but if France looses England from her true Interest and diverts her from thinking so as without doubt we shall find if this comes to pass in any reasonable time the Vnited Provinces whatever good intentions and whatever interest they may have in the preservations of the Low-Countries 'twont be in their power to stop the fury of the French which like an impetuous Torrent will in a moment sweep away the best part of Flanders So that Spain ought to think of this in good earnest and not lye asleep whilst the French policy is so active and is preparing long before-hand for so important an Affair which will never be offered them again if they let slip the opportunity of being Masters of it France takes all ways imaginable to get one and makes it her whole business it behooves Spain to do so too if she would avoid Ruine and not fall under the Yoke of France which is the greatest plague that can be sent upon her no less than the Destruction and Desolation of her people the exposing and humbling all the Grandees of Spain who will be forced to give place to the meanest French Gentleman Therefore if the Spaniards are well advis'd after the Death of their King they ought not to suffer the Monarchy to go to Lewis XIV but with the last drop of their Blood and Banish for ever this Violent Insolent Spirit of France The Policy of France and her Maximes in Reference to England HEnry VIII King of England in his time made a Golden Medal on which was Engraven a Hand coming out of the Clouds holding a pair of Scales equally poised the one Scale denoting Spain and the other France with a motto in Latin to this purpose in English I throw the Scales on that side I give my Friendship Without doubt that Prince knew his power but now I can compare England to nothing but an Ox which knows not his own strength and suffers himself tamely to be yok'd That Kingdom has this great advantage that it Guards it self and an Enemy can't invade it but with vast difficulty 'T is not to be invaded without going often to and fro upon the Sea they 'l have Wind and Water to fight against and a powerful Fleet to engage with before they set foot ashore Insomuch that if the King of England be at peace with Holland 't is undeniable in his power to make the Victory lean to that side he is of France has found this so true although there is a perfect Hatred and Antipathy between those two Nations that she has spared no Cost and compasses Sea and Land to withdraw England from its true lasting interest and bring her over to their side or at least make her stand Neuter and look on with arms-across while the King of France Acts his Tragedy upon the Theatre of Europe In the mean time t is most certain that England can rescue this same Europe from being enslaved to France better than any other Nation if she pleases If the King of Great Brittain did but know his own Strength and Real Interest he might be not only the Mediator and Umpire of the World But might make Peace when he pleases between all the Christian Princes There are but two things requisite to effect this both which are very easie nay are in the Kings power whenever he has a mind to 't The First is That the King of Great Britain take Care to be alwayes beloved by his People and that there be a good understanding between him and his Parliament The Second is To have a strict Alliance with the Vnited-Provinces and live in perfect Amity with them and maintain inviolably this Union and Correspondence in all that Concerns each other The former of these is mighty easily done and the King will obtain it effectually when he once resolves to Require nothing of his Parliament but what is agreeable to the Laws of the Realm as he already promis'd in his Coronation Oath The latter will be done so soon as His Majesty of Great Britain leaves listening to the French Emissaries and puts out of his head all Jealousies and Surmises which those Creatures continually try to possess him with having nothing that he need be afraid of from the States who don't wish to Aggrandize themselves and Usurp their Neighbours Territories as France do's but only keep what God has given them and be able to protect their Countrey in the enjoyment of that Liberty they have at present France who is satisfied of the Truth of what I have said takes all occasions to obstruct it She is never without some of those Hellish Restless Spirits in the Kingdom to sow the Tares of mis-understandings between the King and his Parliament Ever since the Kings of England have appeared to be Protestants this Catholicon has wrought well and the Spirit of France has been at work to set the Episcopal Party against the Presbyterian and to insinuate into the Minds of the latter that the Bishops were inclined to Popery and that most of them were Jesuites in Bishops Cloaths Who would certainly seduce the people little by little and be Turn Coates so soon as they have a good Opportunity and dare discover their Opinion That the King himself was Popishly-affected and a thousand things of this nature which exasperated the people and made his Parliament jealous of him for which reason they Granted nothing at all or but very little of what the King ask't and by this means his own private Occasions grew so very urgent that he neglected the Publick In the Reign of Charles the First t was France which kindled the first Sparks of the Civil War which caused so much Bloodshed both to King and People insomuch that when the French Ambassador return'd home from England he boasted how he had kindled a fire which would not be put out a good while and that for one twenty years England should not be in a Condition to do France any harm One Father Joseph a Capuchin was instrumental in fomenting the Division among the Catholicks under-hand and I can assure you there were some of those Catholicks in the Parliament Army King Charles himself affirms it and tells you that the Rebellion among them proceeded from his having denied them places and as soon as War was declared between the King and Parliament the King of France sent Cromwel Six Hundred Thousand Livres to pay his Army at the beginning This is publickly known and all who liv'd in that Age know it to be true But at present the King of Great Brittain having chang'd his Religion France has chang'd her Battery too and the Church of England is now her main Piece of Ordinance The people are so exasperated against each other that his Majesty of Great Brittain must think of little else this good while and will find work enough in his Kingdom to compass his Ends even though he had got a Parliament at his Devotion and if he should live Twenty
sacrificed so many brave men for the service grandeur and maintaining of that State yet that nevertheless they will stand to their Treaty of Peace and Allyance in the hopes they have always entertained and do still entertain that his Majesty to whom with the Royal Family they wish all happiness will on his part be responsable As for our part in particular though we have not had the happiness to see his Majesty yet we cannot chose but wish him all Personal Health and do assure your Excellency of the esteem and high value we put and all ways shall upon your deserts and incomparable vertue protesting to you that we are more particularly your most humble Servant After such a base affront who would not undervallue such Embassadours the Representatives and their Superiours also who durst present them with a Golden Chain of 500 Crowns value One would think they had an hand in it and that they were covetous of Money and Presents If an Embassadour after taking such an affront should have accepted it he would have deserved to be hanged with that Golden Coller By the refusal of Audience you may well understand what France is made of and its designs Whoever heard or saw a free and absolute Republique referr'd to a Parliament under his Authority as the King refers Geneva to the Parliament at Dijon it would have been more legal and just to have refer'd them to the Parliament at Turin Now behold the equity of this great King who would always be both Judge and Party in his own Cause who would make all Europe depend on his Judges some upon those of Metz others on those of Dijon and Aix in Provence as he forces the people of Orange to do but we hope those of Geneva will not submit to those unjust Judges and supposing they do they will not miss losing their Cause and after that they will make a new pretension upon them till they have fettered them and losing their City and Liberty they become the slaves of France a Victim offered up to the Jesuit and the Conquest of Lewis the great and it is odds but that will be so indeed if they don't look about them betime and prepare themselves for its coming upon them for he 'l come and give them a visit as he did the Genoueses Let them not flatter themselves with the contrary when he shall make them resolve to sacrifice themselves for their Liberty rather then to a Prince who would be their Antiochus their bloody Master and would snatch the Children from their Mothers embraces to deliver them into the hands of the Jesuits make them forsake Relations Religion and all duty of Christians and refusing to obey this ambition would hale them to the Scaffold and throw their Carcasses to dogs nay if so be they should deal more gently with them it would be only to make them bear company with his own Subjects in Dungeons in the Gallies and in the West-Indies Now take notice of this Spirit of France and beware of it That Lewis XIV is no good Christian I Shall finish this Treatise in demonstrating that this King is no good Christian that it is but a cloak for his Knavery the better to play fast and loose the better to bring about his ambitious designs that albeit he makes a great clutter with the title of most Christian King at Rome yet we find him to be nothing less All who are baptized are not Christians for then we might reckon Julian the Apostate and Arrius to be such whom men look upon as Apostates and Antichrists I am perswaded the Marquiss de Montespan will justifie what I say I cannot think that Prince