Memoirs must not omit any thing that will afford as he thinks matter to deface the Memory of a Prince to whom the Church of England had the greatest Obligation the Life of the late Lord Rochester was not so severely Examin'd as this King's Actions are by this most faithful Historian 'T is a compendious way to Libel with a Reflection and Abuses may be easily fasten'd when the Authors Credit must pass muster for an Accusation One would have thought the Dutch might have been contented with their own Advocates and that the Considerer of their State had in these matters made as much of Apology for them as the Case could bear but it is with an ill Grace indeed and somewhat unnatural to see a sort of human Vipers work their Wits and their Way thorough the Bowels of their own Mother Country Englands Appeal and Marvel's Popery were the first and only Reflections that Libell'd these Actions till our Author came in with another Supplement but those being all such discontented Creatures Creatures depending on the Little Lord that then lost the greatest Place in the Law the Credit of such Authors is as much to be believ'd as the Conspiracy of the Court But this Attempt upon the Fleet when it comes to be examin'd has so much Colour for the Justice of that Encounter that there was first broke several Articles of Peace before that ever we could be said to begin the War those very Ships refus'd us in our own Channel the Right of the Flagg by which it was lawful for ours to seize or destroy them and the Captains that then Commanded had it for Express Commission to stand upon that Antient Regality and besides it is known that the Dutch had defended Van Ghent in the like obstinate denyal before so that now it could not be excus'd as a private Persons inconsiderate Default since whole Fleets were resolv'd to maintain it and their Masters had given them incouragement so to do this was I think an Heroical Breach too upon one of the Articles of Breda and all Leagues and Vnions if I am not out in my Reason and Law are such Acts as are Aggregate in themselves though the constituent Clauses that compose them have a great deal of individual Variety and Texture to the twisting them together of which if but one Twigg is taken out it presently loosens the whole Band We had been upon a long Accommodation and all fruitless Embassyes and Applications could not prevail so that even declaring of a War had it been actually design'd was never requir'd by the Laws of it in such a Case as previous and I 'le engage I 'le get their own Country-man Grotius himself to tell us so that the denouncing of it is many times conditional and then a Violation of Articles on one side is a sufficient Indiction without any necessity of declaring it on both we had demanded the Right of the Flagg and it was deny'd us This was by the Antients call'd a Clarigation and superseded ever rhat pure and absolute Denuntiation which himself confesses needless too when satisfaction is demanded from those that are resolv'd to offend and Servius his Exposition on the Leges Foeciales appears to be the same But since he desires Instances too the Romans in the Third Punick War without denouncing it surpriz'd the Carthaginians for some of their Violations so Cyrus did the Armenians David for Indignities the Ammonites and for more modern Examples the Great War of Sweden was carryed into Germany before it was heard of on the Continent that an Army was Landed on the Isle of Rugen because contrary to Articles the Emperour had oppos'd him in his War with the KING of Poland The reviving of old Differences was far from my Design but since the Dr. will not have such Actions to be forgotten it is a Duty I owe to the pious Memory of our deceased Prince to the Reputation and Honour of the Present to that Native Country that he so injuriously reproaches to defend them from those Calumnies that such a Deserter has cast upon them The Revolt and Defection of some States for which he so furiously pursues me I am afraid from the foregoing Relations of the Fact that he has forc'd me to will appear in spight of History to disguise it when even their own Authors do not pretend to excuse them from it but this Dr. thought he must do somewhat extraordinary for his new Masters to merit such a generous Protection and yet in this very Passage that he so pursues we only put it in the case words of a Common-wealth in general without specifying the particular Country to which we would apply it which for decency's sake and deference to that Allyance and Authority we did designedly forbear but since our Author is so unquiet I am afraid it was from the Result of the Application being so easy which himself perhaps made the sooner when he saw that somewhere it must needs touch but as Subjects are oblig'd to a real Friendship to all that are ally'd to their Lord and Soveraign so the necessity of such Obligation is somewhat superseded where such Authors are suffer'd to defame and defy him What other Authors have observ'd as we are neither oblig'd in Justice to Answer or defend so does it argue a defect of Matter fit for a Reflection in our own Treatise when he forces in Anothers to fill up the measure of his Animadversion But this I hope will appear too from the History of the States That if there were Roman Catholicks concern'd in the First Formation of their Government it was only so far as that they fought with them once for what was call'd their Antient Priviledges which as soon as they were confirm'd to them they were satisfy'd and return'd peaceably to their former Obedience In the Pacification at Gaunt