la veue de me cosoler avec vous je ne veux point la finir en y mêlant quelque chose qui soit etranger á votre douleur Je ne vous parleray donc point d'affaires et je vous diray seulement que le Roy mon Maitre me presse tous les jours sur les preparatifs de mon depart je n'y apporteray d'autres retardements que ceux que mes affaires domestiques rendent indispensables aprés une si longue absence En attendant je puis vous assûrer que je n'ay rien apperçû icy qui puisse tant soit peu alterer ou rallentir les soins de nos veritables et communs interests que je fay consister dans la fermeté et la durée de notre derniere Alliance vous verrez cela plus au long á mon arrivée Je Suis c. To Sir John Temple Sheen July 22. 1668 SIR THough I doubt our late Motions may have lost or delay'd some of your Letters which we have now been some time in want of yet I presume ours have had their constant Course to you though from several Parts And though mine have not been frequent upon the Permission you give me to spare my own Eyes and Time when they are otherwise taken up and trust to my Sister 's entertaining you Yet upon my return home after three Years absence I could not but give you some Account of my coming and stay here and of what I can foresee is like to follow it both as to my own Particular and to the publique Affairs in which That seems at present to be so much involved After the Conclusion of the Tripple Alliance and the Peace of Aix I was at an end of my Ambition having seen Flanders saved as if it had been by one of the Miracles the House of Austria has they say been used to and the general Interests of Christendom secured against the Power and Attempts of France and at the same time the Consideration and Honour of His Majesty and his Crown abroad raised to a Degree it has not been in for some Ages past and we had no reason to expect it should be in some Ages to come upon the Decline it felt after the Business of Chattam and the Peace of Breda that succeeded it I returned from Aix to Brussels without other Thoughts than of continuing in that Station till I grew wearier of it than I was like to do very suddenly of a Place I confess I love But immediately upon my Arrival there I met with Letters from my Lord Arlington which brought me the King's Orders to continue the Equipage of an Ambassador that I was in upon my Aix Journey in order to my serving His Majesty in the same Character at the Hague whether he was resolved to send me and to renew upon occasion of our late Alliances a Character which the Crown of England had discontinued in that Country since King James's Time In order hereunto I was left at liberty to take my Leave of the Marquis and to return into England as soon as I pleased which I did by the Way of Holland and left most of my Servants and Horses at Utrecht Upon my Arrival here I was received both by the King and Court a great deal better than I could deserve or pretend But People seem generally pleased with the Councils and Negotiations in which I have had so much Part since Christmas last and I understand not Courts so ill how little soever I have been used to them as not to know that one ought not to lose the Advantage of coming home with the common Opinion of some Merits or good Hitts at one's Back if one's Business be de pousser sa Fortune And I am put enough in mind of it upon this Occasion by several of those many new Friends one would think I had at this time of Day as well as by some of my old ones But I cannot imagine why I should pretend to have deserved more than my Pay of the King for which I served Him in my late Employments and if I got Honour by them 't was so much more than I had to reckon upon Besides I should be sorry to ask Money of him at a time when for ought I can judge by the Cry of the Court He wants it more than I do The Spanish Ambassador and Baron d' Isola as well as others of my Friends would needs be asking a Title for Me and 't is with difficulty enough that I have prevented it But 't is That I am sure I never can have a mind to and if it should ever be offered me I resolve it shall either begin with you if you desire it or if not with my Son which I had much rather But I suppose nothing of this can happen in our Court without Pursuit and so I reckon my self in all these Points just where I was about six Months ago but only designed for another Ambassy and no Man knows how That will end I am very much press'd to dispatch my Preparations for it by my Lord Keeper and Lord Arlington who are extream kind to Me as well as to the Measures lately taken by their Ministry and seem to value themselves a great deal upon them They say all the Business the King now has both at home and abroad will turn upon my Hand in Holland by keeping the French from breaking in upon our late Alliances and the Confidence between Us and by drawing the Emperor and Princes of the Empire