which had overwhealmed the whole State Insomuch that there cannot be any unbyassed dsiinterressed party but will praise the Electors prudence who in the preserving himself by the meanes of a Treaty remained in a condition both to preserve Poland and Sweden together Poland itself is discreet and rational enough to acknowledge it and to avouch That all necessary meanes are honest and lawfull and that the Obligation of the Lord and of the Subjects being reciprocall The Subject cannot be blamed for having failed to defend the Lord in case the Lord hath failed to protect the Subject And wherein Poland is more equitable then you are for being sensible of her sad enforced destiny she bewailes ours not accusing us to have quitted her party because she knows we were constrained thereunto although she likewise full well knows That in case the loss of the battell of Warsowe be not wholly due to our Army yet at least it did not a little contribute thereunto Wherefore we conjure you Gentlemen without passion to reflect upon the tye which lieth upon us to endeavour the begetting and preserving a Peace between Poland and Sweden and to maintain their power in a just equality as also to judg how little appearance there is that we should have obliged your King to take up Armes against Poland And whether it be not a very dishonest part to alledge That we endeavoured to make an alliance for a Warre which of necessity must have proved destructive to our selves We only desire you chiefly to consider how and in what matter you can possible blame our reconciliation with Poland And with what equity the King can condemn our proceedings at Bromberg seeing he approved of what had passed at Koningsberg And truly since you were not ashamed to impose a Law and a necessity on a Prince your Friend and to constrain him to act against the Lord of his Mannor the King ought to harbour so much generosity as not to be displeased to see that reunited again by a secret destiny which was disunited by your violence and force Princes do not proceed like common people They are not accustomed to pick groundless quarrels nor are they transported by cholar Their Fortune is above all that So likewise do they not undertake any Warre but with a resolution to obtain a Peace We were constrained to side with you and so long as the State of our affairs did permit as to stay by you we upheld your party with Fidelity and never abandoned you till you had deserted us and had left us to the discretion of Fortune without either hopes of a Peace or of a Relief Nor can you be ignorant in what a condition the Kings Forces were in when we drew off after the Battell of Warsow and in what a manner the Enemies recruted themselves after the said loss which instead of quite ruining them restored all their affairs and put a double proportion of courage into them We found them marching at our heels when we thought we had laid them along and we found them pursuing us in the reare laying all waste wheresoever they past and putting all to fire and sword in their pursuite menacing us even after their defeate and flying away more like Victors then overcome men The Transilvanian trembled the Muscovite threatned us and the King of Denmark thwarted all your designes by a new Warre whereby the King was obliged to abandon the whole to march unto the relief of the Principality of Bremn In regard whereof we could not refuse to hearken unto the Remonstrances of our Subjects to the Prayers of our Friends and to the proffers of our Enemies or rather We were constrained to make a Peace with Poland and to accept of those conditions which were proffered us although they had been farre less equitable then those which were granted us Now this being the true state of the buisness Can you with reason alledge that the Elector abandoned you Can you with equity be displeased thereat Are you in a capacity to threaten him And can you hinder him to agree with the Enemy and by a Treaty to endeavour to preserve his Estates the which you could not defend An invincible necessity might have induced him had there been one to have preferred his Interest before anothers But nature it self even from our Childhoods doth teach us to avoid our own ruine by all meanes possible That which necessitates doth justifie and where necessity reignes there is no Law For in a storm each man seeks his own preservation though to the loss of other mens goods We confess that the King wished us better luck and that he used all meanes possible to retain his Electoral Highnesse on his party to which end he caused several Propositions to be made He desired that we would make use of his Council and he made us hope he would make Peace with Poland and that he would return to the Army within six weeks time which proved meer words and nothing more was intended But we stood in need of effectuall and powerfull relief against the enemy who was already gotten into our Countrey whilest the King having abandoned Prussia and his other Allyes was departed from thence and was ordering his Affairs in Germany Insomuch as