worthy the name of a Christian who covets his Neighbours Wife nay before all the World takes her from her Husband makes use of her and begets Children of her whom he would fain get declared natural never before Lewis his time practiced in France He cannot assume the name of Christian who makes little Conscience to break the most solemn Oaths and Engagements made at the Communion as he did at the Peace concluded at the Perinees upon his Marriage with the Infanta of Spain And then the Oath taken at his Coronation to observe the Edicts of pacification are they not dayly violated and retracted upon every frivolous pretence Good Christians are such who live up to those Vows they have made even to very Infidels The Marquiss de Laverdin making his publick entrance into Rome did choose rather to do it like a Fox than a Lyon as since it appears without ever determining any thing positively concerning it when they demanded him to explain himself before he made his entrance so that engaging himself neither pro nor con it will always be time enough and seasonable to make his Masters will to stand him in stead as we shall see hereafter when the Provencal Fleet shall be before Civita Vechia and other Ports of the Popes Dominion besides that it was convenient to carry it fair to obtain the Bull for the Cardinal of Furstenburg whom France was assured would be nominated to the Coadjutorship of Cologn the Dean and Chapter as 't is credibly given out fingered the Kings Money to that in effect it was registred and their Votes sold so that it was not possible to go back with their word When the Marquiss de Lavardin entred Rome the business was as good as done and the King made sure of it but he found himself mistaken as to the Bull for he believed the Pope who is wise and good natured enough of himself not loving noise would yield at the Embassadors arrival that the Spiritual would give place to the Temporal but he was deceived in his account meeting with such stiffness and vigour in an old man which it may be one durst not have hoped for in a young man. In the mean time behold the Marquiss de Lavardin keeping watch and ward night and day and that round about the Palace of Fernese just as if it were a Fort surrounded with enemies before the Pope and the Conclave of Cardinals Noses By all these riots and indignities done to the most eminent person of the Church Vicar of Christ and St. Peters Successor is nothing in comparison to that which Talon the Kings Advocate hath belched forth against his Holiness and the Cardinals his Counsellors accusing the former to be a favourer of Heresie Jansenisme and of Quietists and a thousand other impertinences which is to be seen more at large in the demand of the abovesaid Talon to the Parliament of Paris and by the Embassadors protestation publickly affixed at Rome the expressions therein are scandalous that they might deservedly procure the fire for a private person but when one hath the power in his own hand he thinks he may Lawfully say and do whatsoever likes him But the Pope who is grave and wise will let him go on yea peradventure his great modesty and prudent behaviour may make the King come to himself again and acknowledge the wrong and that the Pope is Master at home in his own House and may be able to disannul and take away the Franchises of the Embassadors quarters when he shall see it convenient for the repose of his People and his own Conscience It is not his frequenting Mass which is a Characteristical mark of being a Christian or for being kind to the Jesuits for fear awes Princes sometimes to make much of Jesuits and shew much respect to them Hen. IV. was not free from this fear when he would have restored them in France for when the Duke of Sully advised him to the contrary he started up and replyed secure me my Life then for 't was more then probable that those who sued for their return had assured the King that if he did not do it he would be in imminent danger of being Murthered When Life is at stake what will not a man do to save it Who can tell but these good Fathers have told the King now Reigning if in case he did not root out all the Huguenots out of his Dominions this must come in alwayes ad majorem Dei Gloriam that he would endanger his Life What sign of a Christian was there in the King when he made a League with Cromwel to fall upon the Low Countries and to banish Charles II. from his Kingdom who was rightful Successor to the Crown of England and a good Catholick in his heart although afterwards out of Policy he was fain to appear otherwise Again what sign of Christianity doth there appear in a Prince who assists Count Tekely in league with the Turks against the Emperour A King who forbids all Bishops and Curats throughout his Dominion to cause Te Deum to be sung for the Victories of the Christians obtained over the Turks who impedes by force of Lewisses the progress of the King of Polands Forces against the same Turks that they may have the opportunity to employ all the Ottoman Forces against the Emperour thereby to make him abandon what he hath got at the dear rate of so much Christian blood What Christianity do you observe in the Kings proceeding at the Cities of Genoua and Orange where he hath no right at all So that by all that I have alledged all these Titles of most Christian and Catholick Zeal the King is so much taken with and affects is only a deceitful mask of hypocrisie to lull the Catholick Princes asleep the better to play his game and make himself Master of them one after another Although the King of England would hinder him as being the only man that could best do it he would endeavour to cause an insurrection of the Church of England men against him he would send them Money and Officers as he did to Cromwel so that one may say of the French King that he becomes all things to all men when his interest is at stake He enters into Covenant with Turk or Huguenot Pagans or Infidels against Catholicks themselves if it be necessary for promoting his greatness and to attain to the Monarchy of all Europe And for a conclusion this is the Kings Religion and your Wit and Policy of France FINIS
to an Universal Monarchy he would advise his King to beg of God to prolong the World as much as he can This Malady ceasing in Spain hath passed into France but France being wiser doth not grasp so much and her King's Ambition is only confined to Europe a wish worthy of such a great Prince and who if we consider him aright could scarce demand less his Neighbours ought narrowly to watch his water for certain it is France cannot aggrandize her self without encroaching upon her nearest Neighbours as she doth really every day already When the House of Austria made broad signs of her design upon the Universe all the Princes of Christendom rose up against her and entered into an Association to prevent her Charles V. after the Battel of Pavia where Francis was taken Prisoner thought himself above all but he found business enough The Pope King of England the Venetians the Grand Duke of Tuscany the Swisse made a League against him to hinder this Emperour from bringing France and consequently the rest of Italy under his subjection It was not for any kindness the Pope and King of England bore King Francis that they combin'd together to relieve him but because Charles V. became so great that he would by his good Will have made himself Master of the World. Now at present forasmuch as this Itch is past into France All Princes of Europe for some time have run counter to whatsoever their Ancestors did in the Reign of Charles V and Philip II. and instead of opposing they have abetted and concurr'd with the designs of France some out of base compliance others out of fear There are none but the Princes of Nassau alone who have alwayes been fatal to whosoever had a mind to aspire to this sublime Monarchy of the Universe Do not Men admire with me the wretched Policy of several Princes and States in the World who look on with their Armes a cross and behold the French King to advance so fast and take Luxemburg a City of such grand Importance to Europe only the Prince of Orange presented himself upon the breach with the Low Countreys but who not being in a capacity to do any thing by himself was forced to retreat The French King would never have taken it had England and the States withstood it he hath no cause to brag of it it is a truth all the World knows but too well he was so cunning to get the King of Great Britain on his side that he consented to take what was not his own and to baffle the rest by illusory promises of an Universal Peace after the taking in of Luxemburg which they suffered him to do and this gross valiant Captain of a Trencher-man the Marquess of Grana Governour of the Low Countreys who was not promoted to this place but upon his demonstrating the means of being able to preserve this most Important place to the Court of Spain a place I say so necessary to Spain for the preservation of the Low Countreys by the assistance of Germany and albeit he should have minded nothing else but the preservation of that same City his own Honour as well as Duty to and interest of his King his Master being all engaged therein Instead of doing which this Fat-gut put into it only a pitiful Garrison of Twelve or Fifteen Hundred Men instead of Four Thousand and was wholly taken up in fortifying the City of Namur with his Regiments and some other places which were Cities on the boundaries which France would not have dared so much as to touch Would you not swear such a Fellow conspir'd to aggrandize France and concurr'd with the Designs of Lewis XIV When the King in 1667 would have undertaken the Conquest of the Spanish Netherlands England Swedeland and the Vnited Provinces associated together by the Triple League forced him soon to quit his hold they obliged him to re-procure and make a Peace with Spain and to restore to it some part of what he had usurped and taken away It would have been just so if the Neighbouring Princes had done the same at such time as he attacked Luxemburg Resist the Devil and he