not consent within a certain time limited to evacuate the Towns The Duke fell into this Counsel with great warmth and said at the Committee That it was plain by this pace that France was not sincere in the business of the Peace That they aim'd at the Universal Monarchy and that none but His Majesty could hinder them from it in the Posture that Christendom stood All the Lords of the Committee agreed with so general a concurrence that it was hard to imagin this should not prove a steddy Resolution how little soever we had been given to any such His Majesty took the pains to press Van Lewen to go over with me to perswade the States of the sincereness and constancy of his resolution to pursue this Measure with the utmost of his Power and took upon himself to excuse to the States his Masters the making this Journey without Their consent Upon this Dispatch Mr. Godolphin who had been so lately in Holland told me That if I brought the States to
People there with Jealousies of the Prince's Match in England and of Designs from both upon their Liberties by a long and unnecessary Continuance of the War They united the Factions in Amsterdam upon the sente of a Peace and upon their own Conditions to avoid those that had been Proposed by His Majesty When they had gained their Point with the several Deputies in Holland they acquainted the King with their being sure of the Peace on that side and by his Ambassador at Paris made Offers of mighty Sums both to himself and his chief Minister only for their Consent to such a Peace as Holland it self was content with When the States had absolutely resolved on the Peace by the particular Faction of Amsterdam and general Terror upon the French taking of Gant and threatning Antwerp they esteemed the humour in Holland so violent towards the Peace and so unsatisfied with the fluctuation of our Councils in England that they thought they might be bold with them upon the Interests of Spain and so raised the pretence of not evacuating the Towns before the satisfaction of Sweden and tho' I know this was by the Politicians esteemed a wrong pace of France yet I did not think it so but that all Appearances were for their succeeding in it Nor had they reason to believe either our Court or Holland would have resented it to that degree they did or that they could have fallen into such close and sudden measures and with such confidence as they happened to do upon this occasion by the Treaty of July at the Hague When this was concluded they made all the Offers that could be at breaking the force of it by drawing it into Negotiation and by condescentions to the States unusual with that Crown even to the greatest Kings They poysoned it by the Dispatch of de Cros and by his instructions as well as Artifices and Industry to make the Contents of it publick at the Hague which were pretended at Court to be sent over to me with the greatest secret that could be At the same time they made all the Declarations of not receding from the difficulties they had raised otherwise than by Treaty and thereby laid asleep all Jealousies of the Confederates as well as endeavours to prevent a blow they did not believe could arrive where the Honour of France seemed so far ingaged And thus they continued till the very day limitted for their final Declaration The secret was so well kept that none had the least umbrage of it that very morning When they declared it they left not the Dutch Ambassadors time enough to send to their Masters fearing if they had the States would have refused to sign without Spain which could not be ready before the time must have elapsed for incurring the effects of the late Treaty Thus the Peace was gained with Holland His Majesty was excluded from any fair pretence of entring into the War after the vast Expence of raising a great Army and transporting them into Flanders and after a great expectation of his People raised and as they thought deluded Spain was necessitated to accept the terms that the Dutch had negotiated for them and this left the Peace of the Empire wholly at the mercy and discretion of France and the restitution of Lorain which all had consented in wholly abandoned and unprovided So that I must again conclude the Conduct of France to have been admirable in the whole course of this Affair and the Italian Proverb to continue true Che gle Francesi pazzi sono morti On the contrary our Councils and Conduct were like those of a floating Island driven one way or t'other according to the Winds or Tides The Kings dispositions inclin'd him to preserve his measures with France and consequently to promote a Peace which might break the present Confederacy The humour of his People and Parliament was violent towards engaging him in a War the Ministers were wavering between the fears of making their Court ill or of drawing upon them the heats of a House of Commons whom the King's Expences made him always in need of From these humours arose those uncertainties in our Councils that no Man who was not behind the Curtain could tell what to make of and which appeared to others much more mysterious than indeed they were till a new and formidable Engin beginning to appear upon the Stage made the Court fall into an absolute resolution of entring into the War just when it was too late and to post away the Ratifications of the Treaty of July so as to arrive the day after the French and Dutch had sign'd the Peace and after the King had given the States occasion to believe he did not intend to ratifie it but that he had taken his Measures with France for so all Men in Holland concluded from De Cros's Journey and the Commands he brought me for mine to Nimeguen at a time when my presence at the Hague was thought the most necessary both to ratifie the Treaty if it had been intended and to keep the States firm to their resolutions upon it Thus ended in smoak this whole Negotiation which was near raising so great a fire France having made the Peace with Holland treated all the rest of it with ease and leasure as playing a sure Game England to avoid a cruel Convulsion that threatned them at home would fain have gone into the War if Holland would have been prevail'd with but they could not trust us enough to lose the present Interest of Trade for the uncertain Events of a War wherein they thought their Neighbours more concern'd than Themselves About two or three days after my return to the Hague and exchanging the Ratifications came the News of the Battel of Mons between the Prince of Orange and the French under the Command of the Duke of Lutzenburgh who had posted himself with the Strength and Flower of the French Forces so as to prevent the Prince's Design of Relieving Mons. And I remember the day the Dutch Peace was signed at Nimeguen I was saying to the Mareschal d' Estrades That for ought I knew we might have a Peace sign'd and a Battel fought both in one day He reply'd There was no fear of it for the Duke of Lutzenburgh had writ him word He was so posted that if he had but Ten Thousand Men and the Prince Forty ye he was sure he would not be forced whereas he took His Army to be stronger than That of the Prince I need not relate an Action so well known in the World and so shall only say That in spight of many Disadvantages from an Army drawn so suddenly together so hasty a March as that of the Dutch and Posts taken with so much skill and fortified with so much industry by the French as was believed the Prince upon the fourteenth of August attacqued them with a resolution and vigour that at first surprized them and after an obstinate and bloody Fight
upon her back carryed him cross two Rooms set him down at the bottom of the Stairs pull'd off his Shoes put him on a pair of Slippers that stood there and all this without saying a word but when she had done told him He might go up to her Mistress who was in her Chamber I am very glad to have a little divertion with such pleasantries as these the thoughts of the busie Scene I was so deep engaged in that I will confess the very remembrance of it and all the strange surprizing turns of it began to renew those cruel Motions they had raised both in my head and heart whilst I had so great and so sensible a part in them But to return where I left the thread of these Affairs After the Peace of Holland and France the Ministers of the Confederates especially those of Denmark and Brandenbargh employed their last Efforts to prevent the Spaniards agreeing to their part of the Peace as accepted for them by the Dutch They exclaimed at their breach of Honour and Interest That what was left the Spaniards in Flanders by those Terms was indefensible and could serve but to exhaust their Men and Treasures to no purpose That the Design of France was only to break this present Confederacy by these separate Treaties and so leave the Spaniards abandoned by their Allies upon the next Invasion which they would have reason to expect if Spain should use them with as little regard of their Honour and Treaties as the Dutch Ambassadors seemed to design These themselves also met with some difficulties in their Mediation by a Pretension raised in France upon the County of Beaumont and Town of Bovigues which they did not find to have been mentioned in what had passed between the French and Dutch upon the score of Spain before the Peace was signed All these Circumstances began to make it look uncertain what would at length be determined by the States as to their Ratifications which were like to be delayed till Spain had concluded their Treaty though those of France had been dispatched so as to arrive at Nimeguen the twenty second of this Month and Monsieur d' Avaux commanded from thence to the Hague in quality of Ambassador Extraordinary to the States and the French Army had retired into France at the same time the Dutch return'd from before Mons. So that all seemed on the French side resolved to pursue the Peace on the side of the Empire and Princes of the North to carry on the War On the Spaniards very irresolute whether or no to accept the Peace the Dutch had mediated for them And in Holland 't was doubtful whether to ratifie that their Ambassadors had signed and whether at least before the Treaty of Spain should be agreed Whilst the minds of men were busied with different reasonings and presages as well as wishes upon this Conjuncture About the end of August Mr. Hyde arrived at the Hague from England without the least intimation given me of his Journey or his Errand so that I was surprized both to see him and to hear the design of such a sudden dispatch The substance of it was to acquaint the States how much the King had been surprized at the news of their Ambassadors having signed a particular Treaty with France even without the inclusion of Spain and without any Guaranty given for the evacution of the Towns within the time requisit To complain of this Precipitation of the States and at the same time of the new Pretensions that Franee had advanced upon the County of Beaumont and the Town of Bovigues which had retarded the Peace of Spain and hindred it from being concluded at the same time with that of Holland which His Majesty understood always to have been the Intention of the States as well as His own That for these Reasons he understood and believed that the late Treaty of July between His Majesty and the States ought to take effect the case being fallen out against which that was provided and both Parties being thereby obliged to enter jointly into the War against France That if the States would hereupon refuse to ratify the Treaty their Ministers had signed at Nimeguen His Majesty offered to declare War immediately against France and carry it on in all points according to the Articles and Obligations of the said Treaty with the States Tho' Mr. Hyde did not know or did not tell me the true spring of this resolute pace that was made by our Court so different from all the rest in the whole course of this Affair yet he assured me they were both in earnest and very warm upon the scent and desired nothing so much as to enter immediately and vigorously into the War in case Holland would be perswaded to continue it and that no time nor endeavours were to be neglected in pursuing the Commission he brought over which was given jointly to us both and recommended to me particularly from Court with all the instances and earnestness that could be When I carried him that very Evening to the Prince at Hounslerdike and he acquainted his Highness with the whole extent of his Errand and Instructions The Prince received it very coldly and only advised him to give in a Memorial to the States and ask Commissioners to treat by whom he would find what the Mind of the States was like to be upon this Affair and at which he would at present make no conjecture After a short Audience Mr. Hyde went to the Princess and left me alone with the Prince who as soon as he was gone lift up his Hands two or three times and said Was ever any thing so hot and so cold as this Court of yours Will the King that is so often at Sea never learn a Word that I shall never forget since my last passage When in a great Storm the Captain was all Night crying out to the Man at the Helm Steddy Steddy Steddy if this Dispatch had come twenty days ago it had changed the Face of Affairs in Christendom and the War might have been carried on till France had yielded to the Treaty of the Pyrenees and left the World in quiet for the rest of our lives As it comes now it will have no effect at all at least that is my opinion tho I would not say so to Mr. Hyde After this he ask'd me what I could imagin was at the bottom of this new heat in our Court and what could make it break out so mal a propos after the dissatisfaction they had expressed upon the late Treaty when it was first sent over and the Dispatch of De Cros so contrary to the design of it I told him very truly That I was perfectly ignorant of the whole matter and could give no guess at the motions of it And so I continued till some Months after when I was advised That the business of the Plot which has since made so much noise in the World was just
the other Wheels for while His Illness lasted and the event was doubtful all was in suspence and none of the Parties engag'd seem to have other Motions or Sentiments than what were rais'd by the Hopes or Fears of so important a Life After some days Fever it prov'd the Small-Pox which had been very Fatal in His Family and gave the greater Apprehensions to His Friends and His Countrey who express'd indeed a strange concernment upon this occasion by perpetual concourse of People to enquire after every minute's progress of His Illness Whilst it lasted he had taken a fancy hardly to Eat or Drink anything but what came from my House which the People after took notice of as it pass'd and tho' perhaps few Foreigners have had the luck to be better thought of or us'd in a strange Countrey than we had ever been in Holland yet several of our Dutch Friends told us That in case any thing fatal happen'd to the Prince from this Disease they believ'd the People would pull down our Houses and tear us all in pieces upon knowing what he took in his Sickness came from our hands God be thank'd all past without any bad accident tho ill symptoms at first and his recovery next to the Blessing of God was owing to the great evenness of his temper and constancy of mind which gave way to no impressions or imaginations that use to be of ill consâ—quence in that disease so that it pass'd in the common forms and within twenty days he was abroad and fell into the present business of the Scene among which the preparation for the Campania was the chief I cannot here forbear to give Monsieur Benting the Character due to him of the best Servant I have ever known in Prince's or private Family He tended his Master during the whole course of his Disease both night and day nothing he took was given him nor he ever remov'd in his Bed by any other hand and the Prince told me that whether he slept or no he could not tell but in Sixteen days and nights he never call'd once that he was not answer'd by Monsieur Benting as if he had been awake The first time the Prince was well enough to have his Head open'd and comb'd Monsieur Benting as soon as it was done begg'd of his Master to give him leave to go home for he was able to hold up no longer He did so and fell immediately sick of the same Disease and in great extremity but recover'd just soon enough to attend his Master into the Field where he was ever next his person The Campania happen'd to begin later than it u'sd to do on the French side both from the expectation what the Prince's sickness would end in and from some Commotions succeeding one another about this time in Guienne and Brittany upon occasion of the Imposts or Gabels which drew some of the French Forces into those parts But when those troubles were ended as they were by an unusual strain of Lenity and Clemency in composing them all imaginary endeavours were us'd to prepare in France for the Campania The King intended to Attack Flanders in the Head of all the choice of his Forces and with the greatest Vigour and Impression he could make this year upon the Spanish Netherlands yet the King pretended to be but a Volunteer in the Army of which he declar'd the Prince of Condé General whether to put the greatest Compliment he could on so great Merit or to hinder his Brother from making difficulty of Acting under that Prince's Orders And Monsieur Turenne was to be employ'd in Alsace to attend and amuse as much as he could the German Army for fear of giving the King too much diversion in Flanders and this with Orders to Act by concert with Count Wrangel General of the Swedish Forces in Pomerania who gave hopes of Marching so far into Germany as to concert his Actions or at least Motions with those of Monsieur Turenne On the other side the Confederates were as busy in their provisions against these designs The Elector of Mentz was drawn to throw off the remainders of his Neutrality and to receive the Imperial Troops into his Towns as Strasburgh had done and practices were set on foot to change the temper of the Court of Bavaria with hopes of success Montecuculi prepar'd to come down into Alsace with the Army of the Emperor and the adjoyning Circles and the Elector of Brandenburgh came to the Hague after the Prince of Orange's illness where Treaties were concluded with the King of Denmark's Ministers and review'd with the Duke of Lunenburgh's After which the Elector went immediately away to the relief of his own Subjects and Countrey then invaded and spoil'd by the open hostility of the Swedish Forces Whil'st he was at the Hague the Compliments pass'd in form between us but without visit or interview tho the Elector desir'd and pursu'd it with more instance than I well understood For he sent his Minister at the Hague first to me and afterwards engag'd the Prince himself to endeavour it by finding some expedient in the difficulties of Ceremony or else by proposing a third place But the French Ambassadors having taken up a form of refusing to visit any Elector unless they might have the hand given them in those Princes Houses and the Electors having never consented to it I told the Prince I could not go lower than the French Ambassadors did in that nor any other point and that meeting in a third place would look like a sort of approving the refusal made by the Electors And so I never saw this Prince during his stay at the Hague much to my regret because I had been possess'd of many qualities very esteemable in him In the mean time how useless soever for the present yet the forms of His Majesty's Mediation went on After it had been accepted by all parties the first Point that came to be consider'd on was the place of Treaty about which the Swedes could not surmount the difficulties during the course of the Mediation The House of Austria propos'd to have the Congress in some of the free Towns of the Empire as Francfort Hamburgh Strasburgh and some others France refus'd ever to come into any Town of the Empire upon the insults they receiv'd and complain'd of so much at Cologn in the seisure of Prince William of Furstenburg and a great sum of the French Money there but offer'd at the same time to come and Treat at Breda tho' belonging to one of the Parties engag'd in the War which they would make pass for a great condescention and testimony of that King's inclination to a Peace The Confederates on the other side would not hear of Breda they took that proposition as an artifice first to ingratiate with the States beyond the rest of their Allies but next which was the point of importance they look'd upon it as design'd to carry on either a separate Treaty with the
States or at least Private Measures and Correspondencies with several Towns and Persons of those Provinces so as to induce or force the States at last into a separaâ—e Treaty with France upon the difficulties or delays that might arise in a General one And upon this point the Allies were so jealous that the States Deputies of the Foreign Committee who manag'd all these Affairs in the first resort thought it necessary to seem as averse against Treating in any of their Dominions as any of the Allies Thus all places in Germany France and the Low-Countries seem'd absolutely excluded by one part or other and London was dislik'd by all as too remote and of difficult and uncertain Commerce for Letters by reason of the Sea After much perplexity upon this Subject in many Conferences I had with the Deputies and Discourses with the Pensioner I propos'd two places as the only I could think of left for any attempt upon all circumstances The first was Cleve which could not be said to belong to the Empire but to the Elector of Brandenburgh as Duke of Cleve and not as a Prince of the Empire The other was Nimeguen as being the last Town belonging to the States and upon the Borders of Germany Both Towns capable of such a reception as was necessary both in good Airs and easie of access from all parts center'd between Spain and Sweden between the Empire and France and near England where the Spiring of this Treaty was conceiv'd to be I thought France might not dislike Cleve even upon those regards the Allies suspected of the vicinity to the States and the Confederates could not except against it as belonging to one of them On t'other side if the Allies approv'd Cleve and France should refuse it yet they could not afterwards disapprove of Nimeguen which was but three Leagues nearer the Hague or Amsterdam where they suspected the French practices and disjoin'd from both by necessary passage of great Rivers which made the Commerce more difficult and slow than it would be from other Towns of the States Dominions Another Reason was That I knew no other to name that did not seem previously excluded and upon this the Deputies consented that I should propose both to the King that he might do the same to all the Parties but that I should begin with Cleve which I did This France refus'd upon pretence of some dependance upon the Empire but as was thought upon picque to the Duke of Brandenburgh with whom they were more offended at this time than with any of the Allies After this refusal and Nimeguen being advanc'd France first aâ—cepted it and afterwards the Allies who could not well refuse it after having express'd they would have been satisfied with Cleve and so this Place came to be fix'd for the Scene of this Negotiation But at the same time that France accepted the Place of Treaty they declar'd That they would not however send any Ambassâ—dors thither till the Emperor had given them satisfaction upon the two Points so long insisted of Prince William of Furstenburgh's Liberty and Restitution of the Money seized at Colen which were Points had been hitherto as obstinately refus'd at Vienna as demanded by France So as these paces towards a Peace gain'd at present very little ground but left way for the Actions and Successes of the ensuing Campania to determin the Times the Methods and Conditions of their pretended Treaty The French began their Action by the Siege of Limburgh with one part of their Army whilst the King with the rest lay encamp'd in a Post most convenient to oppose any attempt of relieving it to which purpose the Prince was upon his march but after a short and weak resistance it was taken before he could approach it For besides some delays forc'd by his sickness he began here to feel the weight that hung about him all the course of this War from the uncertain and slow marches of the German Horse and the weakness and disorders of the Spanish Troops which were necessary to make up his Army of strength to oppose that of France compos'd of such Numbers such brave and experienc'd Troops and under so great a Commander as the Prince of Conde and so gallant Officers After the taking of Limburgh the French and Confederate Armies in Flanders fell into no considerable Action or Attempt Neither daring to sit down before any Place of Strength while the other Army attended them and was ready to relieve it and neither seeming very earnest to come to a Battel unless with evident Advantages upon the loss of which so great Consequences seem'd to depend as the French entire Conquest of Flanders on the one side or the Confederates marching directly into France on the other after any great Victory Besides they seem'd to be amus'd by the expectation of what was likely to pass in Germany both upon the Rhine between the Imperialists and French and in Pomerania between the Swede and Brandenburgh which without new Successes in the Low-Countreys were like to decide in a great measure the Fate of this War whil'st the Confederates equally presum'd of their Successes in Alsatia and the French of those of the Swedes in the North. About the end of July the King of France weary of a dull Campania left the Army to the Prince of Conde and return'd with his Court to Versailles And the same month His Majesty seeing the Negotions of the Peace lay'd at present asleep sent for me to make a short turn into England and give an Account of all the Observations I had been able to make abroad upon the present Dispositions and Conjunctures as well as receive his Instructions for the future progress of his Mediation The Parliament in England tho much pleas'd with the last Peace in Holland yet were not so with His Majesty's desires of a General One They thought the Power of France too great since their last Conquest in Flanders and their Ambition too declar'd of atchieving it by one means and at one time or other They were suspicious of the Court 's favouring too much the French Designs by pursuing a Peace that would break so mighty a Confederacy as was now united against France They were jealous of the Councels which had made the late Alliance and Kindness between Us and France in the time of the late Cabal and besides these regards and the common Notions of balancing the Power of our Neighbours which were very popular the ambitious Designs of private but unquiet or aspring men fell in to augment and blow up the general ill humours upon the more Publick Accounts The Lord Shaftsbury impatient at his fall from so great a share of the Ministry and hoping to retrieve a Game he was forc'd to give over had run desperately into the popular humour both in Parliament and City of censuring the Court exclaiming against our partiality to France but most of all against the Conduct of the present Ministry And Lord Arlington was