that all men must needs perceive there was no choice left to be made at that time and that his Electoral Highnesse being not able any longer to resist the strength of necessity was constrained to bethink himself of minding his own buisness and to preserve himself by meanes of a Treaty Wherein we only made use of the Kings Example who was farre cunninger then we when he abandoned his Conquests in Poland and his Friends in Prussia to defend his Estates in Germany rather then other mens any where else But however he hath been so much the more unjust that having failed of his word through a less pressing necessity he finds fault that in an utmost extreamity we have followed his Example You would willingly perswade us That we might have avoided that necessity by doing or suffering such things to be done as ought to have been done and the which would have been very easie But we attribute this to the good reallity with which you are used to proceed in all your other affairs even to the prejudice of your best Friends Nor can we choose but admire the dexterity whereby you could penetrate so deep into our affairs as not only to discover those secrets which we were desirous to have kept from the knowledg of others but also those which were unknown to our selves But as you have so good an opinion of your own buisness take care you be not deceived in ours For if every one ought to be beleeved as to his own concernments we must confess that your affairs being almost in a desperate condition because your subtilty could not overpoise those Forces which were a falling upon you from all sides How was it possible for us to hope to preserve our selves
alledged against the greatest Enemies those Allyes had and it was resolved not only to set upon those places which his Majesty had in Poland but also to take and share amongst the said Allyes those Provinces which do belong unto him in the Empire Nor did his Electoral Highnesse remain satisfied to permit these particulars to be set down in writing but did also pass on to commit acts of hostility as followeth He gave passage and Provisions to the Polanders and suffered them to over-run pillage and burn Pomerania he hindered those Leagues which his Majesty caused to be made in the Empire although the same are permitted unto all Princes indifferently seeing they were not burdensome to any one and that they were only to be imployed in the defence of his Territories He commanded his Subjects to quit his Majesties service against the Liberties which the Lawes of the Empire give them he caused to be stopt in the Haven of Pillou those Powders and other Munitions of War and Provisions which the King had sent to his Places in Prussia contrary to the Treaty of alliance and against the Law of Nations and he opposed himself in the Assembly of the Lower Circle of Saxony unto that security which the Estates of that Circle were obliged to give him against the invasion of the King of Denmark crying down his Majesties actions and testifying his hatred and malice by animating and stirring up all the world against him as against the common enemy at such a time when as his Electoral Highness had not any occasion to complain of his said Majesty but when the King did give him the greatest proof of his Friendship and good will All men do know and it is most assured that his Electoral Highnesse hath promised the King of Denmark relief that he hath sollicited the conjunction of the Austrian Armies and that to this end the Forces of the Allies did often shew themselves in Germany when as there did not any enemy at all appear and when as there was not any thing at all to be apprehended That he hath desired asistance from all parts as against a declared enemy and that he had endeavoured to render the Kings best actions odious Insomuch as it is void of all doubt but that he would absolutely have declared himself had it not been for the Justice and Prosperity of his Majesties Armies And although these undeniable Proofs which have been but too much confirmed by the publick report of them did manifest his Electoral Highness ill intentions yet his Majesty never changed his good will which he ever bore towards one who threatned him although he least deserved it having declared whilest he was yet at Gottenbourg that in case his Electoral Highnesse would depute any of his Ministers towards him accompanied with sufficient Power to cement and settle the former Friendship again his Majesty would alwaies be found willing to embrace the same But his Electoral Highness was so farre from answering these Testimonies of Friendship that notwithstanding the foregoing Declarations and as soon as his Ambassadours were departed Berlin he did ratifie that Treaty which was made with the most serene King of Hungary against his Majesty as against a common enemy did again cause to be arrested in the Pillau those Powders and Amunitions which were sent to the Royal Prussia and did put a Garrison in Frawenberg which the Austrians had abandoned although he had no title to the same and that according to the Treaties