tho' there was was omitted that Reservation of the deference that was due to the KING's Authority yet it was afterward by Explication annex'd and for that Don Iohn of Austria then the Governour confirm'd it under the Names and Title of the Perpetual Edict and that with the King's Consent and Approbration who after so many Troubles and Revolutions was glad to see his subjects tender their Obedience and by that their own Act thought it sufficiently secur'd But it seems there were those that design'd further some of the Eminent among the Calvinist's refus'd to subscribe that Article of Obedience to the KING's Authority which was afterward annex'd and so spoyl'd all the good Effects of this hopeful Pacification created such Jealousies and Disturbance that the Governour was forc'd to fly for his preservation to the strong Castle of Namur they chuse their Ruar model the Government anew frame an Oath to renounce all Obedience to Don Iohn the Governour and so zealous were the Reformers that the Iesuites of Antwerp for refusing it were plunder'd whose Loyalty then was the only Crime of this
of Queen Mary of England whatever they were were only made to the Suffolk Men if any made for besides what are related in History no publick Act under Her hand appears and the Dr. knows His Present Majesty in the very First Act of His Reign and in several repeated Proclamations since has solemnly sign'd it and so signify'd it to the whole Kingdome and the World though his sacred Word was sufficient without such an Overt Act to secure us But besides I know Dr. B. values himself so much upon his understanding of History especially about Reformation that the Times to which he would apply his Comparative Reflections as they are very distant so too of a quite different Face and Complexion to what they were in Her Dayes will the Dr. make no difference in the settling of the Protestant Religion between the settlement of the Six Years of King Edward's Reign and about an Hundred and Thirty that have followed since sure he is satisfy'd of the vast Disparity he seems almost assur'd that his elaborate Writings will secure us against the repealing the Tests or else they are pen'd to no Purpose and then can he expect that an Act for Re-establishing Popery should pass as in her Reign in the First Parliament The Reformation in the former Reign was really a force and what all impartial Protestants can apprehend carryed on even sacrilegiously by the Court to serve some secular designs tho' the consequences of their ill means might be truly good and perhaps in my opinion will ever be so 't was easie then for her without any breach upon Laws Statutes and Constitutions to retrieve and establish a Religion that had been from all Ages receiv'd and only for six years discontinu'd yet still we saw as appears from her Proclamation she so far adher'd to any promise she might have made that she declar'd she would never compel any of her Subjects in Matters of Religion till by their common consent they had oblig'd themselves that they did so is too well known both Houses putting up a Petition in the Name of the Kingdom to the Cardinal to be receiv'd again into the Church of Rome and this a Parliament that none have yet offer'd to prove was procur'd by any indirect means so that it plainly appears that Laws will alway depend upon the general opinion of the People and as they could not find then an House of Commons to restore the Church-Land so it will as hardly be got now for restoring the Religion The Reflection he makes on the Queen-Regent of Scotland for breach of Promise comes after examination of her History and the Transactions of her Reign in which she was then but a Princess subordinate to the Criminating of those her very accusers and the substance of it sincerely this After the death of Cardinal Beaton who by the way was as barbarously murder'd the sufferings of some persons for Religion which himself from his function in the Church had too Zealously set a foot many of the Commonalty began to Conspire against the Government and at last Seven or Eight of the Nobility took upon them to make an Act of Reformation I confess had it been done in a more Parliamentary way it might have been more Authentick this Queen-Regent was so far from proceeding against them as Criminals which doubtless she might have done it being a manifest Usurpation if not plain Rebellion that she gave a favourable ear to their proposals tho' the Clergy that were then Establisht you may be sure perswaded her to the contrary she offer'd all things to be redress'd in a Parliamentary way but Zeal being seldome attended with the greatest Prudence and Deliberation they fell into open Ryots before she could find a way to please them disturb'd a Procession to which her self was present demolisht Monasterys pull'd down Images and overturn'd Altars till at Perth they appear'd in open Rebellion and up in Arms what promises the Queen there made are as well known as the manner how she was forc't to make them They threatned her if she would not accept of their Accord or did ever violate and break it they would joyn unanimously to depose her Knox the Great Incendiary setting them on and made them confederate into a perfect League and I believe this too was as absolute a Power as was ever seen in Scotland or into the Low Countries sent from Spain After this pacification at Perth the Lords of the Congregation who were always the first in the field convene their forces again at Coupers-Moore Besiege the Town of Perth force it to surrender sack Abbys subvert Monasterys and sacrilegiously spoil