of a new rupture He bid me further assure the Prince That for his Patrimonial Lands in Burgundy which were about eight thousand Pounds a year and Lordships of the greatest Royalty in that County he would undertake for his secure possessing them tho that County should remain in the French hands or for selling them to that King and at what price the Prince himself could think fit to value them The Prince's Answer was That for his own part he could be very well content to leave the terms of a Peace to his Majesty himself and believ'd the States would do so too but they were both engag'd by Treaty and Honour to their Allies and there was no thought of making Peace without them That he believ'd the Spaniards might be perswaded to it upon the terms of Aix with restitution only of Aeth Charleroy and Oudenarde towards composing some kind of necessary Frontier on that side but to part with Aire and St Omer without any further and greater exchange he believ'd they would not in the present posture of things That for France retaining the County of Burgundy as Conquer'd in this last War he was sure neither Spain nor the Emperor would ever consent to it unless they were beaten into it by disasters they had no reason to expect tho' for his own part he should be content with it provided the French would restore Tournay Courtray Lisle and Doway with their dependencies to the Spaniards in lieu of it because by that means Flanders would have a secure Frontier on that side and a reasonable good one by Aeth and Charleroy on the other and the security of Flanders was the chief interest of the States upon the Peace That for himself he thank'd his Majesty for his offer as to his Lands in Burgundy but they never came into his thought upon the terms of a Peace nor should ever hinder it but on t'other side he would be content to lose them all to gain one good Town more for the Spanjards in Flanders When I put him in mind as the King order'd me of the apprehensions He and the States might have of the Greatness of the House of Austria if their Successes continued he told me There was no need of that till they should go beyond the Peace of the Pyrenees whenever that should happen he should be as much a French man as he was now a Spaniard but not before He ended in desiring That whatever Plan his Majesty thought fit to propose for a Peace he would do it at the Congress at Nimeguen for the number and variety of Pretensions and Interests were grown so great by all the Parties now engag'd in a war that it could not be done in any other place and for his part he could never consent to any Treaty separate from his Allies That he believ'd they would be reasonable and if France would be so too the Peace might be made if not perhaps another Campania might bring them to reason and that this might have done it if some differences between him and the Spanjards in the Actions propos'd had not hinder'd the successes they hop'd for in Flanders and if Montecuculi's impatience to be at Vienna and pass the Winter there upon the Factions stirring at Court had not made him repass the Rhine and take his Winter-quarters in the Circles of the Empire there because if he had done it in Alsace he doubted his presence with the Army might be thought necessary After this Conference and no return from His Majesty to the account I gave him of it the Discourse ceas'd of Private Measures to be agreed to between His Majesty and the Prince and States for promoting a Peace and all thoughts began now to turn upon forming the Congress at Nimeguen I had another testimony given me of the firmness I had always found in the Prince upon the subject of the Peace by what one of the Spanish Ministers told me had lately pass'd between him and the Duke of Villa Hermosa His Highness had a long pretence depending at Madrid for about Two hundred thousand Pounds owing to his Family from that Crown since the Peace of Munster It had ever been delay'd tho' never refus'd an Agent from the Prince had of late very much press'd the Queen Regent of Spain upon this Subject and with much ado had obtain'd an Order for Fifty thousand Pounds and Bills were put into his hands by the Ministers there which when they arriv'd in Flanders instead of being paid they were Protested The Duke Villa Hermosa was so asham'd of this treatment that he sent a person purposely to excuse it to the Prince and assure him the fault was not in the Queen nor Ministers but only in the choice of hands by which it was transmitted and desir'd his Highness would not take it ill of the Queen The Prince answer'd No not at all on t'other side I have reason to take it well of the Queen for if she did not think me the honestest Man in the World she would not use me so however nothing of this kind shall hinder me from doing what I owe to my Allies or to my Honour Notwithstanding all I had written from the Prince to His Majesty upon this Subject yet my Lord Arlington upon pretended intelligence from his Relations in Holland endeavour'd to perswade him that he knew not the Prince's mind for want of some body that had more credit with him than I had and at the same time he pursu'd the Prince by Letters to desire the King to send over some such person as he might treat with in the last confidence upon all matters between them The Prince shew'd me his Letters and bid me assure the King and my Lord Treasurer that he could say no more than he had done to me and would not say so much to any other Man However my Lord Arlington upon the former suggestions prevail'd with the King to send over Sir Gabriel Sylvius instructed to know the bottom of the Prince's Mind upon the Subject of the Peace before the Campania began He acquainted the Prince with this resolution and that he was a person they knew His Highness would trust The Prince shewed me this Letter too and said He knew not what he meant that Lord Arlington knew as well as any Man how far he trusted both Sir Gabriel Sylvius and me This good usage ended all Correspondence between Lord Arlington and me which had lasted by Letters to this time tho' coldly since my being last in England But upon Sir Gabriel Sylvius's coming to the Hague in January and my preparation to go for Nimeguen I ended that scene having not learn'd enough of the Age nor the Court I liv'd in to act an unsincere part either in Friendship or in Love When Sir Gabriel came to the Hague he pass'd for a Man of some great Intrigue was perpetually at Court or in Conversation and Visits with the persons near the Prince or most imploy'd in the
the Passports I got loose from the Hague about the beginning of July 1676. upon my journey to Nimeguen where the French and Dutch Ambassadors being already arriv'd prest very much for my coming in regard Sir Lionel Jenkins excus'd himself from performing any acts or Offices of the Mediation till my arrival and contented himself to pass only the usual Visits The dispositions I observ'd in the several Parties towards the success of this Congress when I went in order to the opening of it were very different and very unlikely to draw it to any sudden issue but only to attend and be Govern'd by the Successes of the several Armies in the Field and the events expected from the Actions of the Campania The French had given all the facility they could for some Months past to the forming of the Congress and made all the haste they could for their Ambassadors to be upon the place desiring no better Peace than upon the present Plan of Affairs and hoping by their forwardness and the great backwardness of some of the Allies to make way for some separate Treaties with those among them who began to be impatient for the Peace The House of Austria was sullen as losers use to be and so were very slow and testy in all their paces towards this Treaty The Germans hoping for great successes of their Arms in this Campania and the Spaniards flattering themselves with the Interests His Majesty had in the preservation of Flanders and with the part which the Parliament in England seem'd of late to have taken in their Affairs and both were in hopes that something might arise from one of these sides to make room for pretensions that could not be in countenance as things stood at present The Swede was very earnest for a Peace as having more hopes of recovering himself that way than by the course of a War Denmark and Brandenburgh were violent for continuing the War finding the Swedes weak divided and unrelievable by France any otherwise than with their Moneys and hoping to drive them this Summer out of Germany The States were very desirous of the Peace having no pretences of their own but to get well out of a War that ruin'd their Trade and drain'd their Money but they durst not break from their Confederates not trusting England enough nor France at all so as to leave themselves in a condition of depending upon either of them after the Peace should be made One general Thread run through the Councils on both sides on the French to break the confidence and union of the Confederacy by different paces and advances to the several Parties in the course of the Treaty on the Confederates to preserve the same confidence and union with which they had carried on the War even after the Peace should be made His Majesty tho' he was offer'd by some of the Parties to be Arbiter as well as Mediator in the present differences and was known by them all to have it in his power to make that figure as he pleas'd yet chose the other and gave us orders accordingly only to perform the Offices of a bare Mediation and to avoid the Parties submitting their differences to his determination so that upon the whole it was easie to foresee the Congress would only prove a business of form and proceed no otherwise than as it should be mov'd or rather govern'd by the events of the Field However the opening of it might well be call'd the dawn of a Peace which put me in mind of the only Prophecy of this sort that I had ever thought worth taking notice of nor should I have done so but that Monsieur Colbert show'd it me at my coming to Nimeguen and made me remember to have seen it in my Lord Arlington's hands in the year 1668. who told me it was very old and had been found in some Abby of Germany It was in these terms Lilium intrabit in terram Leonis feras in brachiis gerens Aquila movebit alas in auxilium veniet filius hominis ab Austro tunc erit ingens bellum per totum terrarum orbem sed post quatuor annos pax elucescet salus erit filio hominis unde exitium putabatur Those that have a mind to give credit to such Prophesies from the course of events must allow the Leopards the Ancient Arms of England to be meant by Feras the King of Spain by filius hominis the Congress at Nimeguen four years after the War began by the Dawn of Peace and Spain's having been sav'd by the States or the Prince of Orange by those from whom their ruin was expected But I easily believe that as most Prophecies that run the World arise from the Contrivances of Crafty or the Dreams of Enthusiastical Heads and the Sense of them where there is any lies wrapt up in mystical or incoherent expressions fit to receive many sorts of Interpretations and some perhaps from the leisure of great Wits that are ill entertain'd and seek diversion to themselves by writing things at random with the scornful thought of amuzing the World about nothing so others of them are broach'd for old either after events happen or when they are so probable as to be easily conjectur'd by fore-seeing men And it seems strange that of the first kind being so many no more happen to be fulfill'd with the help of so much inclination to credit as well as so much invention to wrest the meaning of words to the sense pretended But whether this I mention may not have been one of the last kind is uncertain for in that very year it was produc'd and given my Lord Arlington by a French Man as he told me the design of this War was not only laying but well advanc'd by the Practices of Monsieur Colbert upon the Ministers of our Court where he was then Ambassador and by the violent humour of my Lord Clifford to enter the Leagues then projected by France so that the very day the Parliament gave his Majesty a mighty sum of Money to Compliment him upon so applauded a Councel and Success as that of the Triple Alliance in the Year 1668. That Lord coming out of the House of Commons where he was then a Member could not hold saying to a Friend of mine who came out with him That for all this great joy it must not be long before we have another War with Holland And which of these two Prophesies were the more to be consider'd or the better ininspir'd I leave it to every one to guess as they please Nimeguen is seated upon the side of a Hill which is the last of Germany and stoops upon the River Woal that washes the lower part of the Town and divides it from the Betow an Island lying all upon flat low Ground between the Woal and the old Rhine which was the ancient Seat of those the Romans call'd Batavians and for their Bravery and love of Liberty took into their Confederacy
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
industriously to the Deputies of the several Towns and acquainted them with it and that the Terms of the Peace were absolutely consented and agreed between the two Kings that he had brought me orders to go strait to Nimeguen and that I should at my arrival there meet with Letters from my Lord Sunderland the King's Ambassador at Paris with all the particulars concluded between them How this Dispatch by De Cros was gained or by whom I will not pretend to determin but upon my next return for England the Duke told me That He knew nothing of it till it was gone having been a hunting that morning my Lord Treasurer said all that could be to excuse himself of it and I never talked of it to Secretary Williamson but the King indeed told me pleasantly that the Rogue De Cros had out-witted them all The Account I met with at Court was That these Orders were agreed and dispatched one morning in an hours time and in the Dutchess of Portsmouth's Chamber by the intervention and pursuit of Monsieur Borillon However it was and what endeavours soever were made immediately after at our Court to retrieve this Game it never could be done and this one Incident changed the whole Fate of Christendom and with so little seeming ground for any such Council that before De Cros's arrival at the Hague the Swedish Ambassadors at Nimeguen had made the very same Declaration and Instances to the French Ambassadors there that I was posted away from the Hague upon the pretence of persuading them to resolve on When I arrived at Nimeguen there remained but three days of the term fixed by the late Treaty between His Majesty and the States at the Hague either for the French assent to the evacuation of the Towns or for the carrying on of the War in conjunction of England with Holland and consequently the rest of the Confederates I found all Men there perswaded that the Peace would not succeed and indeed all appearances were against it The French Ambassadors had given many Reasons in a formal sort of Manifesto to the Dutch why the King their Master could not consent to it without the previous satisfaction of Sweden whose Interests he esteemed the same with his own but yet declaring he was willing to receive any expedients the States should offer in this matter either by their Ambassadors at Nimeguen or such as they should send to His most Christian Majesty at Saint Quentin or Gant The Dutch gave them an Answer in Writing declaring It was a matter no longer entire since upon the difficulty raised about the Evacuation of the Towns the States their Masters had been induced to sign a Treaty with England from which they could not recede nor from the day therein fixed for determining the Fate of either Peace or War and as there was no time so there could be no use of any Deputation to St. Quentin or Gant nor any other Expedient besides the assent of France to evacuate the Towns After this the French Ambassador had declared to the Dutch That they had found the King their Master was resolved at the desire of the Swedes to retard the Peace no longer upon their consideration and would consent to evacuate the Towns upon condition the States would send their Deputies to treat upon the ways of securing the future satisfaction to Sweden which was by both intended But the Dutch Ambassadors continued peremptory that there could be no deputation made by their Masters and that if the term fixed by the late Treaty with England should elapse there was no remedy but the War must go on To this the French Ambassadors replying that their hands were bound up from proceeding further without such a Deputation the Peace was thereupon esteemed desperate and the more so because at the same time the Duke of Lutzenburg pressed Mons and the Mareschal Scomberg seemed to threaten Colen demanding of them immediate satisfaction of the Money that had been seized during the Assembly there and Brussels it self grew unquiet upon their finding themselves almost surrounded by French Troops so as the Confederate Ministers thought themselves secure of what they had so much and so long desired and aimed at which was a long War in conjunction with England for they neither believed France would yield a point they had so long and so publickly contested nor if they did that the Dutch would suffer their Ambassadors to sign the Peace without Spain and the time was now too near expiring for agreeing the Terms and Draught of a Treaty between the two Crowns which had not yet been in any kind digested In the midst of these Appearances and Dispositions at Nimeguen came the fatal Day agreed by the late Treaty at the Hague for determining whether a sudden Peace or a long War were to be reckoned upon in Christendom when in the morning early Monsieur Boreel who had been sent from Amsterdam to the Dutch Ambassadors at Nimeguen went to the French Ambassadors and after some Conference with them these three Ambassadors went immediately to those of Holland and declared to them they had received Orders to consent to the evacuation of the Towns and thereupon to sign the Peace but that it must be done that very morning Whether the Dutch were surprized or no they seemed to be so and entring into debate upon several of the Articles as well as upon the Interests of Spain this Conference lasted near five hours but ended in agreement upon all the Points both of Peace and Commerce between France and Holland and Orders for writing all fair with the greatest haste that was possible so as the Treaty might be signed that Night About Four in the Afternoon the French Ambassadors having demanded an hour of me and Sir Lionel came to us at my House gave us an account of their agreement with the Dutch Ambassadors upon all Points in difference between them and of the Treaty's being so ordered as that it should be signed that Evening and made us the offer that they would all come and sign it at my House that so we might have the part in it that was due to the Mediators We answered them That having been sent by His Majesty with Instructions only to Mediate a general Peace we could not by our Orders assist at the signing of a particular One and therefore desired them to excuse us from having any part in this Conclusion between them and the Dutch either by the Signing it at our Houses or by using our Names as Mediators in the Treaty The Dutch Ambassadors came to us likewise with the same Communication and Offer and received the same Answer and I observed their Conversation upon this mighty and sudden turn to be a good deal embarassed and something irresolute and not very well agreed between the two Ambassadors themselves Monsieur Beverning complained of the uncertainty of our Conduct in England and the incurable Jealousies that De Cros's Journey had raised in Holland That
so disorder'd them that tho' the Night prevented the end of this Action yet it was generally concluded That if he had been at liberty next day to pursue it with seven or eight thousand English that were ready to joyn his Army he must in all appearance not only have relieved Mons but made such an impression into France as had been often designed but never attempted since the War began and upon which a French Officer present in it said That he esteem'd This the only Heroick Action that had been done in the whole course or progress of it But the Morning after the Battel the Prince receiv'd from the States an Advice of the Peace having been sign'd at Nimeguen and thereupon immediately sent a Deputy with the News of it to Monsieur de Lutzenburgh After Compliments passed on both sides That Duke desir'd to see the Prince which was agreed to and they met in the Field at the Head of their Chief Officers where all passed with the Civilities that became the occasion and with great curiosity of the French to see and crowd about a Young Prince who had made so much noise in the World and had the day before given life and vigour to such a desperate Action as all Men esteem'd this Battel of St. Denis Yet many Reflections were made upon it by the Prince's Friends as well as his Enemies Some said That he knew the Peace was signed before the Fight began and that it was too great a venture both to Himself and the States and too great a Sacrifice to his own Honour since it could be to no other Advantage Others laid it to the Marquess of Grana who they said had intercepted and concealed the States Pacquet to the Prince which came into the Camp the day before the Battel but after it was resolved on and that he had hopes by such a breach of the Peace even after it was signed that the progress of it would have been defeated Whethere this were true or no I could never certainly be informed but so much is That the Prince could not have ended the War with greater Glory nor with greater Spight to see such a mighty Occasion wrested out of his hand by the sudden and unexpected signing of the Peace which he had assur'd himself the States would not have consented to without the Spaniards Yet upon the certain News of it he drew back his Army returned to the Hague and left the States to pursue their own paces in order to finishing the Treaty between France and Spain wherein the Dutch Embassadors at Nimeguen employed themselves with great zeal and diligence and no longer as Parties or Confederates but as Mediators whil'st Sir Lionel who continued still there in that Figure declin'd the Function as in a matter wherein he found our Court would not take any part nor allow themselves to have had any in the Peace between France and Holland Soon after the Prince's return he went to Dieren to hunt in the Velawe like a Person that had little else left to do And I having occasion to go at the same time to Amsterdam he desir'd me to remember him kindly to Monsieur Hoeft the Chief Burgomaster there and tell him That he desired him to be no longer in his Interests than he should find His Highness in the true Interests of the State I did so and Monsieur Hoeft very frankly and generously bid me tell the Prince He would be just what His Highness desir'd and be ever firm to his Interests while he was in Those of his Country but if ever His Highness departed from them he would be the first Man to oppose him till then he would neither Censure nor Distrust his Conduct for he knew very well without matual Trust between the Prince and the States his Country must be ruined From this time to that of his Death Monsieur Hoeft continued in the same Mind and by his Example that great and jealous Town began to fall into much more Confidence not only of the Prince but of his whose Conduct in the Administration of the Affairs of their State For the time I stay'd at Amsterdam I was every day in Conversation with Monsieur Hoeft who besides much Learning Worth Sincereness and Credit in his Town was a Man of a pleasant Natural Humour which makes in my Opinion the most agreeable Conversation of all other Ingredients and much more than any of those squeez'd or forc'd Strains of Wit that are in some places so much in request tho' I think commonly Men that affect them are themselves much fonder of them than any of the Company Dining one day at Monsieur Hoeft's and having a great Cold I observed every time I spit a tight handsome Wench that stood in the Room with a clean Cloth in her Hand was presently down to wipe it up and rub the Board clean Somebody at Table speaking of my Cold I said The most trouble it gave me was to see the poor Wench take so much pains about it Monsieur Hoeft told me 'T was well I escap'd so and that if his Wife had been at home tho' I were an Ambassador she would have turn'd me out of door for fouling her House And laughing at that humour said There were two Rooms of his House that he never durst come into and believed they were never open but twice a year to make them clean I said I found he was a good Patriat and not only in the Interests of his Countrey but in the Customs of his Town where that of the Wives governing was I heard a thing established He replied 'T was true and that all a man could hope for there was to have une douce Patrone and that his Wife was so Another of the Magistrates at Table who was a graver man said Monsieur Hoeft was pleasant but the thing was no more so in their Town than in any other places that he knew of Hoeft replied very briskly It was so and could not be otherwise for it had long been the Custom and whoever offered to break it would have banded against him not only all the Women of the Town but all those Men too that were governed by their Wives which would make too great a Party to be opposed In the afternoon upon a visit and occasion of what had been said at Monsieur Hoeft's many Stories were told of the strange and curious Cleanliness so general in that City and some so extravagant that my Sister took them for jest when the Secretary of Amsterdam that was of the Company desiring her to look out of the Window said Why Madam there is the House where one of our Magistrates going to visit the Mistress of it and knocking at the Door a strapping North Holland Lass came and opened it he asked Whether her Mistress was at home she said Yes and with that he offered to go in But the Wench marking his Shoes were not very clean took him by both Arms threw him