between the King and the Elector and according to the Military Lawes that place ought to have remained in the Kings possession however he refused to admit the Swedish Troops into the same caused the Officers to be pursued filled the Assemblies with complaints without cause of Justice sent to demand aide from all Parts as against a declared enemy and did all he could to manifest his disaffection and ill will and the small inclination he bore to the Peace Insomuch as that the King finding himself obliged to assure himself of his Electoral Higness intentions and to know whether he was to Treat with the Ambassadours of a Prince in Peace or at enmity since by what we have before alledged it could not otherwise be conceived he thought that by vertue of the Law of Nations and the Customes admitted by all Kings and people to name Commissioners who might Penetrate into the Princes intentions who might know the subject of the Embassy and who might see the Ambassadours power before he resolved during this uncertainty whether he should admit them or no. True it is that his Majesty permitted the Ambassadours to come to this Town but not with an intent thereby to tye up his own hands and to forego that freedom which he hath to cause the necessary Precautions to take place To the contrary without their coming hither how could we have learn't of them those things which we desired to know And we could not have told how to have regulated those things which were requisite before we proceeded to a Negotiation to the end we might judge by the nature of those affairs wherewith they were intrusted in what manner we should Treat them and thereon to resolve whether or no in the audience which should afterwards be granted unto them they should be considered either as Friends or Enemies As also to resolve whether the Dignity of the King and the Present state of affairs would permit to receive them at all And forasmuch as the Ambassadours of Brunswick Lunenberg and of Hesse were come in the behalf of their Superiours to proffer their Mediations it was thought good to invite tdem to be present at the Conference to the end they might be Witnesses of the Justice Sincerity and Integrity whereon we should have proceeded on his Majesties behalf We cannon imagine why the Electors Ambassadours would not condescend thereunto They alledge indeed that it is a thing without a President contrary to the usuall Formes and Customes and prejudicial to the Dignity of his Electoral Highnesse But as the Execution of a thing which is just and reasonable in its self ought not to be hindered because no example can be alledged thereof so likewise ought it to have been considered that in all this there is nothing contrary to what Princes are accustomed to do by profferring their Mediation and good Offices unto two Parties and that there is nothing in it which doth repugne the equity or dignity of his Electoral Highness since the King hath done all what in reason could be desired of him without the prejudicing of his Interests But the refusall which the Ambassadours made to enter into a Conference in the presence of a third Party doth render their Embassy to be suspected and the rather when the Ambassadours of Lunenburg having desired to be excused because they foresaw the Ambassadours of Brandenbourg would not give way thereunto the King would willingly have so much complyance for both Parties as to exempt them that so
given me cause to believe That they harbour a quite contrary design then to make a Peace Insomuch as that I am obliged to pitty those who give credit to what the Polanders do averre thereon whilest in their hearts they harbour no other designes save to oppress and ruine others and whilest their Councils only tend to the ruinating of the neighbouring Provinces Moreover you may rest assured that during my absence nothing was omitted or neglected which might tend to the said advancement of the Peace since my Commissioners who were fully instructed and furnished with sufficient powers might have done the same things and even more then I my self could had I been present as it doth plainly appear by those Declarations which I have thereon made and which may also be easily perceived by the very nature of all the said Negotiations Wherefore you may with more reason make your applications to the King of Poland and represent unto him as you do very wisely alledge it in the said Letter How much it doth concern you that the said Peace be forthwith concluded Besides which you may remain assured That I have with so much the more joy seen the Protestation which you do make of the continuance of your friendship towards my Person and Crown as that lately it was reported to the contrary And that they would needs make me believe That you had harboured and taken resolutions very prejudicial to the good of my Affairs However I alwaies conceived That being convinced in your conscience of the sincerity of my intentions and that being fully perswaded of the affection which I bear towards the preservation of your Person and of your Estates