will fly from you But France cunning and subtle had sufficiently tryed how prejudicial this League was to her she could never be at rest till she had pluckt this Thorn out of her Foot and so soon as ever the term was expired she could not be satisfied till she had found out a way to hoodwink England and so got her disingaged from the Tripple-knot The Dutchess of Portsmouth like another Dalilah came over out of France into England to lull asleep the Sampson of this Kingdom France found out the way to act and speak so fair that she hook't in Dunkirk by Promises and Money at the beginning of the Reign of Charles II King of Great Britain A Town of so great Consequence to England in as much as it affords a good entrance into Picardy and Flanders 'T is no new thing for France to be troubled with this itching mind to sieze on the places of her Neighbours and to enlarge her Dominion from one end of Europe to the other The Duke of Rohan told us heretofore that Princes commanded People but that Self-Interest commanded Princes Without question he would have added something else had he lived in this Age and especially Lewis the XIV We may see Examples of it day by day and to secure his Ambition all times and seasons are good for him in Peace in War in Cessation of Arms. Interest is the evil Angel hath so long reigned through France we are taught out of History how Godfrey of Bulloign having a mind to take a Journey for the Conquest of the Holy Land and coming short of Money to put himself in a capacity to do it sold many of his Cities and Lands amongst others the City of Metz with the Country adjoyning which its own Citizens and Inhabitants purchased of him for the Sum of an Hundred Thousand Crowns They enjoyed this their purchase till the Year of our Lord 1551 in which Charles V. did so evilly intreat the Protestants of Germany Henry II. King of France under a pretence seemed forward to send Relief to the said Protestants of Germany In effect he dispatched the Constable of Monmorency with Four Thousand Men in all probability for this Expedition but it was quite and clean for another design as the sequel will make appear He demanded passage of the City of Metz who were for the most part of the same Religion with those who were molested in Germany between whom and the Emperour there was no good understanding They granted to the King with abundance of joy whatsoever he required of them in reference to his Troops passage and in testimony of their good will they caused Tables to be set up in the Streets to make the Soldiers eat and drink on their passage with huge demonstration of Friendship and Rejoycing But alas Their Laughter was
Daughter of Philip the Fair from this Match came Henry V. of England who had as much Right to France as the Dauphin has to Spain For the three Sons of Philip the Fair Lovis Hutin Philip the Long and Charles the Fair dyed all without Issue-male and it was after this when the King of England sued for his Right to the Kingdom of France that the Salique Law was first introduc't usher'd in by a Sermon which the Bishop of Beauvais preacht before the Convention of the States proving by the Gospel which sayes The Lillies spin not that by consequence the Flower de lis which represents France ought never to fall to the Distaff But that Law could only affect what was to come and not what was past Afterward Henry V. King of England came over into France with a Potent Army won several Victories and at last Married Catherine Daughter of Charles VI. and in the year 1421 it was sinally decreed and concluded that Henry should be King of France Now Isabel Queen of France Mother to Catherine Queen of England made her last Will in favour of her Son in Law and declared him Heir to all her Estate and to the Crown which in my judgment is a great addition to the Right which the Kings of England have to the Realm of France If the King of France had but had that Right to England which the King of England has to France what a Company of Manifestoes and Writings should we have flie about to demonstrate his just pretentions as he calls every thing he is pleased to lay a claim to So that let the King of England take a view of France which way soever he will he ought alway to suspect her and stand upon his guard as against one whom he certainly knows to be his Enemy He may justly be assured that he does not coaks him so without a design to get something out of him and because he knows him the only one who is able to counterpoize his Affairs Therefore 't is no wonder that Lewis XIV took so much pains to supply the late King Charles II. Necessities and satisfie his Pleasure Mounsieur Barillen and Madam Portsmouth can justifie what I say but I can assure you that the King of France regards neither Princes nor private Persons one jot farther than as they are for his turn Nay farther Even Vertue it self is only esteem'd by him so long as she squares with his Interest What value pray did he put upon either Princes or Princesses during Cromwel's Government Were they not obliged to retire not to say driven out of France What subsistnance or help had their Princes in their Exile from France No 't is to the Family of Orange that they are obliged which furnisht them with considerable Sums of Money but on the contrary France was the promoter of the late Troubles of England she gave the Princes no protection and never contributed the least toward the re-establishing of the late King in his Throne All this considered neither just resentment from the Royal Family nor the English Interest can decently allow of such close Alliances with France as shall be able to make England shut her Eyes or be a by-stander whilst Lewis XIV takes the Low Countries But on the other side she ought to be continually in a posture to hinder her in every the least attempt she makes towards it and to make use of the Six Regiments in Holland which the States won't refuse upon such an occasion to prevent the King of France his bringing more Men down upon Flanders I am perswaded that those Six Regiments would be able to cope with double the number of the French and thus by Englands only showing of her Teeth Europe will be safe Resist the Devil and he will flie from you But if you are afraid of him he 'l soon master you France has cut out work for King James now Reigning The Enterprize which he has taken in hand is so great that many Men fear and others hope that he will never get quit of it with his Life 'T is no time to change Laws when the Enemy is at the Gate 'T is not convenient at all times to think of working great Conversions some Battles must be fought to let the World see a Character both of a Soldier and a Polititian All the World expected this and more from the King. His Mighty Courage put all Europe in hopes that he would be an Universal Comforter to them and would afford some respite to Spain But alas What can his Allies and Spain hope for whilst his sole business is to please the Jesuits kindles a fire in his own Kingdom which it may be he won't be able to quench when he pleases and so long as he does so he dares not call a Legal Free Parliament Spain lost her self by banishing the Moors out of the Kingdom France is weakned by the Conversions she has wrought and by driving out the Hugonots and she has a great mind that the King of England would follow her Example We must not rob God of his Right Conversions only belong to him and he is able to convert the whole World with one Word Therefore leaving the care of this to God the King of England ought to mind the safety of his States avoid being made the King of France his Cully and make him keep at home and not fall upon his Neighbours Lands which ought to be the Barrier between them Thus the King will do his Honour and Conduct but Justice and satisfie the expectation of all Europe The Politick Spirit of France and its Maxims in reference to the United Provinces THE States of the Vnited Provinces after they had constrained Spain by force of Arms to acknowledge them for Free High and Mighty States depending on none but God alone were for some time the admiration of their Neighbours and every one laboured to procure their Friendship and Alliance and it may be said that they were looked upon as the Umpires of Europe but since the War in 1672 this High Reputation hath been lessened and France hath been so cunning to play her Cards so well that she had well nigh reduc't them to nothing if by an unlookt for change the People had not put the whole management and command into the Prince of Orange's hands and if some persons of ill designs had not been brought to condign punishment But God whom it pleased by his Providence to protect and preserve this little Country did after the siege of Norden send such a panick fear amongst its Enemies that they broke up their Camp with more speed than they came yet the thing which did most contribute to these misfortunes besides the Treachery of France was their being unprovided of good Forces and a good Head for the Army These Provinces relyed wholly upon the Peace and treacherous deceitful promises of France which all a long in time of Peace carryed on a design against the said