then breaking out and that the Court to avoid the Consequences That might have upon the ill humour of the Parliament which seemed to rise chiefly from the Peace His Majesty resolved to give them the satisfaction they had so long desired of entring into the War which is all the account I can give of this Council or Resolution The Event proved answerable to the Judgment the Prince at first made of it for tho' the States Deputies drew the matter into several Debates and Conferences with us which filled all Parties concerned in the War with different apprehensions and served to facilitate the Treaty between France and Spain yet the Pensioner told me from the first this was all the use that could be made of it and that the States were so unsatisfied with our whole Conduct in the business of the Peace that tho' they would be glad to see us in the War yet they were resolved to have no further part in it unless France should refuse what they had already promised to Spain However while this Affair continued in agitation during Mr. Hyde's stay at the Hague all appearances looked very different from the opinion of the Prince and Pensioner who alone had so full a grasp of the business in Holland as to make a true judgment what the general sentiments there would determin in Many of the Deputies were so ill satisfied with their Ambassadors having signed the Peace that they inclined to his Majesty's Proposals and framed several Articles against Monsieur Beverning's Proceedings whereof some lay'd mistakes to his Charge others the commission of matters absolutely necessary in the Treaty and others more directly his having gone beyond his Orders and Instructions particularly in having stipulated that the States should give their Guaranty for the Neutrality of Spain And in this point I doubt he had nothing to show from his Masters to cover him The rest seemed rather to be raised invidiously at his Conduct in having suddenly concluded an Affair which they now say might have had another issue if he had given it more breath tho' at that time many of his Accusers expected as little from England as he did and with reason alike since none of them could imagin any thing of that new Spring there from which this violent motion had begun Whatever Monsieur Beverning's Orders or his Proceedings had been the heats were so high against him at the Hague that many talked not only of disavowing what he had done but of forming Process against him upon it And tho' in a short stay he made there upon this occasion he had the fortune or the justice to see his Enemies grow calm towards him yet he was not a little mortified with so ill payment of what he thought had been so good Service to his Country and after his return to Nimeguen was observed to proceed in the Negotiations there with more flegm and caution than was natural to his Temper and less show of partiality to the Peace than he had made in the whole course of the Treaty All the while these matters were in motion at the Hague the King's Forces were every day transporting into Flanders as if the War were to be carried on with the greatest certainty and vigour which gave opinion and heart to those in Holland that disliked the Peace it raised also so great confidence in the Spaniardt that they fell into all the measures they could with the Confederate Ministers at Nimeguen to form difficulties and delays in the Treaty there between that Crown and France upon the security that Holland would not ratify theirs till that of Spain were concluded and that in the mean time they might be drawn into the War by the violent dispositions which now appeared in England as well as in the Confederates to continue it The Spanish Ambassadors laid hold of all occasions to except against the matter or style of those Articles which Holland had mediated between them and France they found difficulties upon the condition wherein the several Towns to be evacuated should be restored to them as to the Fortifications that had been made in them by the French and as to the Artillery and Munitions that were in them at the time when the Dutch had agreed upon those Conditions They found matter of dispute upon the Territories that belonged to the several Towns and especially upon the Chattellenie of Aeth which France had dismembred since it was in their possession and had joined above Threescore Villages to the Chattellenie of Tournay which had belonged to Aeth and were with that Town transferred by the Spaniards to the French upon the Peace of Aix la Chapelle But the French pretending now to restore it only in the Condition they had left it and not what they had found it the Spaniards made a mighty clamour both at London and the Hague upon this Subject and complained of this among other smaller matters as Innovations endeavoured to be introduced by France even beyond what they had themselves proposed to the Dutch and agreed in April last which had been laid and pursued as the very foundation of the Peace In this uncertain State all matters continued at the Hague for about Three Weeks the opinions of most Men running generally against the Peace as well as the Wagers at Amsterdam by which People often imagin the Pulse of the State is to be felt and judged tho' it indeed be a sort of Trade driven by Men that have little dealing or success in any other and is managed with more tricks than the rest seems to be in that Scene not only coyning false News upon the place but practising Intelligence from remote parts to their purpose concerting the same Advices from different Countries and making great Secret and Mystery of Reports that are raised on purpose to be publick and yet by such devices as these not only the Wagers at Amsterdam are commonly turning but the rising and falling of the very Actions of the East-India Company are often and in a great measure influenced But France thought the Conjuncture too important to let it hover long in such uncertainties and therefore first dispatched a Courier to their Ambassadors at Nimeguen with leave to satisfie the States in those Clauses of their Treaty wherein they seemed to except justly against Monsieur Beverning's Conduct and thereby cover the credit of that Minister who had been so affectionate an Instrument in the progress of the Treaty Next they gave them liberty to soften a little of the rigour they had hitherto exercised in the smallest points contested with the Spaniards and last of all they dispatched an Express to their Ambassadors with power to remit all the differenees which obstructed or retarded the conclusion of the Treaty between that Crown and Spain to the Determination and Arbitrage of the States themselves This was a pace of so much confidence towards the States and appeared such a testimony of the most Christian King's sincerity in the late
the Spaniards no part in the Affair I was of another mind and that besides the point and Honour which was clear in having the Peace made rather at London than the Hague I thought That of Interest might be the better pursued when we were sought to by the States than when we sought to them Besides I believed the Spaniard would play as fair in a Game that he thought so much his own and not suffer the Dutch to stop at any small Points especially those of Honour whereas that of the Flag tho' such was one His Majesty ought to lay most to heart My Lord Arlington after some debate agreed with me and desir'd me to go immediately and acquaint the King with this new and unexpected incident who was then at the House of Lords The King seem'd pleas'd with the change told me That since I did not Treat it at the Hague I should however at London and bid me go and acquaint the Marquess of Frezno with his resolution That if he and I could agree upon the terms the thing should soon be done The terms to be insisted on were soon agreed by His Majesty at the Foreign Committee which was composed of the Lord Chancellor Finch the Lord Treasurer the Lord Arlington and Mr. Henry Coventry Secretaries of State with whom His Majesty order'd my attendance upon this Affair When I was instructed of His Majesty's pleasure I went to the Marquess of Frezno and at three Meetings I concluded the whole Treaty with satisfaction to His Majesty and transport to the Marquess upon so great an Honour as he thought it to himself and the Fortunes he expected upon it from his Master The Articles being publick need no place here The two Points of greatest difficulty were that of the Flag and the re-calling all English Troops out of the French Service This last was compos'd by private Engagements to suffer those that were there to wear out without any Recruits and to permit no new ones to go over but at the same time to give leave for such Levies as the States should think fit to make in His Majesty's Dominions both of English and Scotch Regiments The other of the Flag was carried to all the height His Majesty could wish and thereby a Claim of the Crown to the acknowledgment of its Dominion in the Narrow-Seas allow'd by Treaty from the most Powerful of our Neighbours at Sea which had never yet been yielded to by the Weakest of them that I remember in the whole course of our pretence and had serv'd hitherto but for an occasion of quarrel whenever We or They had a mind to it upon other Reasons or Conjectures Nothing I confess had ever given me a greater pleasure in the greatest Publick Affairs I had run through than this Success as having been a Point I ever had at heart and in my endeavours to gain upon my first Negotiations in Holland but found Monsieur De Wit ever inflexible though he agreed with me that it would be a Rock upon which our firmest Alliances would be in danger to strike and to split whenever other Circumstances fell in to make either of the Parties content to alter the Measures we had entred into upon the Triple Alliance The Sum of Money given His Majesty by the States though it was not considerable in it self and less to the King by the greatest part of it being applied to the Prince of Orange's satisfaction for his Mothers Portion that had never been pay'd yet it gave the King the whole Honour of the Peace as the Sum given by the Parliament upon it and the general satisfaction of his People made the ease of it And thus happily ended our part of a War so fatal to the rest of Christendom in the Consequences of it which no Man perhaps now alive will see the end of and had been begun and carried on as far as it would go under the Ministry of five Men who were usually called The Cabal a Word unluckily falling out of the five first Letters of their Names that is Clifford Arlington Buckingham Ashley and Lauderdale But though the Counsels and Conduct of these Men had begun the War with two unusual strains to the Honour of the Crown in the attaque of the Smyrna-Fleet and stopping up the Bank yet it must be allow'd them to have succeeded well in the Honours they propos'd to themselves Clifford having gain'd by it the place of High Treasurer and Title of a Baron Ashley the Chancellor's place and an Earldom Arlington an Earldom with the Garter and Lauderdale a Dukedom with the Garter The Duke of Buckingham being already possest of all the Honours the Crown could give of that kind contented himself to make no better a bargain in this matter than he used to do in all others that concern'd him and so pretended no further than Commands in the Army And thus instead of making so great a King as they pretended by this Dutch War and French Alliance they had the Honour of making only four great Subjects After the Peace was made His Majesty's first care was to soften the stroak as much as he could toward France which was done by representing the necessities of it that needed no false colours and at the same time to offer his Mediation between the Parties remaining still in the War in case France either desired or accepted of it which took up some time to determin In the mean while I continued in the Posture and Thoughts of the Private Man I was in before this Revolution till about a week after the whole conclusion of it when my Lord Arlington told me how kindly the King took of me both the readiness I had express'd in going over into Holland and the easiness I shew'd upon the failing of that Commission as well as the pains and success in the Treaty with the Spanish Ambassador and not knowing any thing better he had to give me he was resolv'd to send me Ambassador Extraordinary into Spain and to that purpose immediately to recall Sir William Godolphin the Ordinary Ambassador there for many reasons that he said made it necessary in this Conjuncture I acknowledg'd the Honour His Majesty intended me but desir'd time to give my Answer till I had consulted my Father upon it who was then in Ireland but in the intention of coming suddenly over however in a month I undertook to resolve My Lord Arlington told me He did not expect any demur upon such an Offer which he took to be of the best Employment the King had to give and therefore he had already acquainted the Spanish Ambassador with it who receiv'd it with great joy and resolv'd immediately to give part of it to the Court at Madrid which he was sure was already done and therefore he would reckon upon it as a thing concluded though for the good Grace of it to my Father he undertook the King would give me the time I ask'd to resolve When I writ
had never been esteem'd so before The King of France march'd as far as Vtrecht where he fix'd his Camp and his Court and from thence began to consider of the ways how to possess himself of the rest which was defended only by their Scituation upon some flat Lands that as they had by infinite labour in Canals and Digues been either gain'd or preserv'd from Inundations so they were subject to them upon opening the Sluces whenever the Dutch found no other way of saving their Country but by losing it This at least was generally believ'd in the French Camp and Court and as I have heard was the Preservation of the State For that King unwilling to venture the Honour and Advantage of such Conquests as he had made that Summer upon the Hazards of a new sort of War with a merciless Element where neither Conduct nor Courage was of use resolv'd to leave the rest to practices of Peace with the States upon the advantage of the terms he stood in and the small distance of place between them or if these should not succeed then he trusted to the Frosts of the following Winter which seldom fail in that Country to make all passable and safe for Troops and Carriages themselves that in Summer would be impassable either from the Waters or the depth of Soil In the mean time the State and the Government of Holland took a new Form and with it a new Heart Monsieur De Witt and his Brother had been Massacreed by the sudden fury of the People at the Hague and by the Fate of Ministers that Govern by a Party or Faction who are usually Sacrificed to the first great Misfortunes abroad that fall in to aggravate or inflame the general Discontents at home The Fact and the manner having been very unusual may be the Subject of others enquiry as it was of Mine which gave me this account The Ruart of Putten Eldest Brother to Monsieur De Witt had been accused of a design upon the Prince's Life and of endeavouring by Money to engage one of his Highness's Domestiques in that Attempt But no other Witness appearing he was sentenc'd only to be Banished at which the People show'd great dissatisfaction being possest with an Opinion of his Guilt The Morning he was to come out of Prison Monsieur De Witt against the Opinion of his Friends would needs go himself to bring him out with more Honour and carry him out of Town and to that purpose went with his Coach and four Horses to the Court This being not usual to this Minister made the People take more notice of it and gather together Tumultuously first in the streets where he passed and then about the Court where the Prisoner was kept Some of the Trained Bands of the Hague that were upon the Guard mingled among them and began to rail aloud against the Judgment of the Court the Crime of one Brother and the Insolence of the Other who pretended as they said to carry him away in Triumph In the midst of this Heat and Passion rais'd by these kind of Discourses among the Populace the two Brothers came out some of the Train'd Bands stop'd them began to treat them at first with ill Language and from Words fell to Blows upon which Monsieur De Witt foreseeing how the Trajedy would end took his Brother by the hand and was at the same time knock'd down with the butt end of a Musket They were both presently laid dead upon the place then drag'd about the Town by the Fury of the People and Torn in pieces Thus ended one of the greatest Lifes of any Subject in our Age and about the 47 th year of his own after having Served or rather Administred that State as Pensioner of Holland for about eighteen years with great Honour to his Countrey and himself After the Death of these Brothers the Provinces and Towns run with Unanimous Voices into Publick Demands of the Prince's being restored to the Authority of his Ancestors The States had in the beginning of the Year declared him Captain General and Admiral of their Forces which was no more than De Witt had always profest was designed for Him when he should be of Age but this was found neither to have satisfied England nor the Prince's Party at home and therefore all the Members of the State agreed in those Acts that were thought necessary to a full Restitution of His Highness now at the Age of Twenty one Years to the Office and Power of Stadtholder with all advantages and even some more than those which had been exercised by his Ancestors At the same time Monsieur Fagel was introduced into Monsieur De Witt 's Place of Pentsioner of Holland whose Love to his Countrey made him a Lover of the Prince as believing it could not be Sav'd by any other Hand and whose Zeal to his own Religion made him an Enemy irreconcilable to France whose Professions as well as Designs were to destroy it This Revolution as it calm'd all at Home so it made the first Appearance of defending what was left of the Country The State grew United the Army in Heart and Foreign Princes began to take Confidence in the Honour and Constancy of the Young Prince which they had in a manner wholly lost upon the Divisions and Misfortunes of the State The French themselves turn'd all their Application and Practices the same way and made the Prince all the offers that could be of Honour Advantages to his Person and Family Provided he would be contented to depend upon them The Bait they thought could not fail of being swallow'd and about which most Artifice was employ'd was the Proposal of making the Prince Sovereign of the Provinces under the Protection of England and France And to say truth at a time when so little of the Provinces was left and what remain'd was under Water and in so eminent danger upon the first Frosts of the Winter this seemed a lure to which a meaner Soul than that of this Prince might very well stoop But his was above it and his Answers always firm That he never would betray a Trust that was given him nor ever fell the Liberties of his Countrey that his Ancestors had so long defended Yet the Game he play'd was then thought so desperate that one of his nearest Servants told me he had long expostulated it with his Master and ask'd him at last how he pretended to live after Holland was lost and whether he had thought so far The Prince told him he had and that he was resolv'd to live upon the Lands he had left in Germany and that he he had rather pass his life in Hunting there than sell his Country or his Liberty to France at any Price I will say nothing of the Ambassy sent at this time by his Majesty to the French King at Vtretcht where the Three Ambassadors Duke of Buckingham Lord Arlington and Lord Halifax found him in his highest Exaltation for