you could not possibly be rendred capable to give ear to those things which might be told you nor believe those things which might be averred unto you to the contrary farre less to change that Friendship whereof you have so often given me such great assurances But that you would have a great deal of reason to imploy all kind of meanes to the end that by Proposals of a reasonable and advantagious Peace I may be delivered from so great a number of Enemies as do on all sides declare themselves against me You do know that I have several times in writing assured you of the constancy of my friendship which makes me beleeve that on your part you will retain the same inclination to cultivate it and to relinquish those things which may either alter or destroy the same Finally I do not doubt but that the Almighty will continue to bless my designs will confound the counsels of my enemies and will dispose the hearts of my neighbours to Peace and to a reasonable agreement It is that which I desire with all my heart to the end that Peace being setled in our neigbourhood my Subjects may enjoy that tranquillity which I do endeavour to procure them The good God preserve you many year and grant you a perfect health and all prosperity From Gottenburg the 10th of April 1658. Signed thus Your dilections Friend Brother and Cousen CHARLES GUSTAVE POSTSCRIPT In case you would be pleased to explain your self a little more upon the present conjuncture of Affairs unto my Resident in your Court or unto any other of my Ministers in Pomerania untill such time as I shall be returned to the Army which will be suddainly you will extreamly oblige me The third Proof The Lord of Slippenbach's Letter to the Baron of Suerin My Lord the Baron THe zeal which I do bear to the service of his Electoral Highnesse and the part which I do take in his concernments do give me the liberty to write unto him and to beseech him not to fail in the sending of your Excellence in good time towards his Majesty of Sweden I have thereunto added my thoughts on the present conjuncture of affairs although it be not necessary to send water to the Sea I have seen not long since in Furmans Almnack that the Moneth of May doth promise a great deal of good luck to the read Eagle and I am perswaded that it doth signifie nought else save the reconciliation of his Electoral Highnesse and the renewing and cementing of his Friendship with the King of Sweden after which I doubt not but all the world will send and complement him on the good conduct wherewith all he shall have provided for the preservation of his Estates God grant this good work may be effected I beseech your Excellency to send me word about what time you do intend to set forwards that so I may meet you by the way I desire you also not to mention former Treaties assuring you That we shall no sooner have entered upon a Negotiation but his Electoral Highness shall therein find his assurance and contentednesse and by what I see in the Copy of the Letter which his Majesty doth write unto his Electoral Highnesse which I have just now received I dare say That there is not a happier Prince then his serene Highnesse I remain your Excellencies most humble Servant Signed thus CHRISTOPHER CHARLES de SLIPPENBACH The fourth Proof The Elector of Brandenbourg's Ambassadours Reply to the Swedish Commissioners notification of a Conference THe Prince Elector of Brandenbourg's Ambassadours do kiss the hands of the Lord President of Mr. Kley and Mr. Ehrenstein and do make known unto them That having reflected upon the advice which they received from them and that having sound by their Instructions that his Electorall Highness doth expresly ordain them to demand audience of the King of Sweden himself and having moreover pondred how that it is not the custome of Ambassadours to enter into any Conferences before they have had audience they beseech them not only to excuse them in that they cannot condescend thereunto but also to make their excuses thereon to his Majesty and to know of him when it may please him to give them audience since his Electorall Highness would have just occasion to be displeased with them in case they should suffer themselves to be deluded thus any longer The fifth Proof The Swedish Commissioners Answer to the Brandenburg Ambassadours refusing a particular Conference THe Deputies nominated by the King do kiss the Brandenburg Ambassadours hands and do give them notice that his said Majesty reflecting on his Electorall Highnesse being so farre engaged with his Enemies as that he accounts him a common Enemy hath deemed it necessary to cause certain Propositions to be made unto them which are no other save such as according to the custom of all Nations ought to be made before they are admitted to the hearing which they have desired because that the granting of the same doth depend partly thereon so that the said Ambassadours may dispose themselves to hear the said Propositions in the presence of the Ambassadours of Lunenburg and Hesse as well as the other Orders which they have received from his Majesty to communicate unto them The sixth Proof The Baron of Suerin's Letter