favourable opportunity shall require it Can a Man forbear laughing when he hears the praises which these flatterers bestow on Lewis XIV perswading him he hath procured peace both to his Enemies and to all Europe These Tales are very fit to be told to the Kingdom of Siam as Mounsieur de Chaumont the French Embassador was not backward to do in his Speech to that King which is to be found at large in a Book Entituled A Voyage into Siam and they have not been wanting in like manner to put off such sort of Trifles to the King of China such like stories are good for nothing else but to be obtruded on those Countreys though not here in Europe where our Eyes have seen and Ears heard the contrary Is it not strange to meet with such Writers who commit such impertinent Trifles as these to paper Don't we know what the proceedings of the King of France have been to procure a Peace with the States of the Vnited Provinces For seeing Fortune began to change he Agreed as touching the City of Nemeghen which belonged to the Hollanders so that no body went to Versailles to demand it of him He offers them Mastricht which was still in his hands Yea If the States had not been so very hasty to grant him what he demanded with so much importunity and for which he made so many fair promises he would have been glad to have defrayed all the Expence of the War Pray who can tell what it hath cost him under hand to obtain this Peace which he sued for with so much instant Intreaties sparing nothing that he might endeavour to get the States to slip their Necks out of the Collar and forsake their Allies he went so far as to surrender divers places to Spain to serve for boundaries between his Kingdom and the Vnited Provinces In saying that if the States had not been too forward to hasten on the signing the Peace France would have paid the Expences of the War. I hope I do not speak without good grounds for what I say several Reasons obliged them to clap up this peace in all haste separately because they saw their strength decreased dayly It is certain that after the Battle at St. Dennis which was not fought out by reason of a Peace the Prince of Orange would have marcht on into France with his Troops Moreover the King knew full well that being forced to agitate a General Peace it would never be effected till he should surrender to the Duke of Lorrain all his Lands and that he could not possibly induce the Elector of Brandenburg to restore to the Sweed what he had taken from him according to his obligation thereto when the Peace in particular with him was in agitation France had a great mind to make him restore to the King of Sweden his Allie what he had lost in taking up Arms for the service of France so that here are your sufficient reasons for demanding particular Peace with the States and that it was not he that procured it for Europe as he boasts and publisheth up and down If any one was the cause of Peace to the Empire 't was the States of the Vnited Provinces for when they had made peace at the instant supplication of the King the General Peace followed immediately usher'd in by the mediation of the States General 'T is most certain the King made this Peace by compulsion he began to do things but by halves the States and his Allies reinforced themselves dayly The Hollanders were recovered out of their Lethargie the Prince of Orange day by day became more experienced the Duke of Luxemburg's familiar Spirit grew feeble and began to forsake him part of the French Troops perished the remainder were much harassed and worn out Swedeland had done her worst and was at her last shifts so that it was absolutely necessary to afford some respite and relief to the French Troops by a Peace being that this Peace was partly but a forc't one the King was obliged to give up whatsoever he had taken so also it continued but a short while and just then when the Emperour had his hands full of the Turk and when the Spaniard and his Allies had laid down their Arms and did acquiesce upon the strict performance of the Treaty of Nemeghen the most Christian King like a Lyon falls foul upon the Low Countreys Now it was convenient to stop this Torrent to deliver up a good many places and to give ground and to patch up a Truce in the midst of Peace which will continue no longer than his Interest will permit a body may say and that truly that France makes but small difference between her Subjects and her Neighbours Genoua may bear me witness of the truth of this he treads them under foot and fleeces them all alike when occasion serves and when his Will and Pleasure is who is he that dares assure us that the Truce will be a stronger Bank to put a stop to his Ambition and his own private Ends than the two Treaties of Peace of the Pyrenneans and Nemegen That Numerous Army that amounts to near One Hundred and Fifty Thousand Men which he maintains as well in Peace and in time of Cessation of Arms as in time of War sufficiently declares the French Policy that hath always one foot up ready a going to march and sits on thorns having ever more Armies in a readiness to execute her designs They make them Camp and de-Camp continually to be in motion that they may use and accustom their Neighbours to it for fear they should give them occasion of suspition when they march in good earnest to fall upon any place or surprize it One of the King of France his Maxims is to hinder these Neighbours lest they should augment their Forces but remain alwayes in a condition not to be able to do them harm on the sudden except they have a mind to have them about their Ears as we have observed at such time as the Vnited Provinces were partly resolved to levy Sixteen Thousand Men what Solicitations what delusory Promises nay how many Journeys did the Comte D' Avaux take to hinder it He did nothing but talk up and down of the sincerity and reality of the Covenants on his part just as if no body beside his Master had any Honesty and as if he were the only Man for keeping his word in Treaties All that was because he saw plainly that this new Commission given out would obstruct the taking the City of Luxemburg promising that there his Master would stop and put an end to all his Claims and Demands But he is still as ready to take another as he was before the taking of this City as we saw lately at Mons it would be all one whether the States should oppose this proceeding or no it would be so long as the Princes of Europe should suffer themselves to be hood-winkt by base fear or complaisance wonderful
advantagious indeed to promote the designs of France in Europe no body taking notice that France is as sordid as her Master and that both of them are afraid of cold Iron All these new Conversions of some and Persecutions of others which we see in France is nothing but to blind the Catholick Princes and to amuse them so long till he fall upon some City or State professing the Protestant Religion The House of Austria knows too well this Stratagem she practised it her self heretofore when she had higher designs on foot than now she hath when she attacked a Protestant Prince her pretence then was that she would Extirpate Heresie This is the French King's trade at this day it was expedient for him out of meer necessity to begin at home with his own Subjects and as that could not choose but have weaken'd him he solicites others to do as much as he What pains hath he taken to set the Swisse at variance and induce the Catholick Cantons to fall out with the Protestants and then afterwards when they are at odds to fall upon them But the Pope hath redressed that and accommodated the matter betwixt them France hath brought it so to pass that she hath forced the Duke of Savoy to rid himself of his best Subjects the Inhabitants of the Vallies being under a premunier as he is he could not go back with his word nay I am fully perswaded France would be extreamly glad that England would do the like by that means to weaken her to such a degree that she shall not be able to do any thing when Lewis XIV has a mind to fall upon the Low Countreys and remove from the States of the Vnited Provinces all possible means to prevent it and so by little and little make himself Master of Europe as we shall see by the following story of the French Policy and its Maxims in respect of Soveraigns in particular The Policy of France in respect of Rome and His Holiness ALL the World knows the Veneration and Respect all Catholick People have for the Holy See and the Holy Father that they look upon him as Christ's Vicar upon Earth St. Peter's Successor Universal Bishop and as we are taught by the Council of Trent the most Holy Lord to whom all Kings Princes and People owe an intire Obedience fail but in this Duty and you smell rank of Heresie according to the Council of Constance it deserves Fire and Faggot Would you not swear to see Lewis XIV persecute the Protestants at that rate he doth that he is the most Devout Son his Holiness hath whereas others do but kiss his Toe he would out of Devotion kiss something else But it is quite contrary He is a very Rebellious Son who cares not a fig for all the Holy Father's Remonstrances and Declarations who dispoyles him of his Goods ravishes from him his State and makes an entry into Rome by his Embassador as loftily and haughtily as Artaban And here is the French Spirit to invade the Holy Father in his Patrimony Authority and Conduct First In his Patrimony of the Church by depriving him of his Regalities in France which is a Right the Popes have enjoyed this many Ages which the Kings Lewis the XIV his Predecessors have granted to St. Peters Successors What Submission what Remonstrance hath not the present Pope made to oblige the King not to incroach and seize upon the Rights of the Church withal telling him that such like Usurpations as these have proved alwayes satal to Kings and Princes Families Yet all this hath had none effect upon him only the King said sometimes the Pope is a mighty good man I would not vex him But in the mean time never restores what he had deprived him of Just such another trick as he played with Spain when in time of Peace he took from it part of the Low Countreys he protested every where that he had no Intent to break the Peace but only took his Dependances and what of Right was his own You may turn the French Policy loose which way you will it presently finds out a way to oblige his Holiness to permit an Assembly of the Clergy of his Kingdom in the year 1682 wherein it was declared as we all know that he was not Infallible that he had no Power over the Temporalities of Kings that he was subject to Counsels and by himself he had not any power to make any one Article of Faith. Could he have thwarted the Pope more sensibly in his Authority than he did at that time besides he obliged all the Preachers Monks and Jesuits themselves to teach the same in the Pulpit and in their Colledges to their Auditors The Arch-bishop of Paris who was President of this Assembly who as you may well think was not too well