That if a King could engage them in his designs he had no more to do for the Peasants having no Land were as insignificant in the Government as the Women and Children are here That on the contrary the great bulk of Land in England lies in the hands of the Yeomanry or lower Gentry and their hearts are high by ease and plenty as those of the French Peasantry are wholly dispirited by labour and want That the Kings of France are very great in possessions of Lands and in dependances by such vast numbers of Offices both Military and Civil as well as Ecclesiastical whereas those of England having few Offices to bestow having parted with their Lands their Court of Wards and Knights Service have no means to raise or keep Armies on foot but by supplies from their Parliaments nor Revenues to maintain any foreign War by other ways That if they had an Army on Foot yet if compos'd of English they would never serve ends that the People hated and fear'd That the Roman Catholicks in England were not the hundredth part of the Nation and in Scotland not the two hundredth and it seem'd against all common sense to think by one part to govern Ninety nine that were of contrary minds and humours That for foreign Troops if they were few they would signifie nothing but to raise hatred and discontent and how to raise to bring over at once and to maintain many was very hard to imagin That the Force seeming necessary to subdue the Liberties and Spirits of this Nation could not be esteem'd less than an Army of Threescore thousand men since the Romans were forced to keep Twelve Legions to that purpose the Norman to institute Sixty two thousand Knights Fees and Cromwell left an Army of near Eighty thousand men That I never knew but one Foreigner that understood England well which was Gourville whom I knew the King esteem'd the soundest Head of any Frenchman he had ever seen That when I was at Brussels in the first Dutch War and he heard the Parliament grew weary of it he said The King had nothing to do but to make the Peace That he had been long enough in England seen enough of our Court and People Parliaments to conclude Qu'un Roy d' Angleterre qui veut estree l'homme de son peuple est le plus grand Roy du monde mais s'il veut estre quelque chose d'advantage par Dieu il n'est plus rien The King heard me all very attentively but seem'd a little impatient at first Yet at last he said I had reason in all and so had Gourville and laying his hand upon mine he added Et je veux estre l'homme de mon peuple My Ambassy extraordinary to Holland was declar'd in May and my Dispatches finish'd at the Treasury as well as the Secretary's Office so as I went away in July My instructions were in general To assure the States of His Majesty's Friendship and firm Resolution to observe his Treaties with them then to offer his Mediation in the present War which both They and almost all Christendom were engag'd in and after their acceptance of it to endeavour it likewise with all their Allies and to that end to engage the Offices and Intervention of the States But immediately after my arrival at the Hague to repair to the Prince of Orange give him part of His Majesties Intentions in all this Affair and assurance of his kindness and engage His Highness as far as could be to second His Majesty's desires in promoting a General Peace wherein the Vnited Provinces seem'd to have the greatest Interest After my arrival at the Hague in July 1674. and a deliveâ—y of my Credentials to the President of the Week and a Visit to the Pensioner wherein I discover'd a strong inclination in the States to a Peace as far as their Honour and Engagâ—ments to their Allies would allow them and was assur'd of the States accepting His Majesty's Mediation I went away to Antwerp in hopes to have found the Prince at his Camp there between Antwerp and Lovain where he had lain some time attending the Advance of the Confederate Troops with whom he had concerted to joyn his Army upon their arrival in Flanders But two days before I came to Antwerp the Army was march'd beyond Lovain so as I was forc'd to go to Brussels and there desire a Guard to convey me to the Camp The Punctilio's of my Character would not suffer me to see the Count Montery tho I had for some Years liv'd at Brussels in particular Friendship and Conversation with him Few Strangers had perhaps ever been better us'd than I during three years Residence at Brussels by all Persons of Quality and indeed of all Ranks there so that it was very surprizing to me to meet such a dry and cold Treatment from the Governor and such an Affectation of the Persons of Quality not so much as to visit me for I do not remember one that did it besides Count d' Egmont who was then not very well at Court either in Spain or Flanders Others true I met in the Streets or the Park though they came with open arms to embrace me yet never came at me but contented themselves with saying They intended it When I sent my Secretary to the Count Montery with my Compliments and Desires of a Guard to the Prince of Orange who was then not above six Leagues off he return'd the first very coldly and the other with Excuses that amounted to a Refusal he said The Way was so dangerous by stragling Parties of the Army that he could not advise me to venture with a small Guard and he had drawn out so many of the Spanish Troops into the Field that he could not give me a great one I sent again to desire what he could spare me let the number be what it would for though I would not expose the King's Character nor his Business by any Accident I might prevent yet when I had endeavour'd it by my Application to his Excellence I would take my fortune tho he sent me but six of his Guards He replied That he could not possibly spare any of them but that next morning he expected a Troop of Horse to come into Town and that as soon as it arriv'd the Captain should have order to attend me Next morning was put off till night and night to the morning following when the Count finding I was resolv'd to go though without Convoy rather than to expect longer sent me a Spanish Captain with about Forty Horse to convey me to Lovain The truth was that the Spaniards were grown so jealous of His Majesty's Mediation offer'd at the Hague of the States and Peoples violent humour to a Peace in Holland and of the Offices they thought I might use to slacken the Prince of Orange in the vigorous Prosecution of their present Hopes and Designs that I found it was resolv'd to
delay first and then to hinder absolutely any interview between the Prince and me till the Campagn was ended but to do it with as little ill grace as they could To this purpose Du Moulin then one of the Prince's Secretaries and inveterate Enemy against the Court in England was dispatch'd between the Camp and Brussels whilst I lay there and with Guards whereof half would have serv'd my turn or at least contented me When I came to Lovain I found the Prince was march'd towards Tirlemont but could not learn where his next halt was design'd The Spanish Captain told me he had order to go no further than Lovain So that I neither knew whither to go nor could go any way without a Guard as they assur'd me at Lovain Whereupon I sent immediately Mr. Bulstrode who had come with me from Brussels to endeavour to find out the Prince and desire him to appoint what Time and Place I should attend His Highness which I resolv'd to do with those few Servants I had brought with me and such others as I could hire at Lovain where I lay that night The next morning Mr. Bulstrode return'd with the Prince's Answer That He was upon His March That He should be very glad to see me but could not possibly appoint either time or place for it because His Motions were uncertain and would depend upon the Advices He received By which I found plainly what I had suspected at Brussels That it was resolv'd I should not see the Prince before this Campagn was begun by the Actions then concerted among the Confederates I would not however seem to understand it so nor any thing more in it than what His Highness was pleas'd to say but I knew very well that as they say none is more deaf than he that will not hear so a man that will not be seen may easily find ways of avoiding it especially upon such Circumstances as the Prince and I were then in who must have follow'd the motions he would have given me And therefore I resolv'd not to expose either His Majesty's Character or Credit with His Nephew by making that Publick which had pass'd between the Prince and me upon this Subject but pretending my Health would not suffer me to follow the Prince upon His March I return'd to Antwerp and gave His Majesty an Account of all that had pass'd who extreamly approv'd my Conduct in it and that I press'd no further a Point that I saw would not go and that was taken by the Prince as well as Count Montery so differently from what His Majesty expected I stay'd only a Night at Antwerp which pass'd with so great Thunders and Lightning that I promis'd my self a very fair Day after it to go back to Rotterdam in the States Yatch that still attended me The Morning prov'd so but towards Evening the Sky grew foul and the Seamen presag'd ill weather and so resolv'd to lie at Anchor before Bergen op soom the Wind being cross and little When the night was fallen as black as ever I saw it soon began to clear up with the most violent flashes of Lightning as well as cracks of Thunder that I believe have ever been heard in our Age and Climate This continued all night and we felt such a fierce heat from every great flash of Lightning that the Captain apprehended it would fire his Ship But about eight the next Morning the Wind chang'd and came up with so strong a Gale that we came to Rotterdam in about Four hours and there found all mouths full of the Mischiefs and Accidents that the last night's Tempest had occasioned both among the Boats and the Houses by the Thunder Lightning Hail or Whirlwinds But the day after came Stories to the Hague from all parts of such violent effects as were almost ineredible At Amsterdam they were deplorable many Trees torn up by the roots Ships sunk in the Harbour and Boats in the Channels Houses beaten down and several People were snatch'd from the Ground as they walkt the Streets and thrown into the Canals But all was silenc'd by the Relations from Vtrecht where the Great and Ancient Cathedral was torn in Pieces by the Violences of this Storm and the vast Pillars of Stone that supported it were wreath'd like a twisted Club having been so strongly compos'd and cemented as rather to suffer such a change of figure than break in pieces as other parts of the Fabrick did hardly any Church of the Town escap'd the Violence of this Storm and very few Houses without the marks of it nor were the effâ—ctâ— of it less astonishing by the Relations from France and Brusels where the Damages were Infinite as well from Whirlwinds Thunder Lightning as from Hail-stones of Prodigious Bigness At my return to the Hague I had long conversations with the Pensioner by which I gain'd the lights necessary to discover the whole present Scene of Affairs and pulses of the several Confederates in what related to the General Peace I told him how much His Majesty was satisfied with that He had lately made with the States how much He was resolv'd to continue and to cultivate it How much reason he had to be content with the Posture That had left him in at Peace with all his Neighbours while they were all at War That Advantages of Commerce from it were enough to make him trouble himself no further about the Peace of Christendom if his Goodness and Piety did not prevail more with Him than His Interests But that these and the desire of a General Good had perswaded Him to offer his Mediation in the Present Quarrel That it had been already accepted by France and that the Emperor and Spain had answer'd they would consider of it in concert with their Allies That the States Embassadors at London had assur'd His Majesty Their Masters would be pleas'd with it and doubted not their consent that the Treaty should be at London and that thereupon His Majesty had charg'd me with a Letter to the States to offer them His Mediation That I could not doubt Their Accepting it with the best Grace that could be for I knew their Interest was to have a Peace and not to disoblige the King That if His Majesty were Partial to any side they ought to believe it would be to that wherein His own Nephew was so deeply concern'd and the more because he offer'd His Offices towards a Peace at a time when the Advantages and Preparations for the War run so high on the French side as He doubted the events might show if it continued That they knew His interest would not suffer Him to see Flanders lost and that considering what had pass'd His Honour would not now suffer him to think of preserving it any other way than by that of a Peace That he would be glad to see that Countrey left by the next Peace in a better Posture of Defence than it was by the last and the Spanish
serve him the best I could in so good an Endeavour and for the rest I should leave the Field free to my Lord Ossory and Him while they stay'd at the Hague as to all that was secret as to the rest I desir'd they would make what use they pleas'd of Me and my House My Lord Arlington took all I said very well and said 'T was not necessary I should leave them after I had introduc'd them to the Prince but in such a manner as I saw he would not dislike it nor have any body thought to have any part in the Successes he expected So next morning I brought them to the Prince and after a quarter of an hour's stay left them together The Prince would have had me stay'd but my Lord Arlington said not a word and I pretended some Letters press'd me and so went away and never saw them together any more while they stay'd at the Hague unless at Dinner or in mix'd and publick Company The truth is I was not the worse entertain'd during the course of this Adventure for my Lord Arlington told me every day what he thought fit of all that pass'd between them and the Prince told me not only the thing but the manner of it which was more important than the matter it self for This had no effect but the Other a great deal and that lasted long My Lord Arlington told me much of his Expostulations and with what good turns of Wit he had justified both the King's Part in the late War and His Own but that upon all he found the Prince dry and sullen or at the best uneasie and as if he wish'd it ended That upon Discourse of the State of Christendom and what related to the War he was engag'd in he made him no Overtures at all nor entred further than That the King might bring him out of it with Honour if he pleased and with Safety to Christendom if not it must go on till the Fortunes of the Parties changing made way for other thoughts than he believ'd either of them had at this time That this might happen after another Campania which none but His Majesty could prevent by inducing France to such terms as He thought just and safe for the rest of Christendom This was the Sum of what my Lord Arlington pretended to have pass'd in three long Conferences after which it grew so uneasy between them that he told me he had absolutely given it over and would not say a word more of business while he was there and attended His Majesty's Orders after the return of his Dispatches but would divert himself in the mean time as well as he could see the Prince as often as he pleased at Dinner or in Company but ask it no more in private unless the Prince of himself desir'd it and upon the whole gave all the signs of being equally disappointed and discontented with the Success of this Undertaking The Prince on the other side told me with what Arrogance and Insolence my Lord Arlington had entred upon all his Expostulations with him both upon the King's Chapter and His Own That it was not only in the Discourses of it as if he pretended to deal with a Child that he could by his Wit make believe what he pleased but in the manner he said all upon that Subject it was as if he had taken Himself for the Prince of Orange and him for my Lord Arlington That all he said was so artificial and giving such false Colours to things every body knew that he that was a plain Man could not bear it and was never so weary of any Conversation in his Life In short all the Prince told me upon it look'd spighted at my Lord Arlington and not very much satisfied with the King's Intentions upon this Errand tho he said he was sure His Majesty never intended he should treat it in the manner he had if he remembred that he was his Nephew tho nothing else After the first Conversations my Lord Arlington staid near six Weeks in Holland either upon contrary Winds to return his Dispatches or to carry him away often at Dinner with the Prince at Court or at Count Waldeck's or Monsieur Odyke's or with Me putting on the best Humour and Countenance affecting the Figure of one that had nothing of business in his Head or in the design of this Journey but at heart weary of his stay in Holland and unwilling to return with no better Account of his Errand and as it prov'd he had reason for both I found the Pensioner and Count Waldeck thought That the bent of my Lord Arlington was To draw the Prince into such Measures of a Peace as France then so much desired Into a discovery of those Persons who had made Advances to the Prince or the States of raising Commotions in England during the late War into secret Measures with the King of assisting him against any Rebels at home as well as Enemies abroad and into the Hopes or Designs of a Match with the Duke's Eldest Daughter Tho they said he found the Prince would not enter at all into the First was obstinate against the Second treated the Third as a disrespect to the King to think he could be so ill belov'd or so imprudent to need it and upon mention made of the last by my Lord Ossory he took no further hold of it then saying His Fortunes were not in a condition for him to think of a Wife Thus ended this Mystical Journey which I have the rather unveil'd because perhaps no other could do it nor I without so many several Lights from so many several Hands and because tho it brought forth no present Fruits yet Seeds were then scattered out of which sprung afterwards some very great Events My Lord Arlington return'd was receiv'd but coldly by the King and ill by the Duke who was angry that any mention had been made of the Lady Mary tho it was done only by my Lord Ossory and whether with Order from the King or no was not known So as never any strain of Court-skill and Contrivance succeeded so unfortunately as this had done and so contrary to all the Ends the Author of it proposed to himself Instead of advancing the Peace he left it desperate instead of establishing a Confidence between the King and the Prince he left all colder than he found it instead of entring into great personal Confidence and Friendship with the Prince he left an Unkindness that lasted ever after instead of retrieving his own Credit at Court which he found waining upon the increase of my Lord Danby's he made an end of all he had left with the King who never after us'd him with any Confidence further than the Forms of his Place and found my Lord Treasurer's Credit with the King more advanced in six weeks he had been away than it had done in many months before Whatever was the occasion France had this Winter an extreme desire of a
my own part I can say nothing of it with certainty having never seen the Prince while it was upon the Anvil no discours'd with him upon this Subject either before or after but if it were an ambition bent upon the Soveraignty of the rest of the Provinces as well as Gelderland it was a design very different from all his proceedings in the course of the War when France had propos'd it to him with all the advantages and support that could be and as different from what he had ever seem'd to understand and to be as much perswaded of as any Man That a Soveraign Prince in Holland would certainly and soon ruin the Trade and consequently the Riches and Greatness of that State and leave a Prince of it without power or consideration in the world whereas the Princes of Orange in the Post they have held for four Generations have enter'd into Wars and Treaties with a regard and weight equal to most of the Kings of Christendom For young Councellors that were thought to have engag'd the Prince in this adventure I cannot speak with more certainty than of the intention but I am sure if they were in it they were not alone for none doubts of Monsieur Fagel's having been for it and Monsieur Beverning who was ever thought as stanch a Patriot as any Man among them told me himself that he had advis'd the Prince to accept it which I believe he would not have done if he had foreseen any danger from it to his Countrey But whether the Prince or his Friends had the part that was commonly thought in the first overture 't is certain an Interest of the Deputies and Magistrates as well as Nobles of Gelderland had a share in it too For whereas this is the first Province in the Union and abounds with Nobles more than all the rest yet by reason of their Poverty from a barran Soil and want of Trade they are less consider'd than several other Provinces and their Voice has been in a manner swallow'd up by that of Holland who by their Trade and Riches have a great influence upon those of Gelderland The Deputies of this Province finding themselves yet less considerable in the Union than they were before the War which had extreamly impoverish'd their Countrey during the French Conquests thought there was no way of recovering such a consideration in the State as suited with the rank and dignity they held but devolving the Soveraignty of their Province upon the Prince of Orange Besides many of the Nobles there having pretences for themselves or their Friends in the Military imployments thought to make their Court to the Prince upon whom those Charges depended by advancing such a proposition and this was certainly a great ingredient into the first conception of it but whether conniv'd at or seconded by the Prince or his Friends or with what Aims or Instructions I cannot say and so leave it as a Mushroom that grew up suddenly and as suddenly wither'd and left no sign where it had grown At the Prince's return to the Hague in March 1675. I receiv'd a Letter from His Majesty's own hand telling me of some advices given him That the Prince intended to come over into England against the approaching Session of Parliament and Commanding me to hinder it as if His Majesty believ'd the thing I adventur'd to assure the King there could be nothing of it before I saw the Prince but when I did I pretended not to have had it from His Majesty but that I heard such a thing had been whisper'd to him He said yes and he believ'd by the Lord Arlington who had some times talk'd of that Journey after the Peace should be made However it came he was sorry the King should believe it That he was His Majesty's Servant and if he could do him no service he would at least do him no harm But if the King would be otherwise possest he could not help it yet desired me to assure him there had never been any ground for such a report In the Afternoon the Prince came to me and told me in great heat he had since he saw me receiv'd the most impertinent Letter from Lord Arlington that ever was upon that Subject treating it as a resolution certain and intended for raising heats in the Parliament and commotions in the Kingdom telling him 'T was like to prove but an ill friendship between the King and him if it was to be made A coup de bastons and putting him in mind Qu'il y a de ployes chez vous qui saigneront encore si l'on y met la main The Prince said he knew well enough what Lord Arlington meant by that expression for he had told Monsieur Read in England when he went over upon the first motions of the last Peace That the King could make the Prince be serv'd as De Witt was if he would set himself about it Upon this he fell into the greatest rage that ever I saw him against my Lord Arlington calling this proceeding malicious and insolent saying He would write to him what he deserv'd but never have any thing more to do with him beyond common forms That since he knew not how to trust the King's Ministers He would write to the King himself and desir'd me to convey his Letters so as they might come to no other hand Soon after Count Waldeek went to Vienna to concert the Actions of the next Campagnia where Count Montecuculi was appointed to command the Imperial Forces instead of Duke Bornonville and the Count Souches was sent away into a Government in Hungary In March the Elector of Brandenburgh came to Cleve upon the same concert where he was met by the Prince of Orange and the Marquess De Grana the Emperor's Minister but the main point debated here was thought to be the Defence necessary to be made in Pomerania against the Swede who began now to throw off the mask to Ravage the Countrey and to attack some places necessary for their Quarters The Moneys likewise paid that Court from France at Hamburgh had been so publick and so avow'd that none further doubted of a sudden and open Rupture from that Crown Whereupon the States sent to Monsieur Ehernstein then Swedish Ambassador at the Hague and who would have kept still the Figure of a Mediator to put in no more Memorials to the States upon that occasion since they could not receive them from a Minister of a Prince who had openly and without cause Attacqu'd one of their Allies At this time arriv'd an Ambassador from Denmark at the Hague to try what advantages his Master could make of this Present Conjuncture by Terms of entring into the Alliance with France and Sweden And all things being thus in the highest Fermentation a sudden damp fell upon the whole mass of these great affairs by the Sickness of the Prince of Orange which show'd him to be the Spring that gave motion to all