to the Earl of Slippenbach My Lord the Count WE had reason to beleeve that his Electorall Highness Embassie which is an unquestionable proof of the sincerity of his intentions and of his reall inclinations to a Peace would have been the more acceptable to the King by reason that his Majesty being as yet at Gottenborow had witnessed unto him that he would be very glad thereof and that he caused the Prince Palatine of Sultsbach to invite us to come unto this Town But we are much astonished to finde the contrary Nor shall we inlarge upon all the other circumstances which gives us cause to beleeve it only we cannot any longer dissemble that we are very much surprised at the difficulties which are made in the giving of us a hearing it is become the common discourse in all companies and people do talk of it about the streets in so much as this refusall to admit us to audience being extreamly prejudiciall to his Electorall Highness we are constrained to beseech your Excellence to do us the favour to know of his Majesty whether he hath any thing to command us unto his Electorall Highness forasmuch as we shall not be able to excuse our longer stay in this place to his Electorall Highness since we see no appearance at all of effecting any thing here We have so many reasons which debarre us from entring into any conference with the Kings Commissioners in the presence of the Lunenburg and Hessian Ambassadours as that we doubt not but they will be capable to satisfie his Majesty and to oblige him to condescend to the audience which we have demanded but since we are again pressed thereunto and that in such a manner as we can by no means condescend unto being altogether unusuall and irregular we dare not ingage our selves in a buisness which is without a president unless we had his Electorall Highnesses express Order for the same Wherefore we most humbly beseech your Excellency not to press us any farther thereunto whereon we shall expect your speedy answer and proffer unto you our most humble service as being Your Excellencies most humble servants OTTON Baron of Suerin and D. WEYMAN POSTSCRIPT Since we cannot be admitted to deliver this Letter our selves we beseech you to put it into his Majesties hands The seaventh Proof The Earl of Slippenbachs Answer to the Baron of Suerin My Lord Baron I Hhave shown his Majesty the Letter which your Excellency wrote uuto me and the King told me he made a difficulty to give you audience because you had not power to treat on the reestablishing of the Friendship betwixt his Majesty and his Electorall Highness without which his Majesty cannot resolve to admit of this Embassie nor make a difference between a declared Enemy and an Ally of his Enemies and as the Romanes say The dignity of the Commonwealth permits not that the Ambassadours of Enemies be heard in the Senate For in case you intend to speak of the Peace of Poland and the other interessed Parties you take upon your selves the quality of Mediators which is a thing inconsistent with that alliance which hath been made with his Majesties Enemies In case you mean to propound conditions of Peace and at the same time declare that if we accept not of them you will be obliged to remain united with Poland and to put that Treaty in execution which you have made with that Crown you must needs become Judges or rather Heralds by declaring warre against us Wherefore his Majesty will ot hearken to any Proposals save such as may conduce to a particular Peace and may advance the reestablishing of the friendship betwixt his Majesty and his Electorall Highness because the Peace of Poland must be negotiated by Mediators and not by such as have taken party and declared themselves You know how I have alwayes assured you That notwithstanding all what is past his Majesty would be glad to see you in case you came accompanied with power to cement the former Friendship and to quit the alliance of his Enemies But seeing in lieu of coming hither upon that account we know that since your departure from Berlin the enterchangeably delivery of the Treaty made with the house of Austria hath been performed That the Gunpowder which his Majesty sent into Prussia hath been stopt at the Pilliw That a Garrison hath been put into Frawenburg and that since all other things have been done whereon his Majesty hath reason to be ill satisfied he will determinately know what he is to trust to from the Elector Whereunto his Majesty doth add That in case you will yet send for a Power to confer upon a particular Treaty he will nominate Commissioners and Deputies on his behalf who shall meet in any neutrall place such a one as shall be agreed upon but that otherwise he is fully resolved not to admit you to an audience nor to receive any thing on the behalf of a Prince who is entred into an alliance with his Enemies I am grieved to the heart when I do reflect upon the present conjuncture of affairs and when I consider that labyrinthe wherein his Electorall Highness hath