beloved at Rome thought at least it was fit to make himself fear'd that they might come and offer him a Cardinals Cap. To this effect he writ into England to be informed what course Henry VIII took when he altered the Religion in that Kingdom yet all this had not the least effect upon the Popes mind who knows his own Tribe better than so and Mounsieur Arch-bishop was in great danger to stand bare a long time without a Cardinals Cap although he might catch cold When this Prelate perceived that by this means his Affairs went rather backbard than forward he bethought himself of another course prefers himself and takes upon him not like a Converter but Persecutor in causing the Hugonots of his Diocess to be tormented and those of all France by his wicked Counsel hoping thereby to curry favour with the Pope and regain his credit by his zeal and forwardness for the propagation of Religion But his Holiness who hath abundance of reason and whose disposition is not violent whose intent and meaning is that Conversions should be effected by Reason by good Examples not by Dragoons and Rackings and by an Holy Life which is not consistant with the Archbishop of Paris who is taken with the Female Sex and love their Company This change of shapes procured him but ill will and disdain he had no share in the last promotion nor never will so long as Innocent XI lives nor perhaps after him when of necessity there will happen great changes at Rome In the mean time Mounsieur Camus Bishop of Grenoble whose unblameable Life and Conversation might serve for a Mirrour to a many of your Court Bishops hath been honoured with the Purple without ever seeking for it without persecuting any body nor so much as suffering it within his Diocess this Prelate being not a-la-mode de la Court this new Dignity he so lately received cannot choose but be a great heart-burning to the King and greater to the Arch-bishop to see himself shut out of doors Last of all Can a Man more visibly cross the Popes behaviour than the King doth at present in respect of the Franchises of his
Assaults We hope also that the Emperours Council will stand better upon their Guard and appear more vigilant than they have been hitherto and that they will remove from France all means to pry into their undertakings yea even into their Closet-secrets For 't is well known what courses they have taken to make the Resolutions be changed and falsified when they were not relished by the King nor for his Interest and that the Emperour could neither speak consult write nor so much as make least proceeding but it was presently penetrated diverted another way incumbred watched and observed and by the Jesuits good leave they are accused of having had a great stroak in all these Affairs they always take the stronger side expecting a change No body can be ignorant but that the mis-understanding that arose between the Elector of Brandenburg and Monticuculi General of the Imperial Forces during the Holland War was occasion'd by the cunning contrivance of the Jesuite changing the Emperours Order to ingage Turrene with Brandenburg in the counterfeit Order not to engage which gave opportunity to the French Army to retreat which was in very great danger to have made their Graves there if it had been attacked by two so good Parties being reduced to its last legs through sicknesses running away from their Colours and a Mortality amongst them Then again At the Battel at Sennif Souches excuseth himself that he could not make the on-set for want of Orders this was hammered upon the same Anvil Yet we hope that Affairs changing their Face the Reverend Fathers the Jesuits will have better thoughts of the Empire I have much ado to omit two Affairs which happened during the Emperors last Rupture with the King one is the business of General Capelliers Steward of his Houshold who carryed on a correspondence with the French Embassadors and gave them a full account of whatsoever past at home in his Masters House that came to his hearing or knowledge the Letters of all the Matter were intercepted at the Post-house in Frankfort this Traytor indeed was clapt up but the Jesuits who at that bout had taken too large a Dose of Spirit Gall knew well enongh how to make him come of lest he should make a Discovery of some others During the Siege of Philipsburg by the Imperial Forces did not these good Men prevail with two Merchants to send in a supply of Powder but that Mine was sprung and vanisht in smoak the business was found out and the Jesuits brought it so about that the undertakers were not punished for fear lest they should make farther Discoveries I tell you this for truth for one of these Persons was one of my Acquaintance who told it me with his own mouth that they came to fetch him as far as from Paris where he was settled to get him to do this business You may see by this that the Spirit of France animates a great many Bodies actuates them strangely and that those in whom his Imperial Majesty puts most confidence are not always faithful to him When France carried on a design under-hand to induce the Emperour to bestow his two Sisters upon two Princes dispossest of their Inheritance it was not with an intent that businesses should succeed in this manner as we see they do at this day for we cannot deny but that Lorrain is the Restorer of the Empire an Hero of so many Great and Glorious Victories the Subduer of so many Provinces who will make the Grand Seigniour not only sue to him for Peace as he doth already but to grant whatsoever one demands of him to save his Head from the riot and fury of the Rabble who will be sure to do it if he conclude not a Peace or a Cessation of Arms and that speedily But this Spirit of France had its aims that is to say by getting some body to counsel the Emperour to bestow his two Sisters on two Princes in the forementioned Circumstances who despaired of recovering their Estates but by a Peace they would alwayes incline the Emperour to listen thereto notwithstanding his Imperial Majesty might not have that advantage by it that might be expected in hopes there might be some Article in it favourable to them restoring them to their Estates by this Peace The truth is that hath been very successful to the one as for the other it is to be hoped that he will open himself a passage to his Fortune by his Victorious Sword 'T is most certain that the misunderstanding which hath reigned between Prince Harman of Baden President of the Imperial Council and the Duke of Lorrain between the King of Poland and the Emperour are nothing but Eggs which France sits and hatches The Marquiss De Bethune is too well verst in the way to Poland and his Sister hath still a French Soul though Queen of that Kingdom The kindnesses the King of France has done her Children are faithful and living Witnesses and the transmitments that have past through the hands of the Bankers of Hamburg and Dantzik are like so many rayes of that great Sun of France which disperseth his Light into a great many Courts The Emperour cannot ignore that Itch of theirs is an old Distemper the Kings of France have so long been troubled with they long to be mounting the Imperial Throne because it is one step to the Universal or at least to the Monarchy of Europe Henry II. made them draw him out the Model after what manner the Romans cut out their way through Italy but those Countreys have ever been Caemiterium Gallorum and fatal to their Enterprises In like manner Duplessis gave advice to Charles IX never to venture upon Italy but upon the Netherlands Lewis XIV is much of his mind as shall appear by the sequel of the Story After the Death of Ferdinand III. did not the French King use his utmost endeavours to re-ascend the Throne of Charlemain he spared not to send into all the Courts of the Electors to procure their Votes and such who were great with these Princes did their business for them for France is free-natur'd enough when any one is to be brought over to their Party One of the visible demonstrations of the Kings designs is that he caused an Eagle to be put upon his Money just above the Head of his Effigies and that he speaks his mind freely but much more haughtily that the Empire hath been long enough in the House of Austria and that it is high time it should return to his again and that was just upon the Turks coming into Germany in the year 1683. But Man purposeth God disposeth All the wise projects and contrivances of Men are but folly before God who doth not guide the Oeconomy of the Universe according to the ambition of Lewis the Great Now because this King knows very well that the Electors may prove a great obstacle to his design upon the Empire if they have a mind to be cross therefore he