of the Pyrenees and in the year 1670. forc'd to escape by night and almost alone by a sudden surprize of the French Troops in the height and security of Peace after this he never had a home any more for the rest of his life which was spent in suing for Protection and Relief from the several Princes of Christendom who resented the injustice of his Case which none pretended to defend but yet none to concern themselves in it till upon the last War he fell into his share of the Confederacy with the weight of two or three thousand Lorainers that still follow'd his Fortune and enter'd into Leagues with the Emperor and most of the Allies for his restitution He seem'd not to deserve the Fortune of a Prince only because he seem'd not to care for it to hate the Constraints and Ceremonies that belong to it and to value no Pleasures in Life but the most natural and most easie and while he had them was never out of humour for wanting the rest Generous to his Servants and Soldiers when he had it and when he wanted endeavouring to make it up by the Liberties he gave them very much belov'd and familiar among both And to give his Picture by a small trait one of his Ministers told me That not long before he died all his Family was a Gentleman of the Horse as he was call'd another of his Chamber and a Boy that look'd to a little Nag he us'd to ride one day he call'd for his Horse the two first told him the Boy was not to be found He bid them however get him his Horse They could not agree which of them should go and Saddle him till the Duke bid them go and one or t'other of them do it or else he swore he would go down and Saddle his Horse himself they were as ham'd and 't was done About the same time died at the Hague the old Princess Dowager of Orange a Woman of the most Wit and good Sense in general that I have known and who had thereby a great part in forming the race of the Prince and the mighty improvement it receiv'd from three very extraordinary Women as well as three so great Men in the last descents None has shew'd more the force of Order and Oeconomy than this Princess who with small Revenues never above Twelve thousand pounds a year since her Husband's deash liv'd always in as great plenty and more curiousness and elegance than is seen in many greater Courts Among other pieces of Greatness She was constantly serv'd all in Gold Plate which went so far as to great Bottles for Water and a great Cistern for Bottles to the Key of her Closet and every thing of that kind She usually touched which I mention because I think 't is what the greatest Kings of Christendom have not pretended to do nor any I have heard of on this side Persia. In November this year happen'd a Storm at Northwest with a Spring-tide so violent as gave apprehensions of some loss irrecoverable to the Province of Holland and by several Breaches in the great Digues near Enckhuysen and others between Amsterdam and Harlem made way for such Inundations as had not been seen before by any man then alive and fill'd the Country with many relations of most deplorable Events But the incredible diligence and unanimous endeavours of the People upon such occasions gave a stop to the Fury of that Element and made way for recovering next year all the Lands tho' not the People Cattel and Houses that had been lost Before the end of the year the Danes took Wismar from the Suedes and by an open War those two Crowns came to be engag'd in the common quarrel and after a great expectation of some extraordinary Successes in the Spanish Affairs from Don John's intended expedition into Italy to command all the Forces and Provinces of that Crown both there and in Sicily when he was ready to go and meet de Ruyter at Barcelona who attended him there with the Dutch Fleet design'd for Messina he was by a Court-Intrigue recall'd to Madrid the King was then arriv'd in his Fourteenth year and took upon him the Government as now in Majority and by the advice of some near him in favour writ a Letter to Don John to invite him to Court to assist him in the Government he obey'd but stay'd not there above a Fortnight or three Weeks till by the Credit and Authority of the Queen Mother he was forc'd to quit his ground there and return to Saragoza and so vanish'd a mighty expectation that had been rais'd in Spain and other places of great effects that were to follow this Prince's coming to the Administration of Affairs and very great Sums of Money were wholly lost that had been employ'd in the Preparations of his Journey and Equipage for Italy And Sicily was left almost hopeless of recovery from the Successes of the French who had taken many Posts about Messina and threaten'd many more and other Towns were fear'd to follow the Example of that great Revolt After the Prince's return from the Campania to the Hague in October I had several Conferences with him upon the subject of the Peace and the Terms that both his Majesty and the States might think reasonable between France and Spain and both those Crowns be in any probability of consenting to That which France pretended was the terms of the Peace of Aix and retaining the County of Burgundy which had been since conquer'd or if either this Province or some of the most important Frontier Towns of Flanders should be restor'd then an equivalent to be made them for such restitution The Spaniards talk'd of nothing less than the Peace of the Pyrenees and that they would rather lose the rest of Flanders by the War than part with Burgundy by the Peace and said both the King and the States were as much concern'd in Flanders as the Crown of Spain and had the same Interest to see it safe by a War or a Peace which could not by such a Frontier as was left by that of Aix That which my Lord Arlington had propos'd to the Prince and Pensioner and which pass'd for his Majesty's Sentiment tho he pretended no Orders was the terms of Aix la Capelle but in regard of the necessity for the Spaniards to have a better Frontier in Flanders than was left by that Peace That the French should give up Aeth and Charleroy and Oudenarde for Aire and St. Omer And that if they parted with the County of Burgundy it should be for something in exchange His Majesty commanded me to assure the Prince That if a Peace could be made upon these terms or any so near them that he might hope to obtain the consent of France His Majesty for the security of Flanders would give his own Gaurranty to the Peace and enter into the strictest Alliance the States could desire for preserving it or defending Flanders in case
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-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
for the Treaty in order to it They declar'd their disapproval of the French Pretension rais'd to Lorain which seem'd only to obstruct it and that they would send their Ministers to the Congress whether the French came or no and their Commissary at the Hague so well seconded these new dispositions of his Court that whil'st the Congress look'd desperate by the declar'd obstinacy of both sides upon the Point of Lorain Ships and Passports were dispatch'd by the States with consent of their Allies to fetch the Swedish Ambassador from Gottenburgh into Holland The Confederates were besides much animated in their hopes from the dispositions and humours express'd in a late Session of Parliament in England which grew so high against the French or at least upon that pretence against the present Conduct of his Majesty or his Ministers that the King Prorogu'd them about Christmas before any of the matters projected by the warm Men amongst the House of Commons were brought into form The French were upon their march into Flanders and that King at the Head of a great and brave Army threatning some great Enterprize The Prince was preparing to go away into the Field with resolution and hopes of having the honour of a Battel at the opening of the Campania all thoughts of the Congress meeting before the end of it were laid aside when about the middle of May I was extremely surpriz'd to receive a Packet from Secretary Williamson with the French Passports for the Duke of Lorain's Ministers in the Form and with the Stiles demanded by the Allies And hereupon all difficulties being remov'd the Passports were exchang'd by the end of May. Some days were lost by a new demand of the Allies for Passports likewise for the Duke of Nieuburgh's Ministers who was newly entered into the common Alliance and the same paces were expected likewise from the Duke of Bavaria at least so the Germans flatter'd themselves or their Friends Upon this some of the Ministers of the Allies at the Hague whose Masters were very unwilling the Congress should begin before the campania ended prevail'd with the States to send Deputies to me to demand Passports for the Duke of Nieuburgh and any other Princes that should enter into their Alliance and to declare That if these were refus'd by France they would look upon what had been already granted as void I was something surpris'd at so unexpected a Message from the States and told their Deputies That such a Resolution was unpracticable That His Majesty had undertaken to procure Passports for the Parties engag'd in the War and all the Allies they had nam'd on both sides which was done and thereupon the Congress ready to begin and such a delay as this would occasion was both a disrespect to His Majesty and that could not be consented by France nor the Reciprocal of it by any of the Allies that foresaw the Consequences which might happen upon it That some Allie of France might fall off to the Confederates or some of the Confederates to France and with such Circumstances as it could not be expected either of them should think fit to give Passports or treat with them at the Congress nor was it a thing in any form to demand Passports without naming for whom they should be After several other exceptions the Deputies desir'd me to let them represent my reasons against it to the States and to expect their Answer till the next afternoon and one of them told me as he went out That I had all the reason in the world and that they had been too easie in it upon the instances of some Allies Next day the Deputies came to let me know the States had alter'd their resolution and desir'd only That His Majesty would procure Passports for the Duke of Nieuburgh's Ministers which I easily undertook This Change had not pass'd without violent heats between the States Deputies and the Ministers of some Allies who press'd them so far as one of the Deputies answer'd him Que pretendez vous donc Messieurs de nous faire deschirer par la Canaille Which shows the disposition that run so generally at this time throughout the Trading Provinces towards a Peace There remain'd now but one Preliminary undetermin'd which was To fix some extent of Neutral Countrey about the Place of Congress France would have extended it two leagues round the Allies would have it bounded of one side by the River of the Waal upon which Nimeguen stood and was divided by it from the Betow a part of the Province of Holland and through which lay the strait Road into the rest of that Countrey Both these Proposals were grounded upon the same reason That of France to facilitate the Commerce of their Ambassadors with the Towns of Holland incite the desires and enter into Practices of Peace distinct from the motions of the Congress That of the Allies to prevent or encumber the too easie and undiscover'd passage of the French Emissaries upon this occasion However both were positive in their Opinions so as this matter came not to be determin'd till some time after the Congress began and but lamely then CHAP. II. THE Prince was now ready to go into the Field and told me That before he went he must have some talk with me in private and at leisure and to that purpose desir'd it might be in the Garden of Hounslerdyke We appointed the hour and met accordingly He told me I would easily believe that being the only Son that was left of his Family he was often press'd by his Friends to think of Marrying and had many persons propos'd to him as their several humours led them That for his own part he knew it was a thing to be done at one time or other but that he had hitherto excus'd the thoughts of it otherwise than in general till the War was ended That besides his own Friends the Deputies of the States begun to press him more earnestly every day and the more as they saw the War like to continue and perhaps they had more reason to do it than any others That he had at last promis'd them he would think of it more seriously and particularly and so he had and resolv'd he would marry but the choice of a person he thought more difficult That he found himself inclin'd to no Proposals had been made him out of France or Germany nor indeed to any that had been mention'd upon this occasion by any of his Friends but that of England That before he concluded to make any paces that way he was resolv'd to have my Opinion upon two Points but yet would not ask it unless I promis'd to answer him as a Friend or at least an indifferent Person and not as the King's Ambassador When I told him he should be obey'd he went on and said That he would confess to me during the late War neither the States nor He in particular were without applications made them from several Persons
been instructed with more particular Confidence and to design it with me even apart from both his Collegues and mine in the pursuit of this intelligence but Monsieur D'Estrades valued himself chiefly upon his entring into it with me preferrable to all others tho' he had several other ways of doing it with the Prince as well as into what Practices he should think fit with the States by the help of so many Friendships and Habitudes as I knew he had contracted in Holland during so long a course of imployments there I answer'd That I was oblig'd to his Most Christian Majesty for his good opinion and to them for having given it him not having my self at all the Honour of being known to him That I should make no ill use of this great Honour and Confidence whether I should be able to make a good one or no That for his Majesty's dispositions to promote the Peace they knew them as well as I but that many considerations had engag'd him to instruct us the Mediators only to promote a general Peace and not to enter into any paces towards any particular one or separate between the Parties which such a private and previous concert between France and the Prince of Orange would look very like and therefore I did not see how I could enter upon it without particular Orders from the King That besides I would confess to them that I did not think it would be of any great effect if I should receive them and that the best Service I could do them the Ambassadors was to let them know very freely all that I knew or at least thought of the Prince of Orange and his dispositions in this great Affair that they might the better guess what paces to expect from him that I was sure he desir'd the Peace as much as the States could do that the weak Conduct of Spain and distracted Councels of the Empire was enough to force him upon it without many other circumstances that were too well known to trouble them with That the Prince knew very well there would be no difficulty at all in the Terms of a Peace between France and Holland and that all would arise from their Allies who had entred into the War only in their defence That their Faith and Honour were since engag'd by many Treaties concluded with them and which hindred them from making any separate Peace That in all those Treaties the Prince's Honour was more particularly engag'd upon which personally the several Princes Confederate were known to rely more than upon any publick Resolution or Instruments of the States That if any ways could be found or offers made towards bringing his Highness out of this War with the safety of his Honour by the satisfaction of his Allies upon any sort of Terms I was sure he would fall into them with all the Joy that could be but to break from them against all Faith and Agreements by separate measures I believ'd he would never be induc'd but by the last extremities of the War or necessities at home And that for his own Personal Interests I was confident no advantages to be offer'd him would ever be consider'd by his Highness how great soever but that two or three Towns more or less to the Spaniards for the strength of their Frontier in Flanders would prevail more with him than all could be done for his Interest in Orange or Burgundy and that all other Propositions of advantages more than were avow'd in the course of the Treaty were I believ'd what he would take ill from any that should make them and yet whenever I saw him next I would tell him of all that had past in this Conversation But for the deference they believ'd his Highness might have for my Senâ—â—ments I would assure them my Opinion was he had none for mine or any man 's else further than as their Arguments prevail'd upon his Judgment That he had sense enough to govern himself and I believ'd he would always trust to it tho he might advise with other men After these Conversations during the time I stay'd at Nimeguen Monsieur Colbert made many small Attacks of this kind upon me and sometimes contented himself only to let fall some things in Conversation to try if I was dispos'd to enter further upon that subject But the Mareschal D'Efirades immediately after began to turn his Battery another way which was upon the Pensioner Fagel by the intervention of a Person of Mastricht many of whose Letters the Pensioner show'd me upon the same occasion and with all the offers that could be made of Consideration and Advantage to the interests of the Prince of Orange which met with no other Reception from his Highness than what I foretold After the first Visits between us and the French and Dutch Ambassadors whom we only found at Nimeguen we receiv'd a Visit from the Magistrates of the Town who told us They had order from the States to remit the Government of the City to our disposition during the present Treaty and to proceed no otherwise in it than according to such Orders as they should receive from us the Mediators We told them It was his Majesty's Pleasure that we should not at all intermeddle with it but that on the contrary we should consign into the hands of the ordinary Justice of the Town any of our Domesticks that should be guilty of any Crime against the Peace or Government of the place and that Justice should be done upon them according to their Faults and that we should not take upon us to withdraw or protect them form the ordinary course of Justice by the Rights and Priviledges of that Character his Majesty had given us After this we applied our selves to propose some Regulations for the order and quiet of so numerous an Assembly as this was like to prove in a Town but too strait and compos'd of narrow Streets and to the establishment of some compass of Neutral Country about it for the convenience and divertisement of the Company that should compose it For the first we gave in a Paper to the French and Dutch Ambassadors with certain Articles to which we desir'd their consent not doubting but all others that should come after would easily fall into what they should previously agree to upon our desire They were these as we gave them in French the Language used in all Conferences and most Papers that pass'd in this Treaty 1. Que pour eviter les inconvenients qui pourront arriver par le grand nombre de traits dans les rues si étroits entre des coinssi incommodes Les Ambassadeurs Mediateurs proposent De ne faire les visits mesme de Ceremonie qu' avec chacun Ambassadeur deux Pages quatre Lacquais un Carosse a deux Chevaux de n'aller a aucune place de Conference ou autres lieux publiques avec plus d'un Page deux Lacquais a chaque Ambassadeur 2.
which was yielded for want of Provisions and as much against common opinion and expectation as the contrary event in the Siege of Mastricht The Affairs of Denmark and Brandenburgh prosper'd all this while against Sweden with advantage in most of the Sieges and Encounters that pass'd this Summer and the first part of the Winter following so that the Swedes seem'd to be losing apace all they had so long possess'd in Germany but the Imperial Forces tho' joyn'd with those of the several Princes upon the upper Rhine had made no progress in their design'd Conquests there and were forc'd to seek their old Quarters on the German side of the Rhine upon the approach of the French which was a true and undisputed decision of the small success of this Campania After it was ended the Parties engag'd in the War began to turn their thoughts or at least their eyes more towards the motions of the Treaty than they had hitherto done The Prince of Orange writ to me desir'd to see me for a day or two at Soesdycke near Amesfort about a days Journey from Nimeguen He complain'd much and with too much reason of the Conduct of his Allies the weakness or rather uselesness of the Spanish Troops in Flanders for want of Pay or Order the Imperial Armies acting without design upon the Rhine or with dependance upon Orders from Vienna where the emulation of the Ministers made such destraction and counter-paces of their Generals that the Campania had pass'd with small effect after the promises of vigorously invading either Lorain or France How the Dukes of Lunenburgh had fail'd of sending their Troops to Mastricht which with the Sickness of the Camp had render'd that Siege ineffectual So that he began to dispair of any good issue of the War and would be glad to hear I hop'd for a better of the Peace upon our Scene at Nimeguen after the Paces and Progress whereof he made particular enquiries I told him how little advances had been hitherto made by the slowness of his Allies dispatching their Ministers thither how little success could be expected from the pretentions of the Parties when they should meet especially France pretending to keep all they had got by the War and Spain to recover all they had lost how His Majesty seem'd of the mind to concern himself no further than the Paces of a Mediator our Orders being only to convey the Mind or Proposals of the Parties from one to another and even to avoid the offers of any references upon them to his Majesties determination so that my opinion was That it must be the War alone that must make the Peace and that I suppos'd it would do at one time or other by the weakness or weariness of one of the Parties The Prince seem'd of my mind and said the events of the War would depend upon the Conduct at Madrid and Vienna before next Campania for without some great successes he did not believe the States would be induc'd to continue it longer I told the Prince the Discourses Monsieur Colbert had entertained me with upon my arrival at Nimeguen in which his Highness was chiefly concerned upon which he replied coldly he had heard enough of the same kind another way which Monsieur D' Estrades had found out to Pensioner Fagel but that they knew him little that made him such Overtures and for his own Interests or Advantages let them find a way of saving his Honour by satisfying Spain and nothing of his Concerns should retard the Peace an hour After my return to Nimeguen I found the French making all the advances they could towards the progress of the Treaty and they were no doubt in earnest being in a posture to insist upon their present possessions and having made a great hand of this last Campania were willing like Gamesters that have won much to give over unless oblig'd to Play on by those that had lost The Swedes were more in haste and in earnest for the Peace than any hoping no Resource for their losses in Germany by the War The Dutch were grown impatient after the Peace finding France would make no difficulty of any thing between them offering privately by their Emissaries especially at Amsterdam such a Reglement of Commerce as they could desire the restitution of Mastricht and of all satisfaction the Prince of Orange could pretend upon his losses or their seizures in the War But Denmark and Brandenburgh were as violent against the Peace having swallowed up in their hopes all that Sweden had possess'd in Germany and tho' the Emperor seem'd to pretend little after the taking of Philipsburgh besides the restitution of Lorain and the Towns of Alsatia to the posture they were left in by the Munster Treaty yet they were so fast link'd both with their German Allies as well as Spain that they resolved to make no Paces in the Treaty but by common concert and Spain tho' sensible of the condition their affairs in Flanders were in as well as Sicily yet upon a design then hatching at Madrid for removal of the Queen Regent and her Ministry to introduce Don John to head the affairs of their Government had conceiv'd great hopes to recover those desperate infirmities that their inveterate disorders both in Councils and conduct especially in their Finances had for so long time occasion'd Besides they had confidences still given them from their Ministers in England that His Majesty would not after all be contented to see Flanders lost or would be forced into the War by the humour of his Parliament For these Reasons the Allies seem'd to make no hast at all to the Congress and some of them hardly to look that way and none of the Parties were yet arriv'd besides the French the Swedes and the Dutch But about the end of September the French Ambassadors gave notice That their Master having made so many advances to the Peace and being so ill seconded by the proceedings of the Confederates and their slowness in coming to the Treaty was resolv'd to recal his Ambassadors unless those of the chief Confederates should repair to Nimeguen within the space of one Month. This we communicated to the Dutch Ambassadors and they to the States who after some Conferences with the Ministers of their Allies came to a resolution That they would enter upon the Treaty themselves if the Ministers of their Confederates should not repair to Nimeguen by the first of November which was afterwards upon some disputes declar'd to be meant Old Stile being that of the place where the Congress was held The noise of this resolution of the States was more among their Allies than the danger since there were ways enough to raise difficulties and spin out time after the Ambassadors should arrive as well as before but yet it had so much effect that the several Confederates did upon it begin to hasten away one or other of their intended Ambassadors towards Nimeguen as Count Kinkski from Vienna Don
