the Succession to the Crown adding Expressions injurious to the Circumspection and Prudence of that Princess Quod si molesta fuisset nec illa nec filius ejus regnarent Saying withal That it was the last Order which he had from his Superiours Let us now see the end of the Tragedy The Guises who were the next of kin to Queen Mary and whose Interests were united with the Interests of that Princess and consequently ought to have been inform'd of this whole Negotiation knew nothing of it The Jesuites had so well order'd their Affairs to hinder the Guises from giving 'em any Obstruction by reason that their Aim being to deceive Queen Mary and advance in her Place some Prince of the House of Austria as we have said already thought it more to the purpose to find out new work for the Guises in France that they might not have leisure to mind the Destiny of their Kinswoman In the mean time that great Conspiracy which was lay'd so privately and carry'd on so secretly by the Devices and Artifices of the Jesuites was discover'd at length to Queen Elizabeth by some of the Lords her Friends who had feign'd to be of the Conspiracy Thereupon Queen Mary was accus'd of Conspiring against the Life of the Reigning Queen and Executed and with her fell some of the Lords that had a share in the Plot. And the Jesuite that had drawn 'em into all that Mischief fled out of the Kingdom with all the Precipitation imaginable leaving all those of his Party in a world of Trouble and Confusion Hen. III. of France who was the only Person in whose Power it was to save this unfortunate Princess sent M. de Bellievre indeed to Queen Elizabeth with Orders to be very importunate for the Life of Queen Mary which he was to outward Appearance while underhand for Reasons of State and in pursuance of the King 's private Orders he persuaded the Queen to cut off her Head as the Common Enemy of their Persons and Kingdoms the Crime being sufficiently prov'd The Dissimulation of Hen. III. in this Affair was grounded upon important Reasons which concern'd his Person and the Tranquility of his Kingdom For that Mary being the next Heir to the Crown England should she have hapned to succeed Queen Elizabeth the Guises who were irreconcilable Enemies to Hen. III. and Counsellors of Queen Mary their Kinswoman would have favour'd that Princesses Party against him if they did not make use of all the Power of England to engage him in a fatal War for the Guises were already too powerful in France So that good Policy-requir'd that Prince to take all the Precautions imaginable for keeping fair with Queen Elizabeth and preserving her Alliance However it were the Jesuites were still the first Instruments of the death of that Princess while they sacrific'd her Life in hopes of raising a Foreign Prince to the Throne But what is there which they have not now done to raise K. James to the Throne Did they not find a way to sacrince King Charles his Brother and to cut him off by Poyson What is there which they leave unacted against King WILLIAM How many Attempts how many Conspiracies and reiterated Plots against the Sacred Person of this Illustrious Prince And all to raise to the Crown of England a Furious Bigot full of Transport and in a word a sanguinary Priest more Jesuite then King The most Christian King is very ill advis'd to seek the having a share in an Action so treacherous and so odious as that of complotting with the Jesuites and K. James the Death of a Prince who now Reigns with so much Glory the meanest of whose Actions will deface or at least ecclipse whatever was perform'd of most remarkable famous under the Reign of Lewis the Great Witness the Parallel that might be made between their Lives and their Actions between which without question there would be a vast Difference were they to be display'd to the World without Passion or Prejudice But let us pursue these Assassinators of Kings to the end we may shew to what excess of Rage and Fury the Diabolical Art and Infernal Doctrine which they have taught in the world is able to Transport ' em In the Year 1605. which had like to have prov'd fatal to all England by the Destruction of the Prince and all the Nobility of the Kingdom at the same time A Blow so much the more deadly and terrible because it was not lookt for nor so much as dreamt of in the midst of that Peace which England then enjoy'd Nevertheless the Misfortunes threaten'd by that detestable Conspiracy vanish'd by the Discovery of it so that it was not attended with any Catastrophe unless it were what turn'd to the Confusion of the Actors who were to have play'd that Bloody Tragedy I shall not insist upon the Circumstances of this Infernal Plot as being so well known to all the People of England It may be only said That this was one of the Jesuites Master-pieces to have blown up not only the Soveraign Monarch himself for a single Blow would not then serve their Turn but all the Royal Family and all the Nobility of the Kingdom The Quintessence of Jesuitical Machination which struck