into a common Guaranty of the Peace and thereupon they are mighty earnest with me to hasten away On t'other side the Commissioners of the Treasury seem to have more mind to my Company here than I could expect For after some of them had tryed to hinder the King's Resolution of sending either an Ambassador at all into Holland upon Pretence of so long Disuse of that Character or Me in particular when That could not be carried they prepared my Way by entring upon new Regulations in the Exchequer among which those concerning foreign Employments brought down the Equipage Money of Ambassadors from three thousand Pounds as it has been since the King came in to fifteen hundred Pounds in France and Spain and to one thousand Pounds in all other Courts And their Allowance from one hundred Pounds a Week to ten Pounds a Day in France and Spain and to seven in other Places Though this be pretended by the Commissioners as only a Piece of a general Scheme of Parsimony they find necessary in the present Condition of the Revenue Yet I understand it as calculated just at this Time particularly for Me and my Lord Arlington confesses he thinks it so too and takes part in it as a piece of Envy or Malice to Himself as well as to Me from some who are spighted at all that has lately passed between Us and Holland and at the Persons who have been at the
Point of being perfected Count Marsyn came to me and after a Preface of the great Obligations he had to His Majesty and the Part he took in all our Interests as well as those of Spain he fell into large Discourses of the unhappy Influences any Interruption in the present Treaty would have upon the Affairs of both Crowns He insisted much upon the Hardship we put upon the Spaniards in not consenting to leave the Assistance of their Enemies which was all the Advantage they expected from this Treaty in stead of many they gave that the great Effect of it on both sides would thereby be lost which was a Return into mutual Confidence and at least the Beginnings of a sincere Friendship That Spain having consented to what Terms His Majesty thought reasonable and Portugal not only refusing them but entring at the same into new Dependancies upon France he could not see what could oblige His Majesty to more than offering Portugal an equal Peace and becoming the Warrant of it That at His Majesty's Mediation Spain had given them a Style as usual and as honourable as what they desired and if they could resolve to give them that of King in stead of Crown they had then no need or use of His Majesty's Mediation That whether we thought it our Interest to have a Peace or War in Christendome we must begin by adjusting the Business of Portugal for if we desired the first nothing could so much awe the French into quiet Dispositions as that Peace and ours with Holland to which that would likewise be an Ingredient If the latter and we had a mind rather to be Seconds in a War of Spain with France than Principals in any which he thought was our true Interest nothing could make Way for it or enable Spain either to begin or sustain a War with France but a Peace with Portugal That he was confident His Majesty's consenting to abandon them in Case they refused to be included in our Treaty would force them immediately to accept it that if not and His Majesty should hereafter find it his Interest to support them upon any great Successes of Spain on that side it would be easie to do it by Connivance by voluntary Troops of his own Subjects or by a third Hand provided it went no further than to keep Spain in the Temper of yielding to the Peace upon the Terms His Majesty shall have judged reasonable But for the present without His Majesty's Condescension to Spain in this Point he did not see how we could hope to effect our Treaty or to receive any Fruits of it where new Occasions of Diffidence and Distaste would every Day arise These were the chief of Count Marsyn's Discourses which he ended in desiring me that I would represent them to His Majesty's chief Ministers and particularly to Your Lordship from him as the best present Testimony he could give of his Zeal to His â—ajesty's Service and Affairs and which he would have done himself but for fear it might look like intruding into Matters and Councils he was not called to Besides this single Point upon which this Stop of our Treaty is wholly grounded I could not but represent to Your Lordship some other Circumstances which I imagine may have fallen in and helpt to occasion it I hear France has declared positively to the Spaniard that they will immediately begin the War upon the Spaniards Signing the Treaty with us and concluding the Truce or Peace with Portugal upon our Mediation To this End and to shew the Spaniards they are in earnest they busie themselves in making new Levies and drawing down many Troops upon these Frontiers as well as all sort of Provisions