engaged himself by the conference at Bromberg and by the assembly of so many Ambassadours as were lately at Berlin God grant that the issue thereof may prove a reestablishing of the Friendship with his Majesty a renouncing of the alliance with his Enemies without which I cannot well see how possibly his Electorall Highness can escape the dangers and disorders wherewithall he is threatned although one moitie of the world should rise up in arms against us but few of them should passe into Sweden with us I beseech you but to reflect on the alliance which you have made whether the victories it may produce will advance the glory of God the setling of the Protestant Religion or the assurance of his Electorall Highness I know that one day you will be mindfull of me I hope and wish to remain Your Excellencies most humble Servant Signed CHRISTOPHER CHARLES SLIPPENBACH Dated from Flensburg the 23. June 1658. The Eighth Proof The Barron of Suerin's second Letter to the Count Slippenbach My Lord the Count ALthough I have occasion to be glad to take my self home-wards after so displeasing a Voyage since I see by your Excellencies former Letter That his Majesty will not at all change the resolution he hath taken to refuse us audience yet I am constrained to confesse that I never departed from any place with so much regret as I had to leave this Town by reason that no ear would be given to the generall Peace of which I had well hoped to have here laid the first Foundations I dare yet hope that God who hath the hearts of Kings in his keeping will also move his Majesty and dispose it to preferre an honourable and advantagious Peace before a destructive War to all Christendome And since your Excellency specifieth in your Letter certain particulars upon which
a pleasure is taken in the crying down of the same as it seemes they are glad to have met with something whereon they might frame a pretended quarrell against him Neither can it be with any other design that his Electorall Highness is accused To have solicited the Warre against Poland to have quitted the alliance without any necessity to have made a new one with Poland and with the House of Austria to have endeavored to engage the King of Denmark in the same to have promised relief to the one and to have demanded it from the other to have given passage to the enemies to have recalled his Subjects out of the Kings service to have hindred his Leagues to have seized the Gunpowders and to have done several other things without the making of any distinction either of time of places with as much affectation as injustice It would be a very easie matter for us to reply on all the Accusations in such a manner as thereby we might manifest the justice of our Cause and the integrity of our Intentions if so be our Prince who is not capable of our unworthiness and low actions had not rather remit himself thereon unto your own Consciences then to render you ashamed by those Answers which he would return to your reproaches However we cannot choose but tell you That there is so much the less appearance of what you alledge That his Electorall Highnesse should have sought unto you for your alliance to make War against Poland as that you cannot tell why he should have done so what advantages he could thereby reape or what glory he should thereby acquire Warre certainly cannot be pleasing save only unto those who are transported either by ambition or covetousnesse or who through poverty are constrained to live by Thefts and Robing of other mens Estates Unto such I say as take a delight amidst the publick calamities and esteem their only tortures to consist in Peace and Tranquility who reverence vice and who account of Pillagings Murders Violations Sacriledges and the other inseparable disorders which are tyed to a Warre as heroick Vertues and as qualities becoming a King But our Prince was alwaies incapable of such unworthy thoughts For he sucked Piety from his Mothers Breasts and he inherited the love of Justice and the fear of God from his Predecessors We full well know that those Warres which are not altogether necessary prove oftentimes the most saddest unto those who wage them Wherefore we did disswade the Polonian Warre by divers and sundry Embassies The Town of Stetin doth very well know that we abhorre the very thoughts of that Warre and that we never had a hand therein but when we were constrained thereunto which you cannot likewise deny in case you do but call to mind how that the Polonian Warre was no sooner resolved on but that at the same time you resolved likewise to engage the Elector therein whether he would or not And we were so farre from pressing you to Warre against Poland that Wittenberg was already entred that Kingdome when your Ambassadours came to this Town to seek unto us or rather to threaten us and constrain us to enter into an alliance with you We could hardly believe that you could have the impudence to reproach us in this wise unless you had had assured proof thereof Wherefore we required to know of those persons which make up his