of Philip IV. his Successor will have enough to do and a scurvy War to maintain The Queen who is altogether French both by her Birth and Inclinations has her Faction in the Kingdom and when the King is dead will much rather trust her Couzen-Germain than a Prince who is a Stranger at least would be so were it not for the Marriage which will be a great strengthning to his Party The Marriages of the Infanta's of Spain with Kings of France have ever been the cause of great differences between the two Crowns and very fatal to Spain but the Marriage of Maria Theresia with Lewis XIV compleats the misery which is inevitably falling upon Spain and how stifly soever the King of France may have denyed his designs yet he never intended to keep either his Word or Oath as to that matter We are sufficiently satisfied by the obstacles he puts that the Pyrenaean Treaty may not be registred in Parliament as also by his Manifesto's which have run all the World over of the Queen of France's Just Pretentions What good can Spain get by Marriages and Alliances with France On the contrary very great Mischief for 't is by reason of the last Marriage that France layes claim to all this the wiser Philip II. preferr'd the Arch-Duke Ernest and afterward Albert. The Truce which France has now made is design'd only to amuze and lull Spain and its Allies asleep Thus to make them lay down their Arms and in the mean time the French King has at least a Hundred and Fifty Thousand Men a foot who dance up and down sometimes towards Alsace sometime toward Cologne and pretty often toward the Low Countries All this is only to make them us'd to him that so they may think he has no design upon them and lay by all jealousie and suspition But when he finds a good opportunity you shall see him fall upon them as a Hawk upon her quarry and carry them off too if he pleases for what should hinder him when there 's not a Man in Arms and by that time the Allies can be prepared the King of France has done his business Thus this Truce is only to bear in hand and amuze the Princes of Europe that they may not make War upon him and that he may be constantly in a condition to take possession of the Dauphins Right so soon as ever the King of Spain is dead without any other legal Process but that of Dragoon Law The Spaniards will find themselves miserably deluded in relying upon this Truce 'T is a broken reed which will pierce through their hands and if unhappily the Emperour should be still ingaged in a War with the Turks what should hinder the two French Armies the one in Catalonia the other in the Low Countreys from being Masters of all where they go I know very well that the Interest of England and Holland are both concern'd to defend the Spanish Netherlands as the sequel will shew us But in the one the French have so true a Friend who has so much business beside upon his hands at home that he will concern himself no more for the Low Countreys than his Predecessor did for Luxemburg As for the States they have but Men enough to defend their own Country and are naturally very good Husbands As for Cologne and Munster his Majesty will probably put some Men into their Towns for them as he has done heretofore I think it a vast mistake in the Spaniard to send Men into the Low Countreys for Governours who for the most part go thither only to fill their Purse as the saying is and so return and to do this effectually they don't scruple to rob both King and Countrey pay neither Landlords nor Men which makes them desert so that instead of One Thousand Men in a Regiment perhaps there is Fifty and once I saw a whole Regiment which was going to change Garrison carried in a Waggon In short a Man need only to have been once in Flanders to see this that I tell you the Soldiers upon the Guard hold out their Hats to you for an Alms and the very Officers are fain to live with the Capuchins upon the Alms which the good Men beg The three last Irish Regiments which the King of England granted the King of Spain for the service of the Low Countries which were effectually raised are wasted like Snow before the Sun and now I don't believe there 's Fifty Men left Spain in my poor judgment is very much in the wrong for another thing that is to rely upon its Allies for the keeping of the Low Countries and upon that score to neglect having what Men are requisite for the Countreys security Besides they may be sure that France knowing the temper of the Governours so very well do often feel their Pulse and takes advantage of their weakness Understanding Men will never be beat out on 't but that the Marquis of Grana was made a Tool and put a helping hand to the taking of Luxemburg the thing is as clear as the Sun at Noon-day Four or Five Millions which he has left behind him are a shrewd sign of it I tell you no improbable matter and nothing but what happens every day there are very few Men in our Age who are proof against a Million of Money I confess there are some but you must grant me they are very rare The Low Countreys are no Inheritance to the Governours so that they get all they can out of it as if they hired it I wont say that all who come there are of the same stamp God forbid 't would be sad indeed if Spain had no Subjects that were honest but 't is very certain that for these last Ages France has gallanted the Low Countries and thinks them highly obliged if not depending upon her There 's no trick which the French craft does not use to bring about their designs for they have ever found that little Countrey a hard bone to pick but their present King has given it devilish bites these years last past France knows very well too that if they were once Masters of it they might then bend all their strength toward Catalonia and Rousillon and having nothing left to fear or quarrel about in that Countrey march on quickly to Madrid which is no difficult matter when they have once made themselves Masters of some of the Frontiers to go in and out at 'T is for this reason that the Councils of Spain considering the strength of France should take other measures than they do for the defence of the Low Countries and I see but one only expedient in the posture that the Spanish Affairs are in at present which can give them present ease except they had rather have that Countrey fall into the French hands as without doubt it must if they don't prevent it speedily It is certain that nothing but an Army with a good General can prevent the ruine which is falling
upon their heads We see after what fashion the Men who are there now are paid and the inconsiderable number of them and to say the truth there ought to be Twenty Thousand effective Men beside what is there already in Garrison to secure the Countrey and Ten Thousand more in case of a Rupture and since Spain can't furnish them with so many Men You must let the Towns there levy Men and pay them who will be willing to do it to secure themselves and avoi'd falling under the barbarous Dominion of the French or be quite ruin'd perhaps before it comes to that as many Towns and Cities have been before them and that flat Country now of late in which the most Religious places were not spared I know very well that that proposal has been debated in Council long since and that the Council of Spain has ever rejected it for slight reasons A good careful Governour especially the Duke of Lorrain who is so brave a Commander and adorn'd with Conquests at the head of Forty Thousand Men supported by the Prince of Orange would make France shake France has its Emissaries in the Council at Madrid as well as at other places to oppose every thing which may possibly thwart her designs and I am of opinion that it will turn to better account for the King of Spain to secure his Low Countries with the help of a Militi a payd by the Cities who wont abuse him than to lose that Countrey for want of Men to defend it The latter of these is almost irretrievable but that former would be effectual were it not for an ill-grounded Jealousie which possibly heretofore might have deserved consideration but is now quite out of doors for in my judgment we ought ever to take in hand the thing which is most urgent when the one is inevitable and the other may probably never come to pass I say once more that France can never compass her great design but by being first of all Master of the Low Countreys 'T was for this reason that Du Plessis advised his Master to set upon it that way and 't is that pass alone which Spain and its Allies ought necessarily to stop with the same care and diligence as they would the breach in a Bank through which the raging Sea is ready to come in upon them and this we shall see hereafter The French Kings Ambition and Interest is a Torrent whose Impetuosity neither Affinity of Blood nor Alliance Peace Treaties Truce Swearing nor even Mutual Oaths are able to withstand I 'le go farther no not the very bounds which God by his wise Providence has set to the limits of every Monarchy which seems to speak to each Monarch Hither shalt thou go and no farther But Lewis XIV has sworn not to rest satisfied with the Lot which the Supreme Monarch of the Universe has given him Who can tell had he once Conquered the World but he would begin again another Tower of Babel to scale the very Heavens Ambition knows no bounds but Pride goes before a fall Oh that Spain would not suffer her self to be lull'd asleep by this deceitful Truce 'T is a Dalilah which all on a sudden cry out to the Spaniards the Philistians are upon thee But I am afraid it will be so as 't was with Sampson who when he awoke finding himself fast bound could no longer avoid becoming a Prey and Conquest to his Enemy The Grandees of Spain are a great help to France and contribute without dreaming on 't very much to the advancing of her Interest and support of her Ambition whil'st they inrich themselves at their Masters Expence and in the mean time disable him to keep up Men for their common defence but if they were well advised they should reflect seriously upon the Condition they are in at present and upon that they are like to be in when they fall under the Tyranny of France How happily would such a comparison obviate the misery which is coming upon them For they must think when a French Man comes to the Crown that the Spaniards will be but little considered and at best be only pittied or despised The natural antipathy between those two Nations wont suffer the new King to trust himself with them and all their stateliness will serve only for the French Court to laugh and jeer at The Spaniards must not flatter themselves if that comes to pass that the Dauphin after his Fathers Death will leave France to go and live in Spain The King 's of France will alway value Versailles beyond the finest City in Spain They will send Vice-Roys thither who shall be Frenchmen both by nature and disposition Mortal Enemies to the Spaniards that thus they may be secure that they wont join in any thing with the Spaniards against the French Interest These Governours and Vice-Roys will bring along with them for their necessary use their French Tax the Mal tote which will in a little time bring forth a whole swarm of Impositions as the Taille Taillon Aide Grant or Octroit Preciput Equivalent Free Gift Gratification Aid upon Wines Gabels upon Salt Corn and Flower Tobacco and Perriwigs on all sorts of Stuffs Linnen-cloth Le pied fourchu Impost upon Flesh the Mark of Paper upon Silver and Tin upon Milled and Silk