either for Sieges or a Camp Upon this I know not whether the Spanish Councils may be so faint as not to dare give the French any pretence of a Quarrel but preserve their Quiet rather by shrinking than making a bold Peace Or whether being composed of Men that hardly ever lookt out of Spain or consider any thing but that Continent they may not upon Foresight of War either continuing with Portugal or beginning in Flanders rather chuse the first where being Invaders they may give themselves what Breath they please imploy their own Natives in the Charges of Honour and Gain and keep all the Money spent in the War still within their Countrey whereas whatever comes into Flanders never returns and is swallowed up by so many foreign Troops as the Levies for that Service must needs draw together There may yet another and more prudent Consideration arise with these which may for the present delay the Conclusion of our Treaty and that is a Desire to sign it rather before the Winter than in the Spring and by that Means both gain this Summer to finish the Fortification of their Frontiers here and the next Winter to put their Army in a better Posture than they now are or I doubt will suddenly be for the beginning of a Campagne and if this Council should be taken by Concert with us that no Breach of Confidence may grow between us by these Delays but the French only flattered by vain Hopes of breaking our Treaty and thereby induced to let the Spaniard grow a Year older in their Peace with them and slacken the War of Portugal into as low Expence and as little Action or Hazard as they can I know nothing can be said against it and should be apt to believe it were the Councils there in the Breast of any one Person by last Ressort whereas the divided Interests and Passions of the Councellours cannot well suffer them to fall into such a Resolution with hope of Consent and Secret among them all This Reflection puts me upon another I hear from private Hands which may possibly have made some Change in the Course of our Treaty which is that the whole Management of Affairs in the Council of Spain seems at present to be devolved into the Hands of Count Castriglio the Confessor leaving it to him and reserving to himself those Things only which depend immediately upon the Will of the Queen and proposing to himself during his Ministry which cannot be long in regard of Castriglio's great Age to make Way for his own by growing older and practised in Affairs as well as the Knowledge Obligations and Dependances of Persons Now our Treaty having never passed through Castriglio's Hands but conducted by Sir Richard Fanshaw wholly through the Duke of Medina's his declared Enemy and since by my Lord Sandwich chiefly through Pignoranda's who is a third Party 't is not improbable that a new Hand may give it new Form either to add something of his own or to shew his Authority or perhaps to pursue his former usual Dispositions which have been bent upon the War with Portugal considering no Part of the Monarchy but Spain and the Indies and I doubt in particular not very partial to our Alliance or Affairs Upon these Intimations Your Lordship
Letters to my Father I resolved this should be to you tho' upon a Subject wherein he has been very desirous to be informed which was more than I could pretend to from any Notices of my own having been Young and very New in Business when I was first employ'd upon the Munster Treaty All I knew of the Grounds or Occasions of our late War with Holland was that in all common Conversation I found both the Court and the Parliament in general very sharp upon it complaining of the Dutch Insolencies of the great Disadvantages they had brought upon our Trade in general and the particular Injuries of their East-India Company towards Ours And it was not easie to think any should better understand the Honour of the Crown than our Court or the Interests of the Nation than the House of Commons One Thing I confess gave me some Reflections which was to observe that three of my Father's greatest Friends and Persons that I most esteemed upon many Accounts were violently against the Councils of this War which were my Lords of Northumberland of Leicester and Sir Robert Long tho' two of them were of the Privy Council and the third in a great Office and ever bred up in Court. For my own Part when I entred into that Affair all I knew was that we were actually in a War and that the best we could do was to get out of it either by Success and Victories or by a fair and reasonable Peace which I believed our Treaty with Munster would make Way for and I found some of our Ministers had no other End by it having given over the Thoughts of any great Advantages we would find by pursuing the War how that succeeded and how it ended You all know there as well as I do here Upon Conclusion of the Peace at Breda my Sister took a very strong Fancy to a