with Horror not only the English Monarchy but fill'd with Consternation and Detestation of the Fact all the Foreign Courts of Europe Insomuch that the Jesuite Baldwin being accus'd by his Accomplices to have been one of the Principal Contrivers of that dreadful Conspiracy and afterwards apprehended at Frankendale in Germany was from thence carry'd to Heydelberg and thence by Order of the Elector Palatin sent with his Hands and Feet bound into England The King was also so sensible of his Escape that he made a Speech to the Parliament upon the importance of the Discovery wherein he set forth the great Danger from which God had preserv'd his Sacred Person the Queen his Wife his Children and lastly all the Nobility of the Kingdom whose Blood was to have been all intermingl'd and blended together in a moment What then remains my Lords and Gentlemen said he but that we imitate the great Captain Scipio who finding himself accus'd by the Tribunes of the People for having laid out the Publick Treasure in a War against the Carthaginians This is a Matter of nothing said he content your selves that I have won the Victory and let us all ascend the Capitol to return Thanks to the Gods for it Let us do the same my Lords and Gentlemen Let us not give way to a Pagan but let us return Thanks to God whose mercy shines over all his Works In like manner does King William exhort all his good and faithful Subjects who are interested in the Preservation of his Sacred Person to return Thanks to Heaven for having deliver'd him from so imminent a Danger But what wonders of Providence do we not behold in the Discovery of a Design so deeply laid for for the Destruction
all the Lords unanimously took to defend King William and his Government against all the Attempts of his Enemies the Act of Association whereby all the Members oblige themselves to revenge his Death upon the Assassines in case he should come to a violent End the Bill by which the Parliament is to be continu'd tho' it should please God to afflict the Kingdom by the sudden Death of the King and the Clause inserted against suspected Persons by which it is made lawful for the King to apprehend all suspected Persons detain 'em in Prison and seize their Horses and Arms. All these things the Court of France looks upon with an evil eye These are new Degrees of Grandour Puissance and Authority which they never lookt for This encrease of Union and good Correspondence between his Majesty and his Parliament the earnest Applications and sincere Zeal of the English Nobility by which they all unanimously concurr to sacrifice their Estates and Lives for the Preservation of his Britannick Majesty All this I say extreamly perplexes the most Christian King and this is that which makes his Ministers give out That the Pretence of a Conspiracy has given the English an Opportunity to insert into a Publick Act a Part of an Oath which had been rejected c. To answer therefore in a word to all these Evasions I will say That the Experience of Things past has so well taught the Christian Princes to understand the Spirit and Cenius of the Council of France that all the Craft and Artifice of her Ministers will ne'er be able to disengage 'em out of the Labyrinth into which they have run themselves 'T is a Personal Stain that Sullies the Crown of the most Christian King and which will heap Infamy upon Him as long as He lives As for King James he is a Prince abandon'd to his Sanguinary Passions to Murders Violences and from his tender Years has breath'd nothing but Hatred and Fury against the Vnited Provinces and their Governours King William being then but Prince of Orange has had the cruel Experience of it to this very day And the Name of the Duke of York has always been so suspected to that Republick that She has always lookt upon Him as her greatest Enemy Witness the Pains he took in the Time of King Charles his Brother to exasperate Him to the Dutch Wars and to foment in Him an irreconcileable Hatred against this State by creating perpetual Quarrels between the English and Hollanders upon the account of Trade and by exciting King Charles to unite with France for the Destruction of this Republick and by using a thousand other Extremities which have render'd him odious and caus'd him to this day to be lookt upon as a Prince that never gave any other then base and mean Examples of a transported Bigot more Jesuite then Prince I cannot for bear reciting here one Passage in History which is in the Annals of the Republick of Holland by which the world may judge of the Inclinations of this Prince which always incens'd him to do all the Mischief that lay in his Power to the Republick of Holland At the beginning of the Year 1673 a detestable Enterprize was discover'd at Amsterdam the Design of which was to have burnt all the States Men of War The Person that was to have put this fatal Design in execution was one John Fraser a Scotchman The Duke of York who had been all along an irreconcileable Enemy of the Vnited Provinces had