all that was sacred and all this without any regard of any Duty to their Sovereign or Reverence to their GOD. The strictest of our Casuists even in a common person ever resolv'd all obligations void that are occasion'd by terror and Constraint and the Dr. need not have recourse again to the society I know the lewdness of some Politicians have extended the Obligations of Kings Princes to a greater latitude from their publick Concerns than in Conscience can be allow'd to Common Subjects I am so far from that Sacrilegious thought that I think the Sacred and exalted Characters they bear obliges them only more highly and that to a stricter Observance tho' still where Subjects can't be said to sin 't is hard to make our Princes Peccant why does not the Dr. prove that this Regent or her Daughter the real Queen did break their promises too when they assum'd their just Authority after they had both been so injuriously brought to renounce it but in this very case the Reflector had better spar'd his Animadversion since it was one of the Articles too at Edenburgh that there should be no injury done to the Catholick Churches which the Queen complain'd of was as soon violated but since nothing will please some People but arguments such as the Schools call ad hominem nor even those neither when the man's mind is alter'd does the Dr. think that if King Charles the First had been forced to the Nineteen Propositions to the utter Subverting of the Church of England it would by their Casuists have been adjudg'd an Indispensable Obligation they could not think it so in the case of the Covenant which the King to whose memory the Dr. has such a Kindness even in those Countries is said to have taken But to see how these faithful Reformers dealt with their Queen that must be upbraided for the violating of her Faith. After they had been the occasion of breaking some of those Accords for which none but their Sovereign it seems must suffer they left this Queen so little power to break her promise to them in matters of their Religion that she had none left to maintain her own for at a Conference at Preston she desired only the celebration of the Mass in the place where she resided and even that
was deny'd her But to go further yet tho' Allegeance be a sort of Faith too and a most profound promise which either the Municipal Law requires us or our Birth-right commands us to obey that being also an old Oath observ'd in our Court-Leets if we were not ty'd to our more modern ones made since for some more Designing Ends setting aside those slight obligations to their Soveraign they consulted for such Oracles of the Law those Reformers of the Gospel Knox and his followers about the deposing of this Queen from her Regency insomuch that this Reverend Author a Metropolitan in this Church establisht honestly represents it as a Scandal to the very Reformation they burlesqu'd the very Bible to place the Power in the People so that if their Religious Interpretations of the New Testament were not more agreeable to the Truth than their political Constructions upon the Old Protestants would be asham'd of the very Doctrines they profess'd they depos'd this Queen Regent with a Iure Divino and the Prince instead of that was deny'd to have any at all and to save the Dr. another Reflection the Case was the same here as if She had been an absolute Queen themselves acknowledg'd it in the very Fact for the other being out of their hands they were forc'd to have recourse to another Principle of Democracy to proceed upon By Vertue of that Authority of their Queen in France with which She had never yet impowred them they deposed that Queen-Regent in Scotland which Her self had authorised and this perhaps might be truly call'd the Courting of a Common-wealth Party but if that won't serve the Turn it is as well known their Hereditary Queen was serv'd so too 't is too much to upbraid a Princess with a Breach of Promise to such Subjects who violated almost all that was Sacred and only to sack the Town wherein their Soveraign resided turn'd their very Temple into an Armory and Magazine made the Church truly Militant and their Doctrin in the literal Sense an Evangelium Armatum but yet to add after all this Dr. B's Aspersions the better Authority of a Bishop of his Church he that writes the History of it gives this Regent a more agreeable Character and honestly represents Her as one that avoided alwayes giving any Occasion to those Troubles of the Kingdom That her Dexterity was chiefly in Composing the Tumults and pacifying the North and that She was the greatest Lover of Iustice and Equity and condemns mightily the History of Knox from whose Work our Author borrowed the Blemishes that he has cast upon Her and who in abusing of his own Prince and Country cannot have better Associates than Burnet and Buchanan This habitual Excellencies of our Adversary consisting so eminently in the Defamation of Princes and especially his own I wonder how his Hereditary Queen of Scotland could escape him and that the Breach of Promise had not brought about all her Misfortunes too by his way of writing he had not been bound to consider That when She was coming over from France tho' so solicited by the Queen of England She would not ty her self to any Promissory Obligations to confirm any of the former Ratifications and so justify Her Rebellious Subjects which She told to Throgmorton for a Message to his Mistress and 't is to be wish'd for the Credit of our English Nation and the Protestant Religion that That Princess had kept Her Promises too with the Queen of SCOTS SECT VII AS