Ambassadors of Crown'd Heads though we gave it only to the first of the Ambassy upon the President of the Munster Treaty and were follow'd in it by the French and Swedes in the whole course of this Treaty at Nimeguen This Pace of the Emperor seem'd not so much grounded as some thought upon his compliance with so considerable an Ally as upon a design to assist another Pretention of his own which is not only a difference of Place but also of Rank from all other Crown'd Heads of Christendom Whereas the other Kings though they yield him the Place yet they do not allow him a difference of Rank But if the Emperor could by his Example prevail with other Kings to Treat the Electors like Crown'd Heads it would fortifie the Pretensions of the Emperor to a difference of Rank since there is a great one and out of all contest between him and the Electors My second Remark is That among all the Punctilioes between the Ambassadors at Nimeguen none seem'd to me to carry them to such heights as the Swedes and the Danes The first standing as stiff upon all Points of not seeming to yield in the least to the French Ambassadors tho' their Allies and from a Crown not only of so mighty Power but from whom alone they expected the restoring of their broken State in Germany and the Danish Ambassador upon the French Powers being exhibited in French said he would give his in Danish unless they would do it in Latin as a common Language alledging he knew no difference between Crown'd Heads that the Danish King had been as great as the French are now and in their present Dominions are as Absolute Upon all which Monsieur Beverning could not forbear to reflect and say to us That in his Remembrance there was no sort of Competition made by those two Northern Kings with the other three great Kings of Christendom That the treatment of the States to them was very different and their Ministers made no difficulty of signing any Instruments after the Ministers of the three Great Crowns 'T is I think out of question that the pretention of Parity among the Crown'd Heads was first made in the North by Gustavus when he told Monsieur Grammont the French Ambassador in Sweden upon this occasion That for his part he knew no distinction among Crown'd Heads but what was made by their Virtue and this Pretence was not much disputed with him in respect to the greatness of his Qualities as well as of his Attempts and Successes and his example was follow'd by the Kings of Denmark and has since left Place a thing contested among them all 'T is true the French have claim'd the Precedence next to the Emperor with more noise and haughtiness than the rest but have been yielded to by none except the Spaniard upon the fear of a War they were not able to deal with nor have they since been willing to own the weakness of that confession but have chosen to fall into what measures they could of encouraging and establishing the Pretence of Parity among Crown'd Heads The most remarkable Instance of this happen'd at Nimeguen where upon a publick meeting of the Allies the Dispute arising between Spain and Denmark for the place at Table Don Pedro consented to have it taken by turns and at the first to be divided by lot The French Ambassadors made their pretence of preference next the Mediators at Nimeguen in the first return of their Visits from Ambassadors arriving but was neither yielded to by Swede or Dane nor Practis'd by the Emperors Ambassadors who made their first Visit to the Mediators and the next without Distinction to the first that had visited them The Emperor took Advantage of the French as well as the rest having yielded to the Mediators and during this Treaty made a Scruple tho' not a Refusal of doing it by which he distinguish'd himself from the other Crowned Heads We were content to keep it as much as we could from Decision with them but it once happen'd that upon a Meeting with the Allies at the Dane's House Count Kinkski was there before I and Sir Lionel came into the Room where Chairs were set for all the Ambassadors After the common Salutations I went strait up to the Chair that was first in Rank and stood before it to sit down when the rest were ready but my Colleague either losing his time by being engag'd in longer Civilities or by Desire not to be engag'd in Contests gave room to Count Kinkski a very brisk Man to come and stand before the Chair that was next me and consequently between me and my Colleague When I saw this and consider'd that tho' the Place was given me by the Imperialists yet it was not given to the King's Ambassy I chose not to sit down but falling into the Conference that was intended I stood all the while as if I did it carelesly and so left the Matter undecided The Prince of Orange about the latter End of December writ very earnestly to me to make a Step for some few Days to the Hague knowing I had leave from His Majesty to do it when I thought fit And finding all things without present Motion at Nimeguen I went thither and arriv'd the last day of the Year The first of the next being 1677. I attended His Highness We fell into large Discourses of the Progress of the Treaty the Coldness of the Parties the affected Delays of the Imperials and Spaniards the declar'd Aversion of the Danes and Brandenburgh and concluded how little was to be expected from the formal Paces of this Congress Upon all which the Prince ask'd if I had heard any more of His Majesty's Mind upon the Peace since I had been last with him I told him what I remembred of his last Letter to me upon that Subject which was That he concluded from the Prince's Discourses to me that he had then no mind to a Peace that he was sorry for it because he thought it was his Interest to have it That he had try'd to know the Mind of France upon it but if they would not open themselves farther of one side nor His Highness on the other than they had yet done he would content himself with performing only His Part of a Mediator and in the Common Forms The Prince said This look'd very cold since His Majesty was alone able to make the Peace and knew well enough what it would come to by the Forms of the Congress That for his own part he desir'd it and had a great deal of reason both because His Majesty seem'd to do so and to think it his own Interest as well as the Prince's and because the States not only thought it their Interest but absolutely necessary for them That he would not say this to any but to the King by me because if France should know it they would he doubted be harder upon the Terms That both Spain and the Emperor had
should fall into it with the greatest Regret that could be yet he did not see what else was to be done and did not know one Man in Holland that was not of the same Mind That he did not talk with me as an Ambassador but a Friend whose Opinion he esteem'd and desir'd That he told me freely Leur fort leur soible and would be glad to know what else I thought they could do upon all these Circumstances Et dans accablement de leur Estat par une si longue guerre I return'd his Compliment but excus'd my self from giving my Opinion to a Person so well able to take Measures that were the fittest for the States Conduct or his own but desir'd to know what He reckon'd would become of Flanders after the Dutch had made their Separate Peace because the Fate of that Countrey was that wherein the rest of their Neighbours were concern'd as well as they He answer'd It would be lost in one Summer or in two but more probably in one That he believ'd Cambray Valenciennes Namur and Mons might be lost in one Summer That after their Loss the great Towns within would not offer at defending themselves excepting Antwerp and Ostend for which they might perhaps take some Measures with France as I knew the French had offer'd Monsieur de Witt upon their first Invasion in 1667. I ask'd him how he reckon'd this State was to live with France after the Loss of Flanders And if he thought it could be otherwise than at Discretion He desir'd me to believe that if they would hope to save Flanders by the War they would not think of a Separate Peace but if it must be lost they had rather it should be by the last which would less exhaust their Country and dishonour the Prince That after Flanders was lost they must live so with France as would make them find it their Interest rather to preserve their State than to destroy it That it was not to be chosen but to be swallow'd like a desperate Remedy That he had hop'd for some Resource from better Conduct in the Spanish Affairs or that some great Impression of the German Armies upon that side of France might have brought the Peace to some reasonable Terms That for his own part he had ever believ'd that England it self would cry Halt at one step or other that France was making and that if we would be content to see half Flanders lost yet we would not all nor Sicily neither for the Interest of our Trade in the Mediterranean That the King had the Peace in his Hands for these two Years past might have made it when he pleas'd and upon such Conditions as he should think fit of Justice and Safety to the rest of his Neighbours as well as himself That all Men knew France was not in a condition to refuse whatever Terms His Majesty resolv'd on or to venture a War with England in Conjunction with the rest of the Allies That the least show of it if at all credited in France was enough to make the Peace That they had long represented all this in England by Monsieur Van Beuninghen and offer'd His Majesty to be the Arbiter of it and to fall into the Terms he should prescribe but not a Word in Answer and all received with such a Coldness as never was though other People thought we had reason to be a little more concern'd That this put him more upon thinking a separate Peace necessary than all the rest That he confes'd Cuncta prius tentanda till he found at last 't was immedicabile vulnus That for their living with France after Flanders was lost he knew well enough what I meant by asking but after that the Aims of France would be more upon Italy or Germany or perhaps upon us than them That it could not be the Interest of Franco to Destroy or Conquer this State but to preserve it in a Dependance upon that Crown That they could make better Use of the Dutch Fleets than of a few poor Fisher Towns that they should be reduc'd to if any Violation were made either upon their Liberties or Religion That the King of France had seen their Country and knew it and understood it so and said upon all Occasions That he had rather have them for his Friends than his Subjects But if after all I concluded their State must fall in four and twenty Hours yet it were better for them to defer it to the last Hour and that it should happen at Night rather than at Noon This was discours'd with such Vehemence and Warmth that he was not able to go on and having said It was not a Matter to be resolv'd between us Two I left him after wishing him Health enough to go through the Thoughts and Businesses of so great a Conjuncture Next Morning I went to the Prince and after some common Talk told him what had past in my Visit to the Pensioner and ask'd His Highness If he had seen him since or knew any thing of it He said No and so I told him the Detail of it and upon Conclusion That he said he saw nothing else to be done but to make a separate Peace and that he knew not a Man in Holland who was not of his Mind The Prince interrupted me saying Yes I am sure I know one and that is My Self and I will hinder it as long as I can but if any thing should happen to me I know it would be done in two days time I ask'd him Whether he was of the Pensioner's Mind as to what he thought likely to happen the next Campania He said The Appearance were ill but Campania's did not always end as they began That Accidents might happen which no Man could fore-see and that if they came to one fair Battel none could answer for the Event That the King might make the Peace if he pleas'd before it began but if we were so indifferent as to let this Season pass for his part he must go on and take his Fortune That he had seen that Morning a poor old Man tugging alone in a little Boat with his Oars against the Eddy of a Sluce upon a Canal that when with the last Endeavours he was just got up to the Place intended Force of the Eddy carried him quite back again but he turn'd his Boat as soon as he could and fell to his Oars again and thus three or four times while the Prince saw him and concluded this old Man's Business and His were too like one another and that he ought however to do just as the old Man did without knowing what would succeed any more than what did in the poor Man's Case All that pass'd upon these Discourses I represented very particularly to the Court the first Part immediately to the King the rest to the Secretaries of State and added my own Opinion That if His Majesty continued to interpose no further than by
our selves and the Parties but were forc'd to find two Rooms for the French and Swedes to meet apart whose Competition tho Allies would not suffer them to meet in one or decide it by lot as the Spaniard and Dane had done There remain'd one Difficulty more which particularly concern'd His Majesty Both French and Spaniards as well as Imperialists had insisted even with Emulation That the Pope's Mediation should be mention'd in the new Powers as well as his Majesty's The Dutch and Danes both had absolutely refus'd to treat upon any Powers where the Pope's Mediation should be mentioned We had likewise represented to them how great a Difference there was between his Majestie 's Mediation that had been accepted by all Parties and the Pope's that had been so only by a part of them and the very mention of it absolutely refus'd by several others to be admitted into the Powers That his Majesty's Mediation had propos'd the Place of Treaty exchang'd the Pasports form'd the Assembly manag'd all the Negotiations in it so long without the appearance of any Minister from the Pope or knowledge whether he would be receiv'd if he came or by whom his Mediation would be accepted or imploy'd At length it was resolv'd That the mention of his Majesty's Mediation alone should be made in the several Powers and so all being agreed about the middle of February all the several Acts were signed and put into our Hands and by us exchang'd among the several Parties After this dispatch of all Preliminaries to the Treaty the several Parties by Agreement brought into our hands their several propositions or Pretensions The French seemed in Theirs to demand nothing of the Emperour and of Brandenburgh but the entire restoring of the Treaty of Munster Of Spain the retaining of all they had conquer'd in this War upon the Spaniards having first broken the Peace From the their States General they made no Demand but offer'd them the restoring of their Friendship and that they will hearken to a Treaty of Commerce On the other side The Emperour's Demands were That France should restore to him to the Empire and all his Allies whatever they had taken from them in the Course of this War and make Reparation for all Damages they had suffer'd in it The Spaniards demanded all the Places they had lost and all the Damages they had suffer'd from France since the Year 1665. The Dutch demanded from France the Restitution of Mastricht Satisfaction to the Prince of Orange in what did concern the Principaliâ—y of Orange and a Reglement of Commerce with a Renunciâ—tion of all Pretensions each Party might have upon the other As for the great Damages they had sustain'd they said they sacrific'd them all to the Publick Peace provided Satisfaction might be given their Allies For the Northern Kings and German Prinees their Demands were so extended that I shall forbear relating them and sum them up in this only That those who had gained by the War pretended to retain all they had got and those that had lost pretended to recover all they had lost and to be repaid the Damages they had suffered by the War Count Kinkski deliver'd into our Hands likewise the Duke of Lorrain's Pretensions sealed as the rest were but we opened them not upon the French telling us they had not received from Court any Counter-Pretensions upon the Duke of Lorrain whereof they believ'd the Reason to be That no Minister of his had yet appeared at the Congress Indeed their Pretensions against Lorrain had never yet been made since the Death of the late Duke and would have been very hard to draw up by their ablest Ministers or Advocates themselves and therefore they thought fit to decline them and reserve them for the Terms of a Peace when they should be able to prescribe rather than to treat them By these Propositions of the several Parties it easily appear'd to the World what wise Men knew before how little Hope 's there were of a Peace from the Motions of this Treaty in the present Circumstances of Affairs and how it was wholly to be expected from the course and influence of future Events in the Progress of the War About the 24 th of February I went to the Prince at his House at Soesdyke a Day 's Journey from Nimeguen upon a Letter from his Highness desiring it of me I had about a Week before written to him by the King's Command upon which his Highness desir'd to speak with me I went and told him the Contents of my last Dispatch He ask'd me whether it were from the King himself or from any of the Ministers I told him it was from Secretary Williamson by the King's Command The Prince said Then he knew from whence it came but however desir'd me to read the Particulars to him which were the King's apprehension of a Mistake in the Prince because the Terms mention'd by his Majesty were not any Propositions which He did not think his part to make nor had He any Authority for it but only a piece of Confidence he had enter'd into with the Prince Next That the Exchange of Cambray was only propos'd as a thing to be wish'd that so six Towns might be restor'd to Spain instead of five the Prince had propos'd which in His Majesty's Opinion would make a kind of a double Frontier to Brussels and so leave Flanders safer than by the Prince's Scheme Therefore His Majesty desir'd the Prince would think further of it and not let it fall so flat as he did by his last Answer without trying what it could be beaten out to But however offer'd That if his Highness had any other Proposition to make to France the King would very readily hand it over to them in the best manner he could Whil'st I was reading this to the Prince He could hardly hear it out with any Patience Sir J W 's Style was always so disagreeable to him and he thought the whole cast of this so artificial that he receiv'd it at first with Indignation and Scorn rather than with those further Thoughts that were desir'd of him He said the Style of Letting it fall so flat was my Lord Arlington's and The Double Frontier as it were for Brussels was some of the Secretary's Cresme Foitte and fit for Children The rest he took to be all the French Ambassador's who would fain continue a private Treaty with him by the King's Hand while His Master went into the Field His Answer was very plain That he had thought enough of it and had no more to say at this time That when he spoke to me so lately at the Hague He believ'd the Peace might have been made and upon better terms than he propos'd if the King had desir'd them from France either upon Kindness to Him or upon the Interests of His own Crowns That he was sorry to find the King's Thoughts so different from his and that whenever they grew nearer he should be
the Service of the Allies Who took this Answer however for an ill Sign of that Prosecution which they hoped from His Majesty for the Relief of their Languishing Affairs The Hopes of those great Actions promised by the Imperialists this Summer on the Rhine began to Flat Their Troops finding no Subsistence in those Countries which had been wholly desolated by the French in the Beginning of the Year to prevent their March The Prince of Orange observing all these Circumstances and foreseeing no resource for the Interests of the Allies unless from his Majesty and that it was likely to prove an unactive Summer in Flanders the French resolving not to come to a Battel and he not able to form a Siege and oppose a French Army that should come to relieve it he sent Monsieur Bentinck over into England about the beginning of June to desire his Majesty's leave that he might make a Journey thither so soon as the Campania ended He received a civil Answer but with Wishes from the King That he would first think of making the Peace and rather defer his Journey till that were concluded About the middle of June my Son came over to me at Nimeguen and brought me Letters from my Lord Treasurer to signify his Majesty's Pleasure that I should come over and enter upon the Secretary of State 's Office which Mr. Conventry had offered his Majesty to lay down upon the payment often thousand Pounds That the King would pay half the Money and I must lay down the rest at present tho his Lordship did not doubt but the King would find the way of easing me in time of that too I writ immediately to my Lord Treasurer to make my Acknowledgment to his Majesty but at the same time my Excuses That I was not in a condition to lay down such a Sum my Father being still alive and keeping the Estate of the Family and desiring that the King's Intention might at least be respited till he saw how the present Treaty was like to determin In return of my Letters on the second of July Mr. Smith one of the King's Messengers being sent Express and making great diligence arrived at Nimeguen and brought me his Majesty's Commands to repair immediately over in a Yatcht which he had sent on purpose for me In obedience to this Command I left Nimeguen but without any Ceremony pretending only a sudden Journey into England but saying nothing of the Occasion further than to my nearest Friends At my Arrival the King asked me many Questions about my Journey about the Congress draping us for spending Him so much Money and doing nothing and about Sir Lionel asking me how I had bred him and how he passed among the Ambassadors there and other Pleasantries upon that Subject After a good deal of this kind of Conversation He told me I knew for what he had sent for me over and that 't was what he had long intended and I was not to thank him because he did not know any Body else to bring into that Place I told his Majesty that was too great a Compliment for me but was a very ill one to my Country and which I thought it did not deserve that I believed there were a great many in it fit for that or any other Place he had to give and I could name two in a breath that I would undertake should make better Secretaries of State than I. The King said Go get you gone to Sheen we shall have no good of you till you have been there and when you have rested your self come up again I never saw him in better humour nor ever knew a more agreeable Conversation when he was so and where he was pleased to be familiar great Quickness of Conception great Pleasantness of Wit with great Variety of Knowledg more Observation and truer Judgment of Men than one would have imagined by so careless and easy a manner as was natural to him in all he said or did From his own Temper he desired nothing but to be easy himself and that every Body else should be so and would have been glad to see the least of his Subjects pleased and to refuse no Man what he asked But this softness of temper made him apt to fall into the Perswasions of whoever had his kindness and confidence for the time how different soever from the Opinions he was of before and he was very easy to change hands when those he employed seemed to have engaged him in any Difficulties so as nothing looked steddy in the Conduct of his Affairs nor aimed at any certain end Yet sure no Prince had more Qualities to make him loved with a great many to make him esteemed and all without a grain of Pride or Vanity in his whole Constitution nor can he suffer Flattery in any kind growing uneasy upon the first Approaches of it and turning it off to something else But this humour has made him lose many great Occasions of Glory to himself and Greatness to his Crown which the Conjunctures of his Reign conspired to put into his Head and have made way for the aspiring Thoughts and Designs of a Neighbour Prince which would not have appeared or could not have succeeded in the World without the Applications and Arts imployed to manage this easy and inglorious Humour of the King 's I staid two days at Sheen in which time some of Secretary Coventry's Friends had prevailed with him not to part with his Place if he could help it unless the King would let him recommend the Person to succeed him who should pay all the Money he expected and which the King had charged himself with When I came to Town the King told me in his Closet all that had passed between Him and Mr. Coventry the day before upon this occasion That He did not understand what he meant nor what was at the bottom for he had first spoke to His Majesty about parting with his Place said his Health would not go through with it made the Price he Expected for it and concluded all before He had sent for me over That now he pretended he did not mean to quit it unless he might present one to succeed him and hoped he had not deserved His Majesty should turn him out But the King said upon it That under favour He was resolved to take him at his Word and so He had told him and left him to digest it as he could Upon this I represented to the King how old and true a Servant Mr. Coventry had been of his Father's and His how well he had served him in this Place how well he was able to do it still by the great credit he had in the House of Commons where the King 's great Business lay in the ill state of his Revenue how ill such a Treatment would agree with his Majesty's Nature and Customs and for my own part that it would be a great favour to me to respite this change till he