Stockings Impost upon Ice Controlle des Exploits Tax upon Fee-Farms Tax upon the New Conquests Quint and Requint Mortmains the price of Valuations the Mark of Gold the two Sols a pound the right of Sealage right of Controlle of Register and Oath La Paulette abatement of Wages Custom appointment of a Governour the Eighth Peny Impost and the re-union to the Crown of whatsoever hath been given or sold with some others not worth naming Again after that the Spaniards would have for their hosts some of those Devilish Farmers of the Kings Revenue who would fasten upon them as if they were a Conquered Countrey and at first dash would lay a Tax upon the Sun knowing they make use of that instead of a Fagot Therefore I maintain that Spain should endeavour above all things to dispose the Emperor to accept of a Peace or at least a Truce with the Grand Seignior To look out while this present King is living for a Prince to succeed him and that this Prince may betake himself in time to Madrid to be well known to the people and be in the Heart of the Kingdom To Defend it and get Crown'd immediately upon the Kings Death To possess himself of the great Seal and all Instruments relating to the Crown And to make the Grandees of Spain side with him as their Lord and Master Moreover by this means Spain may make an early provision for the security of the Low-Countries and be justly undeceived in that pernicious Opinion which the Council of Spain has that England and the Vnited Provinces must necessarily defend them for their own Interest I own 't is true they ought to do it
the Swedes the Elector of Brandenburg and the States of the Vnited Provinces whose pecial Interest it is to hold fast and be firmly united as well by reason of the nearness of their States as upon the account of Trading and that fair correspondence which hath alwayes reigned amongst them So that a Man may safely avouch they serve to maintain and mutually preserve one another Now France hath a design in it in meaning to oblige the Princes of Lunenbourg to come over to her Interest for should the King of England or Spain chance to dye suddenly she would have occasion for those three forementioned Powers to be able to oppose them with the French Troops joyned to theirs in case any one of them should be in action 'T is most evident that Lewis XIV ought to labour as he doth to procure himself Allies to second his Designs upon the same score as he doth for Denmark whether it be to hinder the Prince of Oranges passage into England or when he means to fall upon Holland in good earnest these two concerns go to his heart and is his sole grief considering the Grand Conquest of the Emperour who will be like to grieve him to the heart with his Victorious Army after peace made nay and perhaps make him lose his longing to put some of his great designs in Execution for which he labours tooth and nail and now begins to cool upon it to the end he may so well order his business that he may neither meet with any impediment or at least that he may divert and busie those who mean to withstand it I dare safely affirm that the Prince of Orange is the only Man the French King dreads and that the very thoughts of the Succession of a Royal Princess to the English Crown puts him in a deadly fright which gives him a Stool without a Pill knowing withal that this as great a Politician as Captain not knowing what Corruption means perfectly verst in the true interest of Europe will say as Q. Elizabeth did that none had any thing to do to pretend to the Low Countreys and will not endure that either the King of France nor any other should make himself Master of it which will be very feasable when he shall be advanced to this Dignity and this is the reason why the Spirit of Lewis the Great encompasseth the Earth and would fain associate himself with as many Princes as possibly he can to shelter himself from the impending Storm and Tempest and secure him from that Thunder that is ready to break out against him Poland is at a great distance from France can neither hurt it by Sea or Land but can do him great service indirectly as crossing the Designs of the Emperour or by falling upon Swedeland especially Swedeland when France thinks good for there wants not a plausible excuse when a Prince means to make an attempt Casimir Son of Sigismond had a lawful one indeed for this Sigismond being as yet King of Sweeden was elected King of Poland He kept nevertheless his first Kingdom until Prince Charles his Uncle was proclaimed King in the absence of his Nephew King Sigismund who sent a Senate consisting of Forty Jesuits to have full power of deciding all State-Matters and were to reside at Stockholm being dispatched with full instructions by Patent impowering them with Royal Authority But when the Senate was arrived in Stockholm Road Prince Charles with all the Nobility went out to meet them with Twenty or Thirty Ships to do the more Honour to these new Senate This Squadron coming round about the Vessel of their Reverend Senators gave them a broad-side seeming to welcom them Their Ships immediately sprung divers leaks and the Jesuits went down to hold their first Session in Quality of Senators at the bottom of the Salt Sea none using any means to save one of them In the upshot Prince Charles was Elected King the Arch-bishop dispensed with the Subjects Oath of Allegiance which they took to Sigismond and his Uncle was proclaimed King. The French King thinks himself concern'd in the Election of a King of Poland thither he usually sends an Embassador with some Lewisses to carry on the Election in favour of some Prince of his Faction but especially that he may not be true and stedfast to the Faction of the House of Austria King John now Reigning his Queen being a French Lady hath contributed very much to the Bishop of Beauvais the French Embassador to solicite in her behalf because the Most Christian King always thought that by the Queens Intercession he should prevail with the King to come over to his Interests and he was not altogether mistaken True indeed the repulse she suffered from the King of bestowing the Titles of Duke and Peer upon the Marquiss D' Arquier her Father and acknowledging her to be his Daughter and of giving her the honour of Queen in case she should come into France had a little cooled her but when it will cost the King but a little sheet of Parchment to please a Prince the King is extraordinary liberal of it at Court especially if he have need of him So likewise out of acknowledgment of these favours you see the King of Poland doth whatsoever his Benefactour will have him and St. Lewis is in great power in that Realm Yet I don't look upon it as the true interest of Poland to make such a stop the wayes being so good since the deliverance and relief of Vienna the issue and result of his great exploits would have Eternized his memory by giving a peace to the Grand Seignior upon advantageous terms for Poland but the best of all was he might have secured the Crown upon his Sons head for questionless they could not in Justice have denyed it him as an acknowledgment of all his Victories We are not ignorant that the Spirit of France very prodigal of promises and fertile in cunningness do ascertain the King and Queen that Prince Alexander their Son shall not fail of a Crown and your Golden Lewisses work wonders But who pray will give Lewis a lease of his Life till then I must needs say he caused to be put under his Statue Viro immortali but I have found also in the same place Cum fistula in ano So that he may dye before the King of Poland and if he do dye it may so come to pass that his Successour may have so many Irons in the fire at home that he will never think of seeking any more abroad But now France offers the young Prince Royal of Poland for pledge of their Truth and Friendship the Princess de Conti la Valliere whom they also offered to the Prince of Bavaria as if there were no more Legitimate Princesses in Europe I am perswaded the King of France thinks he doth the Polonians a great deal of Honour by offering them one of his Natural Daughters for to be their Queen This would be fine to employ
the Pens of those Droll-Wits Pasquin and Murforio 'T is certain if the King of Poland should give way to this aukward Contract of Alliance it would be as much as to declare plainly that he no longer pretended to have the Crown of Poland for his Son and that this Marriage was an act wholly disclaiming it I would have him rather follow the King of Portugals example he was cunning enough to get himself disentangled from the importunities of France to strengthen himself by his alliance with the House of Austria and the Emperour by his Marriage with the Princess Palatine of Newbourgh he knew too well that if ever Lewis XIV got footing in Spain that his Kingdom would depend on his disposal One of the two Teeth this same Lewis was born with is called Usurping the other Cruel from the one proceeds dependance decorum or convenience of Scituation from the other Treachery and Persecution you need not question if the King of France should become King of Spain but Portugal would be first of all invested because the Spaniard possest that Kingdom from Philip II. until Philip IV. time which was about the year 1640 when the Portugueze shook off the Spanish yoak Threescore years of possession may plead prescription whereon to ground his right of dependance there needs only thirty for a private man besides the right of decorum or commodious Scituation for Portugal joyns upon the Kingdom of Castile Aragon and Granada he had not so good a Title to the Kingdom of Austrasie nay he hath quite turned out the Princes who possessed one part of the Lands of that Kingdom for near 600 years Fear keeps the Vineyard as the French say and distrust is the mother of safety If I had to do with Salvages or with the King of Bantam or China not knowing occurrences in our parts it would be requisite to enter upon an Historical Relation of all the slippery tricks France hath played this last Age of all the Deceits Cheats Usurpations Injustices and Cruelties