Journey into Holland to see a Countrey She had heard so much of and I was willing to give her that Satisfaction after the melancholy Sence we have had here ever since the French Invasion of this Countrey We went Incognito with only her Woman a Valet de Chambre and a Page out of Livery who all spoke Dutch I leave it to her to give you an Account of what Entertainments she met with there which she was much pleased with especially those of the Indian Houses For me who had seen enough of it in my younger Travels I found nothing new but the Stadt-House at Amsterdam which tho' a great Fabrick yet answered not the Expectation I had from so much Time and so vast Expence as had been employed to raise it Which put me in mind of what the Cavaliero Bernini said of the Louvre when he was sent for to take a View of it that it was Una granpiccola Cosa The chief Pleasure I had in my Journey was to observe the strange Freedom that all Men took in Boats and Inns and all other common Places of talking openly whatever they thought upon all the publick Affairs both of their own State and their Neighbours And this I had the Advantage of finding more by being Incognito and think it the greatest Piece of the Liberty that Countrey so much values the Government being otherwise as severe and the Taxes as hard as among any of their Neighbours At our Return from Amsterdam we lay two Nights at the Hague where I made a Visit to Monsieur de Witt I told him who I was but that having pass'd unknown through the Countrey to all but himself a I desired I might do so still I told him mâ— only Business was to see the Things most considerable in the Countrey and thought I should lose my Credit if I left it without seeing him He took my Complement very well and returned it by saying he had received a Character of me to my Advantage both from Munster and Brussels and was very glad to be acquainted with me at a Time when both our Nations were grown Friends and had equal Reason to look about us upon what had lately happened in Flanders he seemed much to regret the late unhappy Quarrel between us which had made Way for this new War among our Neighbours He laid the Fault of ours wholly upon Sir George Downing who having been Envoy from Cromwel at a Time when the States were forced to observe good Measures with him Sir George had made use of that Disposition to get a great deal of Money from the East-India Company who were willing to bribe his good Offices in some Disputes that remained between the two Companies That having been continued in the same Employment by the King he thought to drive the same Trade but finding the Company more stanch he had taken upon him to pursue a Dispute about the old Pretensions upon the Loss of the Bonadventure as an Affair of State between the Nations whereas it was left by our Treaties to be pursued only as a Process between the Parties That in their Treaty with Cromwel all Pretensions on both Sides were cut off but with this Clause Liceat autem to such as were concerned in that Affair of the Bonadventvre Litem inceptam prosequi That this Treaty having been made the Model of that concluded with His Majesty soon after His Restoration that Clause continued still in the New Treaty and the Process which had been begun long before Cromwel's Treaty before the Magistrates of Amsterdam had still gone on after their Treaty with the King according to the true Intention of that Clause That Mr. Cary. who was employd to pursue it in the Name of Courtin's Executors had brought it very near a Composition demanding Forty Thousand Pounds for all Pretensions and the Dutch offering Thirty That he Monsieur de Witt to end this Affair had appointed a Meeting with Mr. Cary who had since confess'd to his Friends that he was resolved to end it at that Meeting and rather to take the Dutch Offer than let the Suit run on but that very Morning Sir George Downing sent for him told him it was a Matter of State between the two Nations and not only a Concern of private Men and therefore absolutely forbid him to go on with any Treaty about it otherwise than by his Communication and Consent That he would put in a Memorial to the States upon it and instead of Forty Thousand Pounds which he demanded would undertake to get him Fourscore and that he was sure the Dutch would give a great deal more rather than venture a Quarrel with His Majesty This Course he pursued made extravagant Demands and with great Insolence made the same Representations to our Court and possess'd some of the Ministers that he would get great Sums of Money both for His Majesty and them if they would suffer him to Treat this Affair after his own Manner for he was sure the Dutch would go very far in that Kind if they saw there was no other Way to avoid a War with England