for the Politicks of France as they make a Book by themselves so this Author might have omitted them for any Argument they are against mine for in that I had observ'd the great difference that there is in the Constitution of that Government and our own the vast Disparity between the Temper of the Two Princes that at present govern the Multitude and mighty Majority of Catholicks in the One and of Protestants in the Other these sort of Suggestions with sober Men and unprejudic'd may be so prevalent as to satisfy them that a Protestant Persecution is not so soon set afoot here where we see even those that fly from it there so graciously receiv'd and by the supream Authority more especially provided for let but Dr. B ' s. Concessions that secure the Grisons the Switzers and some Principalities in Germany take place and from his own Arguments they are safe since the Want of Power and the Circumstances of Affairs will prevent any Danger The Massacre of Paris the Dr. knows was by most of the Roman Catholicks condemn'd the truest best Account we have of it is from one of their own Authors and of that Religion too it was as from him will appear the deplorable Effects of a long Civil War and the passionate Revenge that was coveted by some great Persons with an eternal Animosity between the Two Houses that inspir'd them first with such Bloody Thoughts which afterward was turn'd against the Protestants in general and like a Flame dilated it self into Destruction before it could be stopt The Occasions of this vast Effusion of Blood the Dr. will repent that ever he touch'd upon and even against my will has forc'd me to repeat it will be none of the greatest Credit to their Reformation in France to recapitulate the manner of its carrying on and we had better be contented with its Establishment than examin the manner how it came to be thus establish'd but since by his unjust Reflection Princes and their Religion their Sacred Person and Christianity it self is brought to suffer I must confess it has extorted from me that Truth which from the Circumstances of our Affairs and in kindness to some People I could have sooner conceal'd The Dr. must know then that I will not Iustify Kings and Countries just as he Libels them only with a Reflection but as the forgoing Defences I have made are founded upon their Epitomy and impartial Histories and Matter of Fact so he 'll find perhaps France too may much in the same manner be defended we shall not have recourse to their Antiquated Reformers those of Waldo or the Albigenses though shedding of Blood was brought up in their time too when with no little Barbarity countenanced by the Earl of Tholouse they basely murder'd their Viscount in the City of Beziers dash'd out the Teeth of their Bishop and almost his Brains too to whom his own Church could hardly be a Sanctuary for which Insolencies to give it the softest Term and as Protestant Authors say many more of the same sort Lewis the Ninth was necessitated by force of Arms to suppress them of a long War and the much Blood that it cost the Catholicks alone cannot with any Justice be brought to bear the blame since there were no promises then made by the Prince nor any Society to teach him Reserves The times we shall touch upon were when Luthers Opinions first took place there but
now the last Instance of his famous List which he concludes with a Remark taken from the Revolt of the Low-Countries which if the Terms of their own Historians may be allow'd us we must still call so and what with our Adversaries own Authority we shall ex Confesso conclude that those Severities were the more excusable because these Reformations were look'd on as indeed they were a Revolt then made from establish'd Laws the Doctor 's Allegiance may be so far transferr'd as in true Fidelity to falsify for them Matter of Fact and in an History of his own assure us they were never Subjects to Spain but it is more than METERAN or GROTIVS have done yet The kindness that I have for that Kind Country of the Dr's I confess is no more than what I have ever had to most Republicks and Common-Wealths that is to think the Constitution of their State to be the result of some Revolt and Defection from their Ancient Prince and their Lawful Lord and that though we could not trace in History their Beginnings and date the Epoche of their usurped Government and Authority an Imperfection from which perhaps that compleat and celebrated and most antient Aristocracy of Venice will hardly be defended though it retains still the shadow of that more Imperial Sway from which their Aborigines might be said to Revolt or by expulsion from their Country fall into but the Defence of this so criminal Expression we shall refer to it's proper place The Dr. at present is in his own Province and affords us what is still his Kindness to Crown'd Heads a better Subject to defend and that is King Philip the Second from the Calumnies of an injurious Character that would defame him for the Foundation of which Reproach or the unreasonableness of it there can be no more fair and candid Procedure then to refer you as in the former Essays to to the rest before to some short Representation of Matter of Fact. It is known then and beyond Dispute that the Belgick Provinces in former times were first united under the Dominions of the Dukes of Burgundy and from them by lineal or lawful Descent devolv'd to the Kings of Spain after they came into their Power they were all priviledg'd so far that there was no great need to fear they should fall under Oppression and the miserable Condition as the Dr. makes it of