Electorall Highness Council whether or no their deliberations could in any wise have given cause for the said Accusation We have runne over the Drafts of all the Letters which were thereon written and we have perused all our Registers to discover whether happily your cunning the necessity of those times and the state of affairs as then which were capable to have moved the firmest constancy and the resolutest determinations might have extorted from us any thing implying the same But we can take God to witness That we could not light upon any thing in the least That might cause us to suspect our having failed in our fidelity to Poland or of our amity to Sweden For our Elector could never sufficiently move the entring on a Peace unto all your Ambassadours nor to recommend it unto those who sided with Sweden True it is that he gave ear to your Propositions That he accepted those advantages which you proffered him purposely to gain him to your party and That he did receive your Presents But all this he did with an upright heart and on purpose to preserve them for the right owners least they might fall into the hands of strangers The refusall which you made to condescend to a Peace with Poland and the Warre wherewithall you threatned the Ducall Prussia did constrain his Electorall Highness to enter into a Negotiation with you and engaged him in a Treaty by which he alwaies hoped he might meet with an occasion to serve you as well as the Polanders to preserve both the one and the other by a good Treaty of Peace and to give a Testimony of his constant Fidelity to Poland For which purpose our Ambassadours were continually with you and never departed your Court who incessantly pressed you to come to a Peace and who amused you whilest we were not as yet gotten into a posture to defend our selves However we sticked not to take up Armes to continue our Leagues and to pass with our Army into Prussia notwithstanding our oppositions and threatnings You may well remember Gentlemen what passed as then and what the Elector did to endeavour to beget a Peace or to uphold the justice and equity of the Polonian Forces by the conjunction of his own till such time as that he saw he could not obtain any thing at your hands that was just nor overcome your obstinacy to destroy all Wherefore he rather chose to expect the very last extreamities then to fail in that Fidelity wherein this generous and good Prince stood ingaged to the Crown of Poland Both the Royal Prussia and the House of Austria and the States of the United Provinces can witness those endeavours which were used by his Electorall Highness for to ingage them in an alliance which might be sufficient to oppose these Vsurpations And we heartily grieve that the success thereof did not answer our Expectations However we shall alwaies retain this satisfaction to our selves That the Elector never changed his mind and that he never failed in his duty but by constraint No not with Poland its self His Elector all Highness could have wished withall his heart to have seen the said Kingdome in a better condition But in regard that the King himself had deserted it that the Senatours had abandoned the management of affairs that the Souldiers were possessed with a general cowerdize that all Subjects were treacherous and that even those who were born and payed to fight in the defence of that Common-wealth had taken up Armes against her He was constrained even to give way to those great Evils
Lay aside I beseech you that passion which hath possessed you let not the success of your Armies blot out the memory of what is past and permit us to represent unto you the evils of a War whenas not necessary and call to minde those streights and agonies which caused you so often to long for an honourable Peace and those vowes which you continually made that you would not suffer your self to be transported by the flattering appearances of the good success of your Armies which resolves were more then once by you taken nay as often as the wrath of God or rather his goodness endeavoured to bring you to reason through the prosperity of the Allyes Forces And if as yet you cannot attribute any faith to our words we beseech you only to reflect on the Condition of Prince Regotsky consider him and be more herein jointly with us Remember what this good Prince who hath donâ— so much for you is come to and in what a manner you have relieved him although he be happier then we by reason that you pitty him for having lost himself for your sakes wheâ—â—as you reproach the Elector because he would not perish with you But not to enlarge upon these Afflictions the remembrance whereof cannot choose but be very sensible to those who retain any sparkles of humanity and tenderness let us set what you mean by your endeavouring to perswade us That we might have avoided the encountring of all these misfortunes in case we would have done that which according to your own advice was necessary and easie We ingeniously confess that we cannot perceive your meaning but we very well remember to have seen you