fait croire le premier et si on ne veut point de moy en France je m'en vay prendre mon party pour le reste de mes jours Je ne doute point que l'on ne me laisse faire un tour á Paris pour voir si je pourrois m'accommoder mais je crains que l'on ne me fasse des difficultez insupportables Je vous supplie de me croire toujours Monsieur Vtôtre tres humble et tres obeissant Serviteur Gourville Je pourray peut être vous voir á la Haye plûtot que vous ne pensez From Monsieur de Wit Hague Feb. 25. 1668. SIR THE Bearer hereof delivered me the Letter you did me the Honour to write to me from Antwerp of the 24th Instant wherein I behold with Pleasure your Zeal and Diligence for the Advancement of our common Affair as also the good Dipositions that your Offices have already raised in the Mind of the Marquis of Castel-Rodrigo and the Appearance of a more satisfactory Declaration we shall receive upon the common Request to be made him from the K. of Great Britain and this State I delayed not to communicate and deliberate the Contents of the said Letter with the States Commissioners deputed upon the Subject of our last Negotiations and we hope you will judge as we do that it is absolutely necessary for his Excellence to declare himself without further Delay or Reserve agreeably to what his concluded between England and this State without desiring before-hand any Concert more particular than that which is made signed and ratified between us and our Masters For since the King of France has seen by his last Conquests how weak and negligent the Spaniards are 't is to be feared that if the Marquis lets the Month of March expire without plainly declaring himself as we desire the King of France may be very glad after the Expiration of the said Term not to be oblig'd by virtue of his Word given to make the Peace upon the Alternative but may make use of the Time and Disorder of the Spaniards to surprize Luxenburg and a great part of what remains to the King of Spain in the Netherlands and to order his Affairs afterwards as Occurrences shall happen The States General are oblig'd and entirely resolv'd in case of Refusal from the King of France or any Evasions from that side after it has been insinuated to him that the Marquis has accepted either part of the Alternative to execute in the most vigorous manner possible what is contained in our third separate Article and by consequence jointly with England to break into open War against France to act in concert not only for Defence of the Netherlands but also and above all to attack and infest France by Sea by Descents Invasions into the Country and all other Ways But because it must be presupposed in publick that the King of France after having given his Word to the States and afterwards by a circular Letter not only to the King of Great Britain and the said States but also to many Princes of Germany will not break a Promise so solemnly made we cannot by any means enter into Concert and League with Spain before this Case effectually arrives And we think that such a League and Concert made before the Season would be likely indeed to produce the Effect the Marquis desires but which is far from his Majesty of England's Aim or that of the States for you cannot but know that his Excellence would prefer the Continuance of the War with our Assistance to the Conclusion of the Peace upon the Alternative and his Majesty as well as the States prefers this Peace before the Continuance of a War whereof they must bear all the Costs and all the Profit be to the King of Spain Now we comprehend very well that such a Concert and such a League as his Excellence desires would put the King of Erance upon an absolute necessity of continuing the War because if he should comply after such a League made with his Enemies it would appear publickly that he was obliged to it by this Bond and consequently by his Enemies themselves And therefore the Matter is judiciously enough propos'd by his Excellence for arriving at his End but since it would make us miss of ours we hope you will put the Marquis off it and make him quit all Hopes of engaging us by the force of his great Genius to enter of our own accord where we have no mind to come but upon a fatal Necessity I think his Excellence does wrong to the King of Great Britain and the States in not trusting their Affection and their Honour which are concerned as well as their Interest after the Alliance and the Peace they have already made together but if after his Excellence has accepted our Propositions the King of France shall happen to draw back or seek Evasions then the King of Great Britain and the States General entring into the Party and even into a Rupture with France it will be very just and proper to concert with his Excellency after what manner to act in the Territory of the King his Master and yet in the mean while not omit entring into Action without the least loss of time Therefore it will be no way necessary for me to be upon our Frontiers towards