absolute Slaves so long as by their Obedience they only continu'd good Subjects To tell us of their Priviledges under the Goths Vandals and Gauls their barbarous and confus'd Constitution even before their Counts so long before the Emperor Lewis the Second had regulated and civiliz'd them with such a Title and that this Philip the Second forfeited his Right for not maintaining them is no more than if His Majesty were now to forgo His Three Kingdoms for not observing the Rites and Rules of our old Druids and the obsolete Customs of our antiquated Britains The Notion is so extravagantly wild that with sober men it will pass only for the fancy of some of their First Governours and Legislators who had no other Name but that of Forresters Yet this Notion was entertain'd so far and mixt with several other pernicious Principles truly Democratical that it serv'd to dress up that Oration which was afterward made in their Famous Senate by themselves assembled for the renouncing their Allegiance and deposing of the King of Spain which whether an Act of Iustice or popular Outrage from the subsequent Discourses will appear Under the Dukes of Burgundy we do not find them tumultuous tho' perhaps discontented when under any great or more frequent Contributions Charles the Fifth was too fortunate and powerful to fear them and no forreign Forces were then the Grievance though most of all by him maintain'd he knew his absolute Power as well as Philip that follow'd after In matters of Religion and Reformation though he was a little more moderate it must be remembred the Reformers were then also more few yet finding some Disturbance he publish'd an Edict against Innovation there about the time that Luther's was condemn'd in Germany he finding according to his old Aphorism and Opinion That those who had no Reverence for the Church would think they ow'd as little Obedience to himself their KING this put him indeed upon some Execution of the Laws as Grotius observes but with such ill success that many times when some of Note were brought to suffer such Multitudes would meet as with open Sedition to hinder and oppose it but the Progress of such seditious Insurrections by his presence and residing with them was soon interrupted but when Philip the Second succeeded his Father and the Fugitives from Forreign Parts began to fill those of Flanders the Reform'd began to be very powerful there and could never be thought good Neighbours if ever there were any Insurrections to the Church-Government that there was then Establish'd and to which they had expres'd so great an Aversion Philip the Second foresaw this and fearful of what follow'd was forc'd to leave those Forreign Souldiers as he told them for their Defence but indeed for his own but for all this suppos'd strength they finding he had left too the Government in the hands of a Woman they soon discovered an apparent Weakness and one of their Nobility then the greatest Subject and without any Detraction from his mighty Deeds as greatly discontented too whom out of Reverence to his Royal Dust and respect to his Noble Line we will leave without a Name thinking himself as injuriously disappointed of the Government of those Provinces which upon the King 's returning into Spain he had promis'd to himself and indeed from his Merit and Desert might very well expect was animated so far as to think upon an expedient for the heightening of his Power to make himself Head of the Protestant Party which upon the absence of their King began to multiply apace for this purpose he Consults with the Counts of Egmont and Horn about redressing some Grievances that were necessary for them to be eas'd of and that was first the three thousand Spanish Souldiers though so far from being any thing dangerous to the People that they themselves had the Command of them They petition for their Removal the King grants graciously their Request but withal thought fit to detain them there until the new Number of Bishops that he had instituted were settled for fear of any further Insurrection but they influence the People so that no Contribution could be got to pay them and the Dutchess of Parma now empowr'd by the King transports them all away for Spain This one would think should have been sufficient to pacifie them but no sooner was this Grievance redrest but Discontent like an Hydra from her Amputation rises with another Head Granvel then the greatest Minister of State was then as great a Grievance too and from his
to an Intreague of State and their business can be thought no less than answerable to the great Characters that they bear I wonder Dr. B. it being so much to his purpose and he so good an Historian had not stumbled in upon this piece of Importance to prove the Perfidiousness of King Philip who procur'd this cruel Conference immediately after Egmont's civil Entertainment and besides it being a business somewhat like the Discovery he has made of the Negotiation at Dover he might have had an Opportunity to have vouch'd it for his own Original but after all his smart Animadversions on this King's Commission and his bandy'd Observations through all his Papers upon those two poor Words Absolute Power I hope the Dr. will allow us that it is ill apply'd to the Power of Spain for where any Imperial Law obtains the Princes were ever reputed as Absolute and by the very Constitution of those Decrees are absolutely made so for those tell us That the Prince is ever esteem'd both the Maker and Interpeter of all Laws that which is his sole Pleasure hath the Force and Sanction of a Law and that it is equivalent to