return The Question was Who should go and my Lord Treasurer said it must be He or I for none else had been acquainted with the debate of this business The Prince said it must be I for my Lord Treasurer could not be spared and it must be some person upon whose Judgment and Truth he could rely as to the Intentions of that Court The King order'd me to be ready in two days which I was and the Evening before I was to go meeting His Majesty in the Park he called me to him and a little out of Countenance told me He had been thinking of my Journey and my Errand and how unwelcome I should be in France as well as my Message and having a mind to gain the Peace he was unwilling to anger them more than needs Besides the thing being not to be reasoned or debated any body else would serve the turn as well as I whom he had other use of and therefore he had been thinking to send some other Person I saw he doubted I would take it ill but told him and very truly he would do me the greatest Pleasure in the World for I never had less mind to any Journey in my life and should not have accepted it but in perfect Obedience The King that was the gentlest Prince in the World of his own Nature fell into good humour upon seeing I took it not ill pretended to think whom he should send and at last asked me what I thought of my Lord Duras I said Very well upon which he seem'd to resolve it But the thing had been agreed in the morning as I was told upon the Duke's desire who thought France would accept the Terms and that the Peace would be made and had a mind to have the Honour of it by sending a Servant of his own Whether there were any other Motive I know not but my Lord Duras went immediately with the Orders before mentioned and some few days after the Prince and Princess embarqued for Holland where Affairs pressed his return beyond the hopes of my Lord Duras from France the King assuring him he would never part from the least point of the Scheme sent over and would enter into the War against France if they refus'd it However he went not away without a great mortification to see the Parliament Prorogued the next Spring which the French Ambassador had gain'd of the King to make up some good Meen with France after the Prince's Marriage and before the dispatch of the Terms of a Peace to that Court. Upon my Lord Duras's arrival at Paris the Court there were surpriz'd both at the thing and more at the manner but made good Meen upon it took it gently Said The King knew very well he might always be Master of the Peace but some of the Towns in Flanders seemed very hard especially Tournay upon whose Fortifications such vast Treasures had been expended and that they would take some short time to consider of the Answer My Lord Duras told them he was ty'd to two days stay but when that was out he was prevail'd with to stay some few days longer and to come away without a positive Answer What he brought was what they had said to him before That the Most Christian King hoped his Brother would not break with him upon one or two Towns but even upon them too he would send Orders to his Ambassador at London to treat with His Majesty himself By this gain of time and artifical drawing it into Treaty without any positive refusal this blow came to be eluded which could not easily have been so any other way The King was softned by the softness of France The Ambassador said at last He had leave to yield all but Tournay and to treat even for some equivalent for that too if the King insisted absolutely upon it The Prince was gone who had spirited the vigour of the whole resolution and the Treaty of it began to draw out into Messages and Returns from France However the ill humour of People growing higher upon the noise of a Peace and negotiated in France and the late Prorogation of the Parliament this was by Proclamation anticipated soon after my Lord Duras's return tho' a thing something unusual and a countenance made as if the King resolv'd to enter into the War for which the Parliament seem'd impatient whenever the King seem'd averse to it but grew jealous of some tricks whenever the Court seem'd inclin'd to it About the end of December 1677. the King sent for me to the Foreign Committee and told me he could get no positive Answer from France and therefore resolv'd to send me into Holland to make a League there with the States for forcing both France and Spain if either refused to make the Peace upon the Terms he had proposed I told the King What he had agreed was to enter into the War with all the Confederates in case of no direct and immediate Answer from France That this perhaps would satisfie both the Prince and Confederates abroad and the People at home but to make such a League with Holland only would satisfie none of them and disoblige both France and Spain Besides it would not have an effect or force as the Tripple-Allliance had being a great Original of which this seem'd but an ill Copy and therefore excus'd my self from going The King was set upon it tho' I pretended domestick Affairs of great importance upon the Death of my Father and pleaded so hard that the Duke at last desir'd the King not to press me upon a thing I was so averse from and would be so inconvenient to me and desir'd I might propose who should be sent with the Treaty I made my acknowledgments to the Duke for his favour and propos'd that Mr. Thyn should be sent from the Office with a Draught of the Treaty to Mr. Hyde who was then come from Nimeguen to the Hague upon a Visit to the Princess This was done and the Treaty sign'd there on the sixteenth of January though not without great difficulties and dissatisfaction of the Prince who was yet covered in it by the private Consent of the Spanish Minister there in behalf of his Master so as the War could not break but upon France in case of their refusal In the mean time France draws out the Treaty upon the Terms at London into length never raising more than one Difficulty at a time and expostulating the unkindness of breaking for the single Town of Tournay though that was indeed more important than any Three of the others being the only strong one to guard that side of the Frontier and giving way for any sudden Invasion upon Gant and Antwerp and the very heart of the Country But while this Game was playing in England they had another on foot in Holland especially at Amsterdam by raising Jealousies of the measures taken between the King and Prince upon the Marriage as dangerous to the Liberties of Holland and
upon the French Terms That since they were agreed there they hoped His Majesty would not be against it That however France had ordered him to make his Majesty the offer of a great Sum of Money for his Consent tho' to a thing already accepted by Holland and wherein his Majesty was consequently not concerned That Monsieur Louvoy desired the Ambassador to write this immediately to Lord Treasurer and to offer him a very considerable Sum for himself that should be sent over in Money Jewels or by Bills as he should chuse and Mr. Montague added That it was desired this Affair should be treated only between them two and not communicated to either of the Secretaries of State My Lord Treasurer read the Letter to me and I said Well my Lord What do you say to the Offer He Answered That he thought 't was the same thing as if it should be made to the King to have Windsor put into the French hands and so he should treat it and that we had nothing to do but to go on with our Treaty with the Confederates This his Lordship and I were incharged with and had brought near a conclusion when Letters came from Mr. Hyde with Representations made him from the Pensioner at the Hague of the dispositions in Holland running violently into a Peace and the absolute necessity he thought there was of concluding it upon the taking of Gant and danger of Antwerp which was then threatned and the loss whereof would be so fatal to the Trade of Holland especially Amsterdam Hereupon Mr. Godolphin was dispatched immediately into Holland to bring the last and surest Account he could get of the resolutions there upon this Affair and return with the greatest speed he could he did so and brought the same account of all dispositions which Mr. Hyde had given and in the process of our Treaty with the Confederates Monsieur Van Beuningham when he came to the point was forced to confess That he had no Powers to conclude without first communicating to the States which must draw into length and uncertainty About this time the French Ambassador began to change his Language who had ever before pretended That His Majesty should be always Arbiter of the Peace but now assuring that his Master had agreed with Holland he seemed to wonder and expostulate why the King should pretend to obtain better Terms for the Spaniards than their Allies the Dutch were content with I was then pressed by the King and Lord Treasurer to go into Holland to know their final Resolutions whether they would yet go on with the War in case his Majesty should go into it But I excused my self knowing the Dutch were too much prest by so near approaches of France to declare themselves upon a reserve of the King 's and said If his Majesty resolved to go that way he must first take his measures with the Parliament for the War and then send them word in Holland he was ready to declare it in case they would pursue it and upon this Message I knew the Dutch so well as to believe they would do it and keep close to their late Alliance with his Majesty This the King was unwilling to do but posted Mr. Godolphin again into Holland about the middle of April to know their final resolutions and Prorogued the Parliament for Fourteen Days During these Negotiations and since the Money given by the Parliament and in Six Weeks time the King had raised an Army of about Twenty thousand men the compleatest and in all appearance the bravest Troops that could be any where seen and might have raised many more upon so great a concurrence of the peoples humour with His Majesty's seeming design of entring into a War against France and it was confest by all the Foreign Ministers That no King in Christendom could have made and compleated such a Levy as this appeared in such a time My Lord Treasurer upon the Twentieth came to me and assured me of the King's Resolution being at length fixed to go into the War and desired me to prepare what the King was to say to the Parliament upon this occasion which I did When I carried it to my Lord Treasurer I met there Letters from Mr. Hyde and Godolphin That Holland absolutely desir'd the Peace even upon the Terms proposed by France and had resolv'd to send Monsieur Van Lewen over hither to dispose the King to be contented with them He arriv'd and the King sent me immediately to him to know his Errand He was the Chief of the Town of Leyden and had join'd with Amsterdam Harlem Delf and some others in promoting the Peace even upon the French Conditions But being a man of great Honour and Worth and having done it upon the suspicion that England was still at bottom in with France and that all the rest was but Grimace the Prince had procur'd him to be sent over on purpose to satisfie himself and thereby his Complices for the Peace that the King's intentions were determined to enter into the War which His Highness thought the only means to prevent the Peace When I came to Monsieur Van Lewen he told me freely That it was the most against their hearts in Holland that could be to make a Peace upon Terms so low and unsafe for Flanders and that if the King had gone into the War as was promised upon France delaying or refusing to accept his Scheme they would certainly have continu'd it but His Majesty's Proceedings look'd ever since so uncertain or unresolv'd that it had raised Jealousies in Holland of our Measures being at bottom fix'd and close with France which made most of the Towns in Holland think they had nothing else left to do but to go in with them too as fast as they could and the approach of the French Army to Antwerp left them now no time to deliberate Yet he professed to me in private That if the King would immediately declare the War he believed the States would still go on with it in pursuit of their Alliance and the Terms therein contained I made this Report to the King who seem'd positive to declare the War in case the Parliament advis'd him and promis'd to support it when an unlucky peevish Vote mov'd by Sir T C in spight to my Lord Treasurer passed the House of Commons That no Msney should be given till satisfaction was received in matters of Religion This left all so loose and so lame that the King was in a rage reproach'd me with my Popular Notions as he term'd them and ask'd me when or how I thought he could trust the House of Commons to carry him through the War if he should engage in it And I had not much indeed to say considering the Temper and Factions of the House nor could I well clear it to my self by my Observation whether the King was firmly resolved to enter into the War or if he did whether the House of Commons would
have supported him in it or turned it only to ruin the Ministers by the King's Necessities 'T is certain no Vote could ever have passed more unhappily nor in such a Counter-Season nor more cross to the humour of the House which seem'd generally bent upon engaging His Majesty in the War and the Person that moved it was I believe himself as much of that mind as any of the rest but having since the loss of his Employment at Court ever acted a part of great animosity in opposition to the present Ministry in whose hands soever it was This private ill humour carried him contrary to his publick intentions as it did many more in the House who pretended to be very willing to supply the King upon occasion of the War or even of his Debts but that they would not do it during my Lord Treasures Ministry In short there was such fatal and mutual distrust both in the Court and Parliament as it was very hard to fall into any sound measures between them The King at least now saw he had lost his time of entring into the War if he had a mind to it and that he ought to have done it upon my Lord Duras's return and with the whole Confederacy And my Lord Essex told me I had been a Prophet in refusing to go into Holland to make that Alliance which had as I said pleased none at home or abroad and had now lost all our measures in Holland and turn'd theirs upon France But the turn that the King gave all this was That since the Dutch would have a Peace upon the French Terms and France offered money for his Consent to what he could not help he did not know why he should not get the money and thereupon ordered me to Treat upon it with the French Ambassador who had Orders to that purpose I would have excused my self but he said I could not help seeing him for he would be with me at my House by Seven next Morning He accordingly came and I told him very truly I had been ill in the night and could not enter into Business The Ambassador was much disappointed and pressed me all he could but I defended my self upon my illness till at length he left me without entring upon any thing When I got up I went immediately to Sheen writ to my Lord Treasurer by my Wife May the Tenth 1678. how much I was unsatisfied with being put upon such a Treaty with the French Ambassador that belonged not at all to my Post and which they knew I thought dishonorable to the King and thereupon I offered to resign to His Majesty both my Ambassy at Nimeguen and my Promise of Secretary of State 's Place to be disposed by his Majesty as he pleased My Lord Treasurer sent me word The King forced no man upon what he had no mind to but if I resolved this should be said to him I must do it my self or by some other for he would not make my Court so ill as to say it for me and so it rested and I continued at Sheen without stirring till the King sent for me In the mean time from the beginning of May the ill humor of the House of Commons began to break out by several Discourses and Votes against the Ministers and their Conduct which increased the ill opinion His Majesty had conceived of their intentions in pressing him to enter upon a War yet notwithstanding all this he had as I was told by a good hand conceived such an Indignation at one Article of the private Treaty proposed by Monsieur Barillon that he said he would never forget it while he lived and tho he said nothing to me of his Resentment yet he seemed at this time more resolved to enter into the War than I had ever before seen or thought him Monsieur Ruvigny the Son was dispatched into France to know the last intentions of that Court upon the terms of the Peace proposed by His Majesty but brought no Answer clear or positive so as His Majesty went on to compleat his Levies and to prepare for the War but May the eleventh the House of Commons passed another Negative upon the Debate of money which so offended the King that he Prorogued them for ten days believing in that time his Intentions to enter into the War would appear so clear as to satisfie the House and put them in better humour Monsieur Van Lewen distasted with these delays and the Counterpaces between King and Parliament begins to discourse boldly of the necessity his Masters found to make the Peace as they could since there was no relying upon any measures with England for carrying on the War and the Season was too far advanced to admit any longer delays Upon these Discourses from him His Majesty began to cool his Talk of a War and to say The Peace must be left to the Course which Holland had given it and tho' upon May the twenty third the Parliament met and seemed in much better temper than they parted yet news coming about the same time that Monsieur Beverning was sent by the States to the French Court at Gant to propose a Cessation of Arms for six Weeks in order to negotiate and agree the Terms of the Peace in that time the Affairs began now to be looked upon both in Court and Parliament as a thing concluded or at least as like to receive no other motion than what should be given it by Holland and France And indeed the dispositions were so inclined to it on both sides that the Terms were soon adjusted between them These Articles having been so publick I shall not trouble my self to insert them but only say they seemed so hard both to Spain and to the Northern Princes who had made great Conquests upon the Swedes that they all declared they would never accept them and when the French Ambassadors at Nimeguen desired Sir Lionel Jenkins to carry them to the Confederates he refused to do it or to have part in a Treaty or Conditions of Peace so different from what the King his Master had proposed and what both his Majesty and Holland had obliged themselves to pursue by their late Treaty at the Hague About this time France by a Conduct very surprizing having sent Monsieur la Feuillade to Messina with a common expectation of reinforcing the War in Sicily shewed the Intention was very different and of a sudden ordered all their Forces to abandon that Island with whom many Messineses returned fearing the Vengeance of the Spaniards to whom they were now exposed and this was the only important Service done that Crown by all his Majesty's Intentions or preparations to assist them for no man doubted that the abandoning of Sicily was wholly owing to the apprehensions in France of a War with England which they thought would give them but too much occasion for imploying of their Forces and indeed the eyes and hopes of all the Confederates were now turned so
since the King still desired the Peace his Masters had nothing to do but to conclude it and that They the Ambassadors took themselves to be so instructed as that they must Sign the Peace upon the offers made by the French to evacuate the Towns Monsieur Haâ—en did not seem to me so clear in point of their Orders and I never could learn whether upon de Cros's Arrival and Discourses at the Hague the States Deputies there had sent Orders to their Ambassadors at Nimeguen to Sign the Peace even without the Spaniards in case of the French assenting to the evacuation of the Towns before the day appointed for that purpose should expire or whether only the Town of Amsterdam had by Boreel sent that advice to Monsieur Beverning with assurances to bear him out in what he did where his Orders might receive a doubtful Sense or Interpretation However it were Monsieur Beverning was bent upon giving this sudden end to the War and such a quick dispatch to the draught of the Treaty that it was agreed in all Articles and written out fair so as to be signed between Eleven and Twelve at Night And thus were eluded all the effects of the late Treaty concluded at the Hague and the hopes conceived by the Confederates of the War 's going on which so provoked several of their Ministers as to engage them in sharp and violent Protestations against the Dutch Ambassadors by which they hoped to deter them from signing the Peace without new Orders from their Masters But all was to no purpose Beverning was unmoved and the thing was done The day after the Peace was signed came an Express to me from Court with the Ratifications of the late Treaty between His Majesty and the States and Orders to me immediately to proceed to the exchange of them which was such a counterpace to the Dispatch I had received by De Cros and to the consequences of it which had ended in the conclusion of the Peace and thereby rendred the late Treaty of no farther use that the ratification seemed now as unnecessary as it had been at first unresolved at our Court and unexpected from us by the Dutch However I went away immediately upon this Express and next day after my arrival at the Hague made an exchange of the Ratifications according to the Orders I had received I found the Pensioner and several other of the Deputies very much unsatisfied with the Peace and more with the Precipitation of Monsieur Beverning to sign it upon the sudden offer of the French Ambassadors to evacuate the Towns before he had acquainted the States with it and received new Orders upon it They said his Instructions could not warrant him they talked of calling him in question for it and of disavowing what he had done and thereupon of having recourse to the Treaty with His Majesty which they now saw ratified and of continuing the War in conjuction with England and the rather because they saw France had no mind to venture it but had chosen to stoop from those high flights they had so long made in all transactions with their Neighbours either of War or Peace But others of the Deputies especially those of Amsterdam declared their satisfaction in this conclusion at Nimeguen argued that the weakness of their Confederates especially Spain and the unsteaddiness or irresolution of England had made the Peace of absolute necessity to Holland and excused any precipitation of their Ambassadors in signing that day or without clear and positive Orders upon the emergency being so sudden and surprizing and the time so critical that the delay of sending to the Hague must of necessity have engaged the States in their obligations of the late Treaty with England and thereby in a necessity of continuing the War The truth is I never observed either in what I had seen or read any Negotiation managed with greater Address and Skill than this had been by the French in the whole course of this Affair especially since the Prince of Orange's Match which was thought to have given them so great a blow and by force of Conduct was turned so much to their advantage 'T is certain and plain they never intended to continue the War if England should fall with such weight into the scale of the Confederates as the force of that Kingdom and humour of the People would have given to such a Conjunction and consequently that His Majesty might have prescribed what Terms He pleased of the Peace during the whole course of His Mediation For besides the respect which the French have for our Troops both Horse and Foot more than any others especially since the Services and Advantages they received from them in all their Actions against the Germans besides the terrour of a Conjuction between our Naval Forces and the Dutch and of descents upon their Coasts with the dangerous influences that might make upon the Discontents of their People They wisely foresaw another Consequence of our falling into this Confederacy which must unavoidable have proved more mortal to them than all the rest in two years time for whereas the Wealth of France which makes their Greatness arises from the infinite Consumption made by so many neighbouring Countries of so many and rich Commodities as the Native Soil and Climate or ingenuity of the People produces in France In case this War had gone on with England engaged in it all these veins of such infinite Treasure had been seized at once or at least left open only to some parts of Italy which neither takes off their Wines their Salts nor their Modes in Habit or Equipage that draw so vast expences upon all the Provinces almost of Europe which lie Northward of France and drains such vast Sums of Money from all their Neighbours into that Fruitful and Noble Kingdom more favoured by Nature in my opinion than any other in the World But the loss of this Advantage upon the Necessity Folly or Luxury of others must in two or three years time reduce them to such weakness in those Sinews of War by so general a Poverty and Misery among their People that there would need no other effect of such a general Confederacy to consume the Strength and Force of that Nation This they very prudently foresaw and never intended to venture but having reason to apprehend it from the Prince of Orange's Match in England they took it without Resentment nay improved it rather into new Kindness than Quarrel making use of the King 's good Nature to engage him in a Prorogation of the Parliament immediately after which made it appear both at home and abroad that they had still the Ascendant upon our Court. They eluded the effect of the Message sent them by Lord Duras with His Majesty's Scheme of the Peace by drawing it out into Expostulations of Kindness and so into Treaty During this Amusement of our Court they plyed their business in Holland yet with greater Art and Industry poysoned the