the End propos'd by his Excellence which besides will be wholly impossible for me much less to send any body from hence to Brussels since the States Deputies who are there at present are the same we should chuse for the End desired For I assure you I can name no body in whom the States as well as I in particular can have greater Confidence whereof I do not doubt but they will give you Proofs as well as of their Sincerity and good Conduct I desire you therefore Sir to use them with as much Freedom as me and I will engage they shall do the same by you And if you have been at all satisfied with my manner of transacting as I have been extremely with yours that you will be also satisfied with that of the said Deputies For the rest we approve extremely the Diligence you make on all sides in sending to the Ministers of the King of England and the States now at Paris And from your common Offices we promise to our selves an Universal Peace in Christendom to the great Advantage of the Publick and the Eternal Glory of your selves which no Man desires more than he who is SIR Your most humble and most affectionate Servant de Wit A Monsieur de Wit A la Haye 25me Fevr. 1668. Monsieur LE porteur de cellecy m'a bien delivré la Lettre qui vous a plû me faire l'honneur de m'ecrire d'Anvers le 24me de ce mois et j'y ay veu avec agrément le zele et la diligence que vous avez apporté pour l'avancement de nôtre affaire commune
Lordship the Assurances how great a part I take in all your Fortunes and consequently how much I have shared in the general Satisfaction which I hear you have both left in England and found in Ireland upon your late entring upon the Government of that Kingdom I am not only much pleased with it upon a private Score as one of your Lordship's Servants but as having always had the best Wishes for the publick Good of that Country and his Majesty's Service in the Establishment of it Both which will I am confident thrive very much in your Lordship's Hands not only in regard of the great Experience and Abilities which are so generally allowed you but because you are too Rich as well as too Generous to lose the Merit and Glory of great and honest Actions in the Cares of your own private Fortunes For this has too often given an Alloy both to the Worth and Success of several of your Lordship's Predecessors and contributed chiefly to the Unhappiness of the Governors as well as of the Country both which I hope you will have the Honour to restore I cannot but observe to your Lordship That I find by a general Consent of the Merchants here that Ireland runs every Year an eighth part in Debt by Importing so much beyond its Exportation which being to be drawn out in Coin will be a certain though slow Consumption of the Treasure of that Kingdom unless remedied by Sumptuary Laws or Examples for lessening the Importation of Foreign Commodities or else Industry for increasing the Native which are either consumed at home or carried abroad The first is like Diet but the other like Exercise to an indisposed Body which is the way of acquiring Strength and Vigor whereas the former gives but barely Health I believe the two great Improvements to be made in Ireland are of the Fishing and the Linnen Trade This to keep our Mony at home and That to fetch more in from abroad If your Lordship thinks these Particulars worth your Care and that I can contribute toward them by any Lights and Assistances from hence I shall be glad upon that or any other Occasion to receive your Commands I have given my Secretary Order to make an Extract of the News which either arises here or comes to me by Letters from Foreign Parts which shall go Weekly to you if you think it worth the Trouble and will please in return to do me the Justice of esteeming me what I am with much Truth and Passion My LORD Your Excellency's most obedient humble Servant To my Lord Arlington Hague Jun. 3. S. N. 1670. My LORD I WAS extream glad to find by your Lordship 's of the 16th past some Assurance of your Recovery And whatever the Name of your Illness was will believe the Nature of it could not be very bad since it left you so soon After which I will trouble you no more with my Remedies nor shall I need any my self after so great a one as your Lordship has given me by the Knowledge of your own and my Lady's Health For which I make you my particular Acknowledgments By observing the Winds I guess Monsieur Van Beuninghen will before this arrives have given your Lordship the Account himself of his leaving the Hague on Sunday-night and setting Sail I suppose on Monday-evening unless Madam Honywood made him stay some Hours longer who had appointed to be with him by that time from Amsterdam I will say nothing in Favour of her Pretension but that she is Daughter to the ancientest Burgomaster of Amsterdam who has expressed the greatest Passion of any other of the States in Favour