engag'd him by great Promises to go through with this treacherous Undertaking as the confess'd himself when he was apprenended without being put to the Rack This miserable Wretch was broken upon the Wheel and his Body expos'd upon the Wheel near Vootewyk But this is but only single a sketch of his Fury The whole Life of this Prince has been a continu'd Series of Attempts Treacheries Conspiracies and Murders with which the West of England rings to this day The sanguinary Passion which he learnt from the Jesuites who bred him form his Youth have exasperated him not only to do mischief to the Hollanders but all the Protestant Princes of Europe without sparing his Friends his Confederates and even his nearest Relations witness the precipitated End of Charles II. his Brother meerly out of a Desire of Reign For Princes who only consult their Prevailing Passion and ardent Thirst of Soveraignty will sacrifice all to attain their End Thus if we may believe a Great Archbishop of France Marie de Medicis Second Wife to Henry IV. concerted the Death of her Husband with the Jesuits and Ravillac out of impetuous Thirst after the Regency And when she was confirm'd she quickly shew'd what Princes or Princesses are capable of doing that are over-rul'd by that cursed Passion Catharine de Medicis was possess'd with that insatiable Passion all the whole course of her Life witness what we are going to recite though so much care was taken to conceal it She was as they well know that are vers'd in the History of France the Mother of Three Kings Francis II. Charles IX and Henry II. and might have been of a Fourth had the Duke of Alenson her youngest Son liv'd Francis II. being dead Catharine de Medicis obtain'd the Regency during the Minority of Charles IX her Son by means of those Artifices which she made use of Nevertheless the Civil Wars over whelm'd her with Business with Vexation and perpetual Disquiet and reduc'd her even to the point of seeing her self constrain'd to quit the Management of the Kingdom to the Prince of Conde gave her soon to apprehend that a Crown was a Burthen too heavy for a Woman In the midst of these Perplexities she retir'd to her Closet that she might wholly abandon her self to Solitude for some days giving order that no Person should come near her But at length she sent for M. de Mesme a Person of the Long Role for whom she had a particular Esteem as being one that had given her several signal Proofs of his extraordinary Zeal for her Service upon several Occasions To this Person the Queen deliver'd a Steel Box well lockt with a Key telling him at the same time that the Civil War affording her but ill Presages of her Destiny she thought it convenient to entrust in his keeping that Sacred Depositum which was the richest Treasure she had in the World with Orders never to open it or deliver it to any Person unless by her Command sign'd with her own Hand Now the Queen dying without ever sending for the Boy from M. de Mesme and he also deceasing not long after Catherine de Medicis the Heirs of de Mesme kept it a long time in their Family without opening it But at length Time which causes us to forget all things had bury'd the Queen's Commands in Oblivion insomuch that Curiosity would needs entice the Grand-children of de Mesme to open the Box in hopes to find some inestimable Treasure But
of this great Monarch Without contradiction the most execrable and cruel Conspiracy that ever was For the Relation that we have given of all the Attempts which the Jesuites have been all along contriving and making upon the Sacred Persons of Princes we find not any one that was carry'd on with more Contrivance and Artifice All the cunning Wariness all the Infernal Subtilty of the Jesuites supported by all the Power of the most Christian King were made use of in the carrying it on and the execution of it was to have been perform'd with all the Cruelty of King James so that if God by Secrets of Providence unknown to Men had not stir'd up the Conspirators to discover it of themselves the Blow had been infallible Nevertheless the most Christian King desirous to hoodwink the Eyes of all Europe and to make the Christian Princes believe that he had no share in so treacherous and odious an Action caus'd a Report to be spread abroad of a pretended Manifosto which he resolv'd to publish to the World And M. Pontchartrain has already given Orders to the Gazetteer of Paris to give us some Preliminaries in order to it and by way of Explanation of what we are farther to expect to exclaim in the Publick News against a Bloody Injury done this Great Monarch by those that charge him with being an Accomplice in so foul and detestable an Attempt And to prepare the Minds of People to give his Apology a kind Reception he has begun to say something of it in his last Ordinary in the following Terms as we have here set 'em down word for word The same Day says he an Officer dispatch'd away by the Duke of Wirtemberg was sent to give Advice that a great number of the French Troops were drawn together about Callis with several Transport Ships and the King of Great Britain meaning K. James was expected there that being afraid that all this was done with a Design to attempt a Descent the Duke of of Wirtemberg advanc'd with some Troops to embark upon the first Orders of the Prince of Orange This advice caus'd a great Consternation observe I beseech ye that which follows and presently to prepossess the Publick by Artifices like to those that have been so frequently been made use of a Report was presently spread abroad of a Discovery of a Conspiracy against the Prince of Orange c. 