sacriledge it self to resist it and to this Absoluteness perhaps the House of Austria has the best of Pretensions since in that is preserv'd the more immediate Right and Succession to those Imperial Constitutions and all the poor Remains of the Roman Empire But why this bloody Commission should be parallell'd with his Majesty's most merciful Declarations to Scotland I cannot comprehend unless the Dr. by tranferring his Allegiance has translated his Senses too and so learnedly confounds a Liberty of Conscience with the Spanish Inquisition but Malice as it will alway make the worst of Applications so it seldom considers that Inconsistency that commonly attends them but since the Dr. has vouchsafed us to quote one Author for his Justification among the many Reflexions that he makes and that is Meteran It must be known too that from him alone can never be expected a most impartial Relation of those Transactions and that from his own Confession in the very Preface for he professes himself to be too True to his Country and too much an Enemy to the Tyranny of Spain that he only writes and rehearses to us most of the Acts of the Reformers and Defenders of his Country and that because he had the greatest Opportunity to Consult and Converse with them but still would not be thought to conceal any thing that made for his Adversaries though I think the Injury to the Truth will be still the same whether the Author abuses it out of design or for want of understanding such a Writer was a proper instrument in the hand of such a Reflecter and the Hatred of the one to the Tyranny of Spain may come in Competition with the others Malice to this Absolute Power of Scotland The Dr. would not have pardon'd us should we have paum'd upon him the same piece of Partiality and taken out our Accounts only from Famianus Strada for whom I am sure he must have no great Kindness being a Member of the Society but yet in the Relation that Meteran gives us of Count Egmont's Reception he does not tell us of any Edict or Pacification confirm'd but only as Grotius tells us that the King gave him some hopes of Indulgence which doubtless was to depend upon their good Behaviour and for the business of Bayone represents it you see only as the vain suspicion of the Reformers which for want of Foundation did as soon vanish 'T is no wonder then he refers us to Meteran to judge of the Proceedings of the Duke of Alva which though severe in themselves were but Acts of Iustice still though that when strein'd is the highest Injury the distance of time will not permit us to examin the critical Minutes of the State but after so much Insurrection the severest Executions if we respect the political part of Government may pass for necessitated Acts though perhaps sometimes too they may have as ill success but 't is no wonder to see men that are seditious themselves to animadvert on the Justice of a Nation after a Rebellion suppres'd Meteran calls such an Administration among them the Council of Blood and the Dr's Authority among us has made it the Bloody Campagne But because in common equity we are bound to carry the Case a little further let us see whither after all their Tumults and Insurrections that provok'd an injur'd and incens'd KING to send them such an odious and severe Minister of State they did not proceed to far greater Enormities against that Subjection they ow'd to their lawful Soveraign then himself could be said to transgress in any irregularities of his Government whatever were the Concessions of the Dutchess of Parma for I do find she was indeed so far necessitated as to be brought to Article with them they were only Terms or good Words extorted from Her by the terror of their Tumults for Brederode came so well interested or attended that she could not but give him good Language and a civil Reception tho' he had made Her but an ill Complement and as bold an Address also at an other time when she had assembled her great Council they gave out a Report that if the Governess did not consent to their Demands She should immediately see all the Churches in Brussels fir'd the Priests murder'd and Her self imprison'd So that Her indulging them for the present was thought the best expedient These Disorders were such for which you may consult even METERAN himself at Antwerp Delph and the Hague that the Dutchess even then fear'd the general Defection that follow'd and as he calls it Rebellion of all the Country from a Factious and Seditious Crew that the Governess her self was afraid of her Life was going to leave Brussels but being prevail'd upon by some of the Lords who promis'd to stand by her She stay'd tho' She was told that Night that there was a Plot to have killed two of Her Trusty Nobles and make Her a Prisoner so that when She writ to the Lords about an Edict of Pacification She declares it the Result of Violence and inevitable necessity but no one will infer from thence besides the Dr that this Edict for Pacification was to continue and be a perpetual Indemnity to all ages for any disorders they should hereafter commit for she was so provok'd with these Indignities repeated that She had resolv'd to suppress them by Force of Arms before that Alva was arriv'd had several and good Successes against them at Lisle Tourney and Valenciens insomuch that this progress of Her affairs and the News of Alva's March or Arrival confounded them all and put the Confederates into as much Consternation In short Alva's Severities were as severely return'd by three or four several Invasions by the Forces of the Confederates the Depredations of their Neighbours and