of the Prince of Orange's late Concernment and may perhaps thereby deserve some Mark of his Majesty's Favour which I assure you I say wholly of my self For my good Offices in her Business were not at all thought worth engaging since Monsieur Van Beuninghen undertook it as I suppose he has done by their joining Company Your Lordship will find nothing to lessen your Esteem of his Person unless it be that he is not always so willing to Hear as to be Heard and out of the abundance of his Imagination is apt sometimes to Reason a Man to Death Which I tell your Lordship before-hand that you may not fall into any Prejudice before you know him well And on the other Side I have taken some Care to prevent his employing that Talent too much in your Conversations For the rest you will find him Fort honnête homme one that puts all the Good of his Country upon maintaining and cultivating his Majesty's Alliance and who upon the Prince's Occasion will deserve the good Will of our Court. For his manner of Negotiating I am confident you will find him not ill-bred nor offering to impose his Measures as you call them upon us But after any Propositions and Reasons he shall lay before you will rather tell you that you are Masters of all and that the States will in all Things that concern our Neighbours perfectly follow those his Majesty shall take Whatever Reception the State 's Proposal about the Algerins meets with in England I wish to God some better Order were taken for preserving our Honour in the Mediterranean For what with the ill Conduct of our Captains that they say will turn Merchants leaving our Merchants to play the Men of War and with the late shameless Loss of the Saphire I assure your Lordship the Reputation of our Sea-Affairs and Men decays abroad to a Degree that is very sensible I am sure to me and I doubt will hardly recover without some new and severe Discipline or Examples The Prince of Orange was introduced into the Council of State on Saturday last and with the Circumstances which he is very well pleased with He resolves upon his Journy into England about the latter End of this Month or beginning of next But will not fix the Time till the Pensioner's Return from Groningue about ten Days hence I am my Lord your c. To my Lord Arlington Hague Jun. 17. S. N. 1670. My LORD I WAS very glad to hear this Morning of your Lordship's being well arrived in Town where I hope the Diversions of your late Journy have returned you with such an Encrease of Health as is necessary for the Support of your great Affairs Y para mi consuelo Many French have lately pass'd this Way since the Return of that Court some who attended Madame into England and extreamly applauded her Reception there and his Majesty's great Graciousness to those of her Train The Count d'Estrades came likewise three Days since but I think barely on a Visit to his old Home or if he has any Business it is particular and at Amsterdam I find they all agree in assuring Us of the Peace as long as we can assure Them of the King of Spain's Life But in giving us fair Warning that whenever that fails their Master will march into the rest
the Chevalier de la Fourrille who had been dispatch'd secretly from Court some Days before the breaking up of the Camp at St. Germains and with the Troops quartered near the Borders of Lorrain made a sudden March into that Country and seized upon the City of Nancy and that by so unexpected and quick an Attempt that he failed very little of surprizing the Person of the Duke and had taken the Dutchess That the Duke escaping had retired to a small but strong Place called Bidsch where he busied himself in assembling what Forces he could for his Defence That the Mareschal de Crequy being dispatch'd from Paris had met this News upon the way and returned with it to Court from whence he was dispatch'd in haste the second time to Lorrain That the French Camp near St. Germains was marched towards Peronne under the Command of Monsieur Vaubrun but that by Orders sent after them upon the way they were to be divided into two Bodies of which one was to march away to the Mareschal de Crequy in Lorrain and the other towards Sedan where they should make a stand and face any Attempts that might be designed from Flanders or this Country towards interrupting the Success of their Affairs in Lorrain Monsieur de Witt told me further That the States having considered these Advices had ordered them the Commissioners immediately to acquaint me with them And further that though the States esteemed it a Matter of so great Importance that all the Parties of the Triple Alliance ought to concern themselves in it as wholly destructive to those Ends of conserving the Spanish Dominions which were mutually proposed in the said Alliance yet they the States should not nor indeed could not proceed to any Resolutions thereupon without first knowing those of his