'T is not the Gazetteer that speaks this but the Ministers of France themselves It must be thought that either the most Christian King and his Ministers have forget the use of their Sences or else that they will not allow the Princes of Europe to have common Reason while they talk at this rate They would make the World believe that this is but a a Vision that the Conspiracy that makes so loud a Noise was only a Trick of State to try the Fidelity of the People or a Fancy of Policy to blacken France with Eternal Infamy If we would be so easie as to believe the Court of France all the Conspiracys which have hitherto been contriv'd against the Person of the King of England have only been pretences to gain some end or other either to get Money from his Parliament or to put a value upon himself or to try the Fidelity of his Subjects But those People who advanc't such Calumnies as these must be as great Deluders and as knavish in their Evasions as the Ministers of France themselves By this means the most Christian King their Master in pursuance of the Maxims of the Jesuites his Counsellors shall be always attempting the Destruction of a Prince by delivering him into the hands of Traytors and Assassines and when they miss their Blow and that the Conspiracies are discover'd he shall have a delicate excuse to say they were all Pretences or Tricks of Policy which the Prince made use of to advance his Affairs and fix himself in the Affections of his Subjects This is not the first time that France has made her self known in this particular The most Christian King is become so famous in all the Courts of the Christian Princes by his Treacheries that without doing him any wrong we may safely judge him guilty of having dipt his hands in this and to have been one of the principal Authors as indeed he was And without Dissimulation we may safely say That whatsoever ingenious Tour they give to so base an Act all Christendom is so well convinc'd of the truth of it that I will never believe that Monarch will ever be able to wash it off with all the Eloquence that ever he can hire to endeavour it To prepossess they say the Publick by Artifices like those that have so frequently been made use of Observe here that the Ministers of France for they are the Persons that send to the Gazetteer what the Court thinks proper to publish acknowledge themselves that this is not the first time that France has attempted the of Person K. William So frequently made use of say they Upon what occasion Why upon frequent Conspiracies for nothing else can be gather'd from the Words So then if the Pretences were frequent it follows that the Conspiracies were frequent and if frequent then real and not imaginary otherwise there had been no ground for Pretences for the People are not frequently to be deluded by the self-same Artifices On the other side if the Conspiracies were real then they could be no Pretences but just Occasions of Complaint 'T were well for the most Christian King and King James that they could acquit themselves at the cheap rate of Frequent Pretences But since King William's Advancement to the Throne of England we have seen no less then Eight different Conspiracies In all the Campagnes since the War declar'd we have seen New Monsters spring up which the Council of France has brought forth to destroy this Noble Prince The Confessions of the Accomplices the intercepted Letters the private Conferences of the Assassines with the Chief Ministers of the Court of France their Indictments and Trials and lastly the Executions of the Traytors have sufficiently justify'd the Truth of their Crimes All which demonstrates to us that the most Christian King and King James were the principal Authors of all those bloody Contrivances But by this we may see how far Effronterie will carry these Ministers who will presume to deny a matter of Fact that is apparent to the Eyes of all Men and which all the Earth acknowledges for such Thus says the Paris Gazetteer or rather the Eccho of the Court of France's Voice The Pretence of a Conspiracy has serv'd to countenance the inserting into a Publick Act a Part of an Oath which was rejected when the Business of the Commissioners of Trade was examin'd though they durst not out of a Remainder of Respect for the Truth and the Fundamental Laws of the Kingdom make use of the principal Clauses which caus'd it to be rejected The Oath which