observing the remaining Paces of the General Peace by that of the North which was left to be made at the Mercy of France And though Denmark and Brandenburgh looked big and spoke high for a time after the Peace between the Empire and France pretending they would defend what they had conquered from the Swedes in Germany yet upon the march of the French Troops into the Brandenburgh Countrey both those Princes made what haste they could to finish their separate Treaties with France and upon certain sums of Money agreed on delivered up all they had gained in this War to the Crown of Sweden Thus Christendom was left for the present in a General Peace and France to pursue what they could gain upon their Neighbours by their Pretensions of Dependences and by the droit de bienseance which they pursu'd with such imperious Methods both against the Empire and the Spaniardt as render'd their Acquisitions after the Peace greater at least in consequence than what they had gained by the War since not only great Tracts of Country upon the score of Dependences but Strashurgh and Lutzenburgh fell as Sacrifices to their Ambition without any neighbouring Prince or States concerning themselves in their Relief But these Enterprises I leave to some others Observations Very soon after my Arrival at the Hague the King sent me Orders to provide for my return as soon as I could possibly be ready and bid me acquaint the Prince and the States That he had sent for me over to come into the Place of first Secretary of State in Mr. Coventry's room My Lord Treasurer writ to me to the same purpose and with more Esteem than I could pretend to deserve telling me among other things They were fallen into a cruel Disease and had need of so Able a Physician This put me in mind of a Story of Dr. Prujean the greatest of that Profession in our time and which I told my Friends that were with me when these Letters came A certain Lady came to the Doctor in great trouble about her Daughter Why what ails she Alas Doctor I cannot tell but she has lost her Humour her Looks her Stomach her Strength consumes every day so as we fear she cannot live Why do not you Marry her Alas Doctor that we would fain do and have offer'd her as good a Match as she could ever expect but she will not hear of marrying Is there no other do you think that she would be content to Marry Ah Doctor that is it that troubles us for there is a young Gentleman we doubt she loves that her Father and I can never consent to Why look you Madam replies the Doctor gravely being among all his Books in his Closet then the case is this Your Daughter would Marry one Man and you would have her Marry another in all my Books I find no Remedy for such a Disease as this I confess I esteemed the Case as desperate in a Politick as in a Natural Body and as little to be attempted by a Man who neither ever had his own Fortune at heart which such Conjunctures are only proper for nor ever could resolve upon any pusuits of it to go against either the true Interest or the Laws of his Countrey One of which is commonly endanger'd upon the fatal misfortune of such Divisions in a Kingdom I chose therefore to make my excuses both to the King and to my Lord Treasurer and desir'd leave to go to Florence and discharge my self of a promise I had made some years past of a Visit to the Great Duke the first time I had leisure from my Publick Imployments Instead of granting this Suit the King sent a Yatch for me towards the end of February 167 8. with Orders to come immediately away to enter upon the Secretary's Office about the same time with my Lord Sunderland who was brought into Sir Joseph Williamson's Place I obey'd His Majesty and acquainted the Prince and States with my Journey and the design of it according to his Command who made me Compliments upon both and would have had me believe that the Secretary of State was to make amends for the loss of the Ambassador But I told the Prince that tho I must go yet if I found the Scene what it appear'd to us at that distance I would not charge my self with that Imployment upon any terms that could be offer'd me We knew very well in Holland That both Houses of Parliament believed the Plot That the Clergy the City the Countrey in general did so too or at least pursu'd it as if they all believ'd it We knew the King and some of the Court believ'd nothing of it and yet thought not fit to own that Opinion And the Prince told me He had reason to be confident that the King was in his heart a Roman Catholick tho he durst not profess it For my own part I knew not what to believe of one side or t'other but thought it easie to presage from such contrary Winds and Tides such a Storm must rise as would tear the Ship in pieces whatever Hand were at the Helm At my arrival in England about the latter end of February I found the King had Dissolv'd a Parliament that had sat eighteen years and given great testimonies of Loyalty and compliance with His Majesty till they broke first into Heats upon the French Alliances and at last into Flames upon the business of the Plot I found a new Parliament was called and that to make way for a calmer Session the resolution had been taken at Court for the Duke's going over into Holland who enbarqu'd the day after my arrival at London The Elections of the ensuing Parliament were so eagerly pursu'd that all were in a manner engag'd before I came over and by the dispositions that appear'd in both Electors and Elected it was easie to presage in what temper the Houses were like to meet My Lord Shaftsbury my Lord Essex and my Lord Hallifax had struck up with the Duke of Monmouth resolving to make use of His Credit with the King and to support it by Theirs in the Parliament and tho the first had been as deep as any in the Councels of the Cabal while he was Chancellor yet all Three had now fallen in with the common Humour against the Court and the Ministry endeavouring to inflame the Discontents against both and agreed among themselves That none of them would come into Court unless they did it all together Which was observed like other common strains of Court-Friendships Sir William Coventry had the most Credit of any man in the House of Commons and I think the most deservedly not only for his great Abilities but for having been turn'd out of the Council and the Treasury to make way for my Lord Cliffora's Greatness and the Designs of the Cabal He had been ever since opposite to the French Alliances and bent upon engaging England in a War with that Crown and assistance
of the Confederates and was now extremely dissatisfied with the conclusion of the Peace and with the Ministry that he thought either assisted or at least might have prevented it and in these dispositions he was like to be follow'd by the best and soberest part of the House of Commons For my Lord Treasurer and Lord Chamberlain I found them two most admirable Emblems of the true and so much admir'd Felicity of Ministers of State The last notwithstanding the greatest skill of Court and the best turns of Wit in particular Conversation that I have known there and the great Figure he made in the First Part of these Memoirs was now grown out of all Credit and Confidence with the King the Duke and Prince of Orange and thereby forc'd to support himself by Intrigues with the persons most discontented against my Lord Treasurer's Ministry whose Greatness he so much envy'd and who was yet at this time in much worse condition than himself tho not so sensible of it for he had been very ill with the late Parliament upon account of Transactions with France which tho He had not approved yet He durst not defend Himself from the imputation for fear of exposing his Master He was hated by the French Ambassador for endeavouring as he thought to engage the King in a War with France He was in danger of being pursued by his Enemies next Parliament for having as they pretended made the Peace and endeavoured to stifle the Plot and yet I found within a Fortnight after I arrived that he sat very loose with the King his Master who told me several reasons of that change whereof one was his having brought the business of the Plot into the Parliament against his absolute Command and to compleat the happy and envied state of this Chief Minister the Dutchess of Portsmouth and Earl of Sunderland were joined with the Duke of Monmouth and Earl of Shaftsbury in the design of his ruin What a Game so embroyled and play'd on all sides with so much heat and passion was like to end in no man could tell But I that never had any thing so much at heart as the Union of my Countrey which I thought the only way to its greatness and felicity was very unwilling to have any part in the Divisions of it the deplorable effects whereof I had been too much acquainted with in the Stories of Athens and Rome as well as of England and France and for this reason tho I was very much pressed to enter upon the Secretary's Office immediately after my arrival yet I delay'd it by representing to His Majesty how necessary it was for him to have one of the Secretaries in the House of Commons where it had been usual to have them both and that consequently it was very unfit for me to enter upon that Office before I got into the House which was attempted and failed But how long this excuse lasted and how it was succeeded by many new and various accidents and how I was prevailed with by the King to have the Part I had afterwards in a new Constitution of Councel and how after almost two years unsuccessful endeavours at some Union or at least some allay of the heats and distempers between the King and His Parliaments I took the resolution of having no more to do with Affairs of State will be the Subject of a Third Part of these Memoirs FINIS In troth I think you love us as you do yours That a King of England who will be the MAN of People is the greatest King in the world but if he will be something more he is nothing at all And I will be the MAN of my people Birdlime never catches great Birds * Whence come you It answer'd From Marinnâ—n The Prince to whom do you belong The Parrot To a Portugez Prince What do you there I look after the Chickens The Prince laugh'd and said You look after the Chickens The Parrot answered Yes I and I know well enough how to do it With Blows That there are some wounds among you that will bleed still if there be not care taken of them What do you intend then Sirs to make us be torn in pieces by the Rabble * The Lilly shall Invade the Land of the Lion bearing wild Beasts in its Arms the Eagle shall move its Wings and the Son of Man shall come to his assistance from the South then there shall be great War throughout the World but after four Years Peace shall shine forth and the Son of Man be deliver'd by those from whom his ruin was expected 1. That for avoiding the Inconvenient that may happen by the great number of Coaches in the streets that are so narrow and the Corners so incommodious the Ambassadors Mediators propose Not to make any Visits tho' they be Visits of Ceremony with more than Two Pages and Four Lackeys to each Ambassador and to have but one Coach with two Horses and not to go to the Place of Conference or other publick places with more than one Page and two Lackeys to every Ambassador 2. That when Coaches meet in these narrow places where there is not room to pass by one another every one instead of contending for Place or precedency shall mind rather to make the passage easie to one another and stop the first if he have the first notice that the Pass is too strait and also give place to the other if it be more easily done on his side than on the other side 3. That no Lackey shall carry either sword staff or stick in the streets nor Pages any more than a little stick 4. That the Ambassador upon any Crime committed against the publick Peace by any of their Domesticks shall renounce all Protection of the said Domesticks and deliver them up into the hands of the Justice of the City desiring and authorizing them to proceed against them according to their ordinary rules 5. That in case any insult or quarrel should be made by the Domesticks of one Ambassador with those of another Ambassador or any other publick Minister the Ambassadors will deliver up such of their Domesticks into the hands of the Master of the Party offended to be punisht at his discretion That the Mediation was always on foot for to go on with its business Full Powers Like able Men. Their Strength and their Weakness And in this distress of their State by so long a War All means were first to be tried An incurable Wound As a Storm that has ceased after it had threatned much and made but little alterations in the World To push the business on as far as it is possible The Will of the King Whipt Cream And when one is at High Mass one is at it Had been wanting in respect to the King their Master Rascal I 'll set a mark on thee at least that I may hang thee afterwards Of a sound mind A sorry wight That he had still life for one half hour of Conversation The French Fools are dead An easie Governess Unseasonably Right of Decency
the bare and common Offices of this Mediation in the Place and Forms of a Treaty and the Austrians held off from the Progress of it as well as the Northern Allies and as they had all hitherto done it would certainly follow that the French and Dutch would fall into private Negotiations and by what I could observe on both sides were like to adjust them in a very little time and leave them ready to clap up a Peace in two Days when the Dutch should grow more impatient of the Slowness or Unsincereness of their Allies Proceedings in the General Treaty or whenever the violent Humour of the People should force the Prince to fall into the same Opinion with the States upon this Matter This I esteem'd my self oblig'd to say that His Majesty might want no Lights that were necessary upon so nice and yet so dangerous a Conjuncture I had His Majesty's Answer in a long Letter of his own Hand complaining much of the Confederate Ministers in England caballing with Parliament-Men and raising all Mens Spirits as high against the Peace as they could and that they had done it to such a Degree as made it very difficult for him to make any Steps with France towards a General Peace unless the Dutch Ambassador would first put in a Memorial pressing His Majesty from the States to do it and declaring That without it they saw Flanders would be lost From Secretary Williamson I had no other Answer material upon all the Pensioner's Discourses nor my own Opinion upon the present Conjuncture but that His Majesty and the Lords of the Foreign Committee wondred I should think the French were so ready for a Separate Peace if the Dutch should fall into those Thoughts and that they did not remember they had ever received any thing from either Me or my Colleague at Nimeguen that look'd that way Upon which I told him the frequent Conversations I had had with Monsieur Colbert upon that Subject and the several Letters the Pensioner had shewn me from the Mareschal d'Estrades or his Instrument at Mastricht But to all this I received no Answer nor so much as Reflection tho' I thought this part was my duty as Ambassador at the Hague whether it were so as Mediator at Nimeguen or not The Prince and Pensioner were both willing the King should be comply'd with in the Government of Monsieur Van Beuningham's Paces and Language at London but press'd me to write once more to know His Majesties Opinion upon the Terms of a Peace or else he said it would be too late while the Season advanc'd towards the Campania Upon which I desir'd him to consider there might be three Weeks difference between his first telling his own thoughts to His Majesty and receiving His Majesty's Opinion upon it or sending first to know His Majesty's then returning his own and afterwards expecting the King 's again in case they differ'd besides I believ'd His Majesty would take it kinder and as a piece of more confidence if His Highness made no difficulty of explaining himself first The Prince paus'd a while and then said To shew the Confidence he desired to live in with His Majesty he would make no further difficulty of it tho' he might have many reasons to do it That if the King had a mind to make a sudden Peace he thought he must do it upon the foot of Aix la Chapelle which he would have the more ground for because it was a Peace he both made and warranted That for Exchanges he thought there should be no other propos'd upon it but only of Aeth and Charleroy for Aire and St. Omer which two last he thought imported a great deal more to France than the others unless they would declare that they intended to end this War with the prospect of beginning another by which they might get the rest of Flanders That this was all needed pass between France and Spain and for the Emperor and this State that the first having taken Philipsburgh from the French should raze it and the French having taken Mastricht from the Dutch should raze it too and so this whole War should pass Comme un tourbillon qui avoit cesse apres avoir menace beaucoup fait fort peu de remvements au monde I was surpriz'd to hear a Proposition so on the sudden so short and so decisive and that seem'd so easie towards a short close if His Majesty should fall into it and I esteem'd it a strain in the Prince of the most consummate knowledge in the whole present Scheme of Affairs and most decisive Judgment upon them that he could have given after the longest deliberation and maturest advice I observ'd however to His Highness upon it That he had not explained what was to become of Lorain and Burgundy and next Whether he believ'd it at all likely that France after such acquisitions made in this War and so many more expected should come to such Restitutions of what they possess'd without any equivalent The Prince replied Both were explain'd by the Terms he proposed of Aix la Chapelle That for Lorain France never pretended to keep it but from the last Duke only That Burgundy could not be parted with by Spain without the French restoring so many Towns for it in Flanders as would raise endless debates draw the Business into lengths and so leave it to the decision of another Campania For the second he said He had reason to doubt it and did not believe it would be done but by His Majesties vigorous interposition by that he was sure it would be easily effected but if His Majesty would not endeavour it the War must go on and God Almighty must decide it That all the Allies would be glad of it and believ'd that upon Don John's coming to the Head of the Spanish Affairs there would be a new World there That however one Town well defended or one Battel well fought might change the Scene That for himself he would confess the King could never do so kind a part as to bring him with some Honour out of this War and upon some moderate Terms but if he was content that France should make them insupportable they would venture All rather than receive them And for Holland's making it a separate Peace let the Pensioner or any others tell me what they would they should never do it while he was alive and was able to hinder it and he would say one thing more to me That he believed he was able to hinder it That if he died he knew it would be done next day but when that should happen this matter must be some others care and perhaps We in England were the most concern'd to look after it I promis'd to represent all he had said directly to His Majesty and so I did immediately and the Prince went next day to Dieren within six Leagues of Nimeguen where I promis'd to come to him as soon as I should be possess'd
saw what was like to become of the Treaty or the War and therefore I begged of him that he would not force a good Secretary out and perhaps an ill one in against both their Wills but let Mr. Coventry keep it at least till he seemed more willing to part with it The King said well then He would let it alone for the present but did not doubt in a little time one or other of us would change our mind In the mean time the Design of my Journey was known my Lord Arlington and others still asking me when they should give me joy of it and many making Applications to me for Places in the Office which made the Court uneasier to me and increased my known Humour of loving the Countrey and being as much in it as I could However when I came to Court the King fell often into Conversation with me and often in his Closet alone or with none other present besides the Duke or my Lord Treasurer and often both The Subject of these Conversations were usually the Peace and the Prince of Orange's Journey into England The King always expressed a great desire for the First but not at all for the other till that was concluded He said his Parliament would never be quiet nor easy to Him while the War lasted abroad They had got it into their Heads to draw Him into it whether He would or no. That they pretended Publick Ends and Dangers from France and there might be Both meant by a great many honest Men among them but the Heats and Distempers of late had been raised by some factious Leaders who thought more of themselves than of any thing else had a mind to engage Him in a War and then leave Him in it unless they might have their Terms in removing and filling of Places and he was very loth to be so much at their Mercy as he should be if he were once engag'd in the War That besides he saw the longer it continued the worse it would be for the Confederates more of Flanders would be lost every day the Conduct of Spain must certainly ruin all in time and therefore he would fain have the Prince make the Peace for them if they would not do it for themselves That if He and the Prince could fall into the Terms of it he was sure it might be done And after several Discourses upon this Subject for near a Month his Majesty at last told me He had a great mind I should make a short turn to the Prince and try if I could perswade him to it and assure him That after it was agreed he should be the gladdest in the World to see him in England The Duke and my Lord Treasurer both press'd me upon the same Point but I told them at a long Conference upon it how often I had been employ'd upon this Errand to the Prince how unmovable I had found him and how sure I was to find him so still unless the King would consider of another Scheme for the Peace than had been yet propos'd to him and wherein he might reckon upon more Safety to Flanders as well as to his own Honour That I had spent all my Shot and was capable of saying no more to him than I had done in obedience to all the Instructions I had receiv'd That his Answers had been positive so that some of my good Friends at Court pretended they had been my own Thoughts rather than the Prince's That His Majesty would do well to try another Hand and he would the better know the Prince's Mind if his Answers were the same to both if not he would at least know how ill I had serv'd him The King said It was a thing of Confidence between Him and the Prince and must be so treated and he knew no Body he had besides to send I told him if he pleased I would name one He bid me and I said Mr. Hyde was idle ever since his return from Nimeguen had been entred into the Commission of the Mediators there staid with us a Fortnight or three Weeks might pretend to return thither to exercise the same Function in my absence since the Commission run to any two of the Number and might take the Prince of Orange's Camp in his way to Nimeguen perform the King's Commands to His Highness inform himself of his last Resolution upon the Subject of the Peace go on to Nimeguen without giving any jealousy to the Allies or without the noise that my going would make since Sir Lionel had wrote to Court and to Me That Monsieur Beverning had desir'd all Paces should stop there till my return which he heard would be sudden and that the King would send by me his own Plan of the Peace The Duke fell in first to the Proposal of Mr. Hyde's going and after some debate the King and my Lord Treasurer and that it should be as soon as was possible He was sent for accordingly and dispatch'd away in all Points as I had proposed He found the Prince at the Camp but unmovable in the Business of the Peace upon the Terms His Majesty had Thoughts of proceeding gave Account of all that passed in that Conference to the King and went straight away to Nimeguen and writ me word of his Conversation with the Prince and that he never saw such a Firmness in any Man I knew Mr. Hyde's going to reside at Nimeguen would be of great comfort and support to Sir Lionel who was in perpetual Agonies as his word was after he was left alone in that station having ever so much distrust of his own Judgment that tho he had the most great desire that could be to do well yet he many times could not resolve how to go about it and was often as much perplexed about the little Punctilio's of Visit and Ceremony that were left to busy that Ambassy as if greater Affairs had still attended it Besides he lay under the lash of Secretary Williamson who upon old Grudges between them at Colen never fail'd to lay hold of any occasion he could to censure his Conduct and expose it at the Foreign Committee where his Letters were read to His Majesty It happen'd about this time that the Spanish Ambassadors first appearing in Publick upon a new Commission to all Three gave immediate notice of it to the Imperialists who made their Visit upon it and were within two hours revisited by the Spaniards After which they sent their formal Notifications to all the other Ambassadors and to the Mediators in the first place Sir Lionel was in pain having Orders to pretend the first Rank of Respect before the Imperialists as well as other Ambassadors there and not to yield it if it came in competition He had likewise another Order which was that upon Matters in Ceremony doubtful and not admitting the delay of new Orders he should consult with the other Ambassadors especially French and Swedish who used to carry those Points the highest