Majesty and being assured of his vigorous Conjunction And hereupon they desired me to give his Majesty Notice immediately by an Express to the End that I might know his Sense and Intentions upon this Conjuncture or at least be instructed to confer with the States upon it After this much was enlarged by Monsieur de Witt and the Commissioners concerning the very great Importance of the Seizure of Lorrain as the cutting off Burgundy wholly from the rest of the Spanish Dominions as well as all further Communication between any of the Netherlands and many of the Princes of Germany with the Suitzers So as they compared Lorrain to a Cittadel in a Town from which all the rest would be commanded at pleasure They added That the Dutchy of Luxemburg would be in a manner block'd up and maimed in their mutual Assistance with the rest of the Spanish Provinces That the Electors of Mentz and Tryers would have the French Feet upon their Throats And consequently that whenever France should begin with Flanders after the Possession of Lorrain the County of Burgundy would be their own in an Hour and Flanders in a very short Time without greater and readier Assistances than there seemed to be any reasonable Hopes for After this they told me They had received likewise a new Account by this Post of all the French Preparations at Sea and the present Estate of their own Fleet of which they gave me this inclosed List And by all I can gather from their Discourses I judge they are capable of any vigorous Resolution that his Majesty should think fit to inspire them in Conjunction with us But that without it they are resolved as they express it * To leave it to God and to see the French at their doors without stirring a-foot De laisser agir au bon Dieu de voir la France á leurs Portes sans se remuer Upon all which they pretend that the Disposal and Ballance at this Time of all Affairs in these Parts of Christendom lie before his Majesty from whom both the Empire and Spain as well as Sueden and this State will receive their Measures Three Days since the Baron d'Isola was with me to communicate a Letter he had newly received from the Emperor declaring his Resolution to join with the Triple Alliance in the Guaranty of the Peace of Aix which he desired me to give his Majesty part of by the Post But having told me at the same time that he resolved to give your Lordship the same Account I omit to trouble you with any further Particulars He came to me again just upon the Close of what I have written and shewed me a Letter from Monsieur Louvigni at Brussels containing the Particulars of what has hapned in Lorrain and little different from those I had before received by Monsieur de Witt only that the Duke of Lorrain resolved to retire with all his Forces into the Mountains and hopes to defend himself some time provided he might be sure of not being abandoned I am ever my Lord your c. To my Lord Keeper Hague Sept. .... S. N. 1670. My LORD I Lately gave my Lord Arlington the Account which was given me by the States Commissioners of the Seizure of Lorrain with their Reflections upon it and the Consequences it must needs have upon all the Affairs of Christendom and their Desires of my communicating all from them with Speed and Care to his Majesty which I did I have since received by last Post and by a Letter from his Lordship the King's Orders for my immediate Repair into England and for my acquainting the States with it and that it is only with Intentions of my informing his Majesty better in the several Points that concern the present Conjunctures of my Station here This I have done in a Conference upon it with Monsieur de Witt. I found him at first very pensive upon the News of it and apt to reflect upon this hapning so soon and unexpectedly after the late Seizure of Lorrain and both after the many Delays and Difficulties raised by us as he apprehends in admitting the Emperor to the Guaranty of the Peace of Aix in conjuction with the Triple Alliance which we formerly so much desired He remembred at the same time the many Instances we have made for many Months past about such a Trifle as the carrying off our Planters from Surinam whom he takes by the Articles to become their Subjects and the invincible Difficulties in which we have engaged Matters between our East-India Companies in which he says he is assured our Merchants have no Part but as they are instigated by some Persons at Court whose ill Intentions he fears towards the late Alliances contracted between his Majesty and these States both for our own mutual Safety and that of all Christendom He reflected upon a Coldness in all our Negotiations of that kind ever since Madame's Journy into England and upon the late Journy of the Duke of Buckingham's to Paris which he could not think was * To see the Country or learn the Language Pour voir le Pais ou apprendre la langue And desired I would