so surprised and astonished in adversities That you believed you both bought and could perswade his Electoral Highnesse that there was a necessity he should joyn his Forces unto yours and so to perish joyntly with you The one indeed was very necessary for your service alone and the other very easie both to yours and ours You would have us to reject the just complaint of our good Subjects to despise the cruell threatnings of our enemies and yet by a more then Stoicall indifferency we should have sat cross-armed and looked upon the several devastations of our Provinces And to the end that there might be nothing wanting to that inviolable friendship which you retained for us your Ambassadours ceased not mean while to represent That the Elector would do well to yeild Prussia to the King as a Province which could not choose but be burdensome and chargeable to the Prince Elector and that we should do well to put our Ports into his hands Without doubt because we should not reap the displeasure to see them perish in our own and that we might at least receive the satisfaction to see them taken from the Swedes who doubtless would be so good unto us as to recompence us for the same out of those Conquests they should make in Poland and Silesia or it may be to induce us to give them that in a generous way which they had a mind one day to take away from us They would have ingaged us to have entred Silesia with our Army and to have made up our share by the ruine of the Empire of Germany without their reflecting on the Obligation which the Elector oweth unto the Emperuor and the assurances which the King himself had so often given That he would never molest or trouble the repose thereof They were so ill advised as to counsell us to set upon others Estates at such a time when we could not hinder the Polanders from falling into our own nor to regain the Capitall City of their Kingdom and the chief Peace of our Conquests And all your policy consisted only to blow into our cars that there was a necessity to protract and delay the Treaties to gain time and to make us hope that the King would speedily return again into Prussia And you so well compassed your designes thereby as that whereas we both could have and ought to have made use of the occasion and have concluded our Treaty immediately we only finished it at the end of four Moneths neither did we sign the Treaty with Poland save after we discovered that your King did but dally with us whilest our condition grew every day worse and worse and that the Polanders took advantages at the small appearance of relief which we could promise our selves from the King of Sweden Wherein to our thinkings we proceeded so warily as you your selves cannot condemn it Insomuch as though you will hardly avouch it save in an indirect manner However we hope that one day you will come to your selves again and that you will be more rational We full well know that it is not your custom to harbour any complaisance for your Friends Insomuch as that by your boasting to have permitted the Elector to enter into a Negotiation for a Newtrality you confess you have done more then you believed you were bound to do because you do in some manner acknowledge that amidst our humane actions there happens some conjunctures which oblige us to give way unto necessity But although we speak with so much advantage of you we do not intend to lessen the glory which we account due to your King who being desirous to give a finall proof of his friendship unto his Electoral Highnesse who complained that he alone was exposed to the discretion of the enemies contrary to the Treaty between them did not permit him for he could not have done less to one of his Subjects but counselled him as his Friend and Kinsman to make a Treaty of Newtrality with Poland we are not a little obliged to you however for what you say thereon since we could hardly perswade our selves you had been capable to averre That we did well to make a Treaty of Newtrality whilest you reject that Treaty by which we quit your alliance and to acknowledge the necessity of the one whilest you absolutely condemn the other We beseech you Gentlemen to consider that your censure is either too severe or rather unjust Whereas acknowledging the necessity you refuse to admit the Lawes of Tyranny Nature it self teacheth that in some things you must of necessity go from one extreamity to another A man cannot stop himself being on a Precipice and a River that overflowes cannot be stopped by one sole ditch The revolutions of great things cannot be small and those things which are well interwoven cannot be unsowed you must either tear them or cut them asunder We could not remain allyed with you and seek the Friendship of the Poles For you your selves Swedish Sirs alledge That one must be either a Friend or declared Enemy to a Prince who hath an Army on foot And for all this you would have us remain Neutrall with the Poles that is to say you would have us become their Enemies whilest they are Victorious and you would have us remain your Friends in your