this present King hath put in practice to be Master of the Estates and the Possessions of his Neighbours But I speak to Europeans and they Christians too who have seen with their Eyes heard with their Ears and have dayly before them Princes dispoyled and stript of their Possessions so many People ruined so many Cities taken so many Houses now nothing but ruins and rubbish Thousands of Christians reduced to Beggery nay and the Blood of his own Subjects still a gushing out in mighty streams all over the Country These I say are speaking Books where all up and down you may find in huge Characters Lewis the Great Sacrifices all to his Ambition and Interest Now although all the World knows it and though scarce a Prince but hath been couzen'd by him yet he is so skilful to hush them asleep by the mild gentle raine of Lewisses that some part of them cry Lord what wouldst thou have us do and run headlong insensibly and with a kind of delight to the ruin and destruction of their Issue O how much need hath Europe of a good Oculist to remove the Scales from the Eyes of a great many Princes and once in their lives to open them for them to the end that every one knowing what 's good for himself may lay aside and forsake the interest of France they ought all unanimously to endeavour with might and main to procure him a Competitour to balance him and retain and bind him up within his just bounds and so disable him that he may no more trouble the earth by his ambition One blow is sufficient to do it what need I tell you all Europe sees it This will come to pass when it shall please the Divine Wisdom of the true Universal Monarch King of Kings to make it evident We cannot but wish Lewis XIV long life that he may be witness of all these things and may have another Joshua to stop the course of his Sun for which the people of the earth so much long and put up their continual Prayers for The Spirit or Policy of France and its Maximes in regard of the Suisse Cantons his Allies and of Savoy THE Cantons of Switzerland being free and absolute are governed by themselves hold of none but of God and their own valour they are partly reformed and partly Roman Catholick 't is by reason of this difference of Religion that they have often variance amongst themselves and give the King of France occasion to lay hold on the opportunity who makes good use of the easiness of the latter to sow the seed of dissention among them In time past they did no way border upon France which was a great happyness for the Cantons but since the peace Hen. IV. made with the Duke of Savoy the Country of Gex belonged to that Prince then after that France which alwayes gets ground did make encroachments in Alsatia Franche Conte and towards Burgundy is at this time Neighbour to the Swisse on three several sides But Lewis XIV not content with that had a mind to be a nearer Neighbour to his fellows by the Fort of Huninghen within Canon shot as we all know from Basil the Governour hath lately attempted it the Suisse were too much overseen in being a little to well acquainted witsi the King of France who thereby hath found out where their strength and weakness lyes and which way soever their affairs turn whensoever they are forced to quarrel with these Princes it will alwayes fare with them as the Fable tells us it did with the Earthen pot and Iron pot Secondly To lend so many Regiments to France are as so many men lost out of the Cantons who it may be one day may like young Vipers destroy their common Mother their Countrey there are few Swisse Officers in the French Kings Service but let themselves be corrupted by Marriages then suffer their Eyes to be dazled by good places and your Louis do'r and so at once renounce both their Religion and Party sacrifice as Stoupa the Lieutenant General would have done twice sixteen Cantons to the Interest of France He is not alone in his own gang he hath God knows too many Disciples you 'l find but very few who imitate the Sieur Dasselouer of Berne heretofore Captain in the King's Service who chosed rather to give over his employ and break his Pike then do any thing contrary to the Treaty which his Superiours had entered to about the passage of the Rhine against the Hollanders they have also committed a notable fault in tying up their own hands that they cannot send to Spain the like number of Soldiers as they do to France This restriction hath more of the Frenchman in it than the Cantons are aware of They cannot but grant that they have suffered themselves to be curb'd by the Fort at Huninghen which but too much discovers the Kings design every chink in it are like so many open Mouths crying out
years longer he would scarce see a Conclusion but must be fain to leave that business for his Successour So that the King had need stand upon his Guard while the people are thus dis-affected He not being in a Condition to send his Army abroad nor having Money to maintain them France in the mean time may do what she pleases may take the Low-Countries and all Spain too if the King of Spain happens to dye which is the thing France waits for so impatiently For the Second thing which is an Alliance with the Vnited Provinces and a perfect Harmony and Agreement between those two Potentates to oppose all Kings or Princes whatever who shall offer to violate the peace of Christendom 'T is an undoubted Truth that the States desire it of all things provided it be done so securely as they may venture to rely upon it and be back't upon occasion Of which there is small likelihood so long as things are as they are in England This is what France would not willingly see since the joyning of these two powers would probably divert her from many Enterprizes and make her lose her longing to undertake any thing contrary to the late Treaties of peace at Nimeghen and the Truce But France takes Care to hinder this and the mistrust and jealousie which she keeps afoot in England like magnifying Glasses makes the triviallest Objects look greater than they are both in publick and private Affairs We need go no farther than the business of Bantam which might long ago have been accommodated but France thinks it more useful to her that things be let alone as they are and neither go forward nor backward for fear of a happy Result An Union of England with the Vnited Provinces would give no great encouragement to the French designs upon the Spanish Netherlands for if England were so minded the King of France could never do any good if the late King would but have seemed to have stir'd the French had never taken Luxemburg but they knew his weakness and were so cunning to blind him that he good Prince never saw the mischief on 't till after the City was taken England acted very much against her own Interest when she parted with Dunkirk that City opened the Gate to go into France and the Low Countries But now 't will be otherwise if those Countreys fall under the yoak of Lewis le Grand and if he by his Conquests joins Neuport and Ostend to Dunkirk Flussing in a little time will be thought convenient for him and then he may very well begin to dispute the Dominion of the Seas with England and obstruct her Commerce and if at last the King of France Masters Holland which misfortune may happen the Low Countries being lost England may very well think 't is her turn next As 't was for this Reason that Queen Elizabeth told heretofore Mounsieur Sully the Most Christian Kings Embassador that neither France nor England nor any other Prince had any right to pretend to the Low-Countreys and further that she would never suffer that his King should so much as think on 't This very Sully in a Letter to Henry IV. sent him word That with a great Army for all what the Queen had said he might take a course to keep them in order and take possession of such Lands and Cities in the Low Countries as he should think fit for his turn and join France intirely with the United Provinces which is the only means says he to restore France to its Antient splendour and make her Superiour to all the rest of Christendom For if once by hook or by crook the Provinces of Luxemburg Juliers la Marck Mons Limburg Aix and Cleves were united to France without doubt all the rest of the Country would be forc't to follow their example being separated from any communication with the rest of the World. France has been fixt that way ever since she saw there was no good to be done towards Italy but all the Princes of Europe are highly concerned to put a stop to that Conquest And there are only those two Neighbouring Powers which are able and whose Interest it is most to hinder the progress that France makes in the Low Countries which will draw after it as I have said before dire effects As for Spain of it self 't is only a Body standing aloof off from its Members which has nothing left but her Tongue She is reduc't so low as even to say her Prayers to Notre Dame Charite and to beg her good Masters and Friends to take care of her and not forsake her England can do much toward the preserving the Low Countries and if her King had not promis't to sit still Luxemburg would have been at this time as 't was before a bone for France to pick. His Most Christian Majesty knows this very well and 't is for this reason that he takes so much pains to keep his Britanique Majesty firm to his Interests and if he wont declare for him at least that he will look on and accept a neutrality To bring this about he spares nothing neither Presents nor Pension nor Tricks and I may safely say that the Money which France gives is a venomous Serpent lurking under the Rose-leaves it smiles for the present but will frown severely afterward 't is an Iron Chain plaited over with Gold beautiful in appearance to attract and deceive the English but they will one day feel its weight and hardness if they don't make an early discovery of the base ends he has who offers it who will be their ruine at last since they can't subsist but by a due ballance between France and Spain I conclude then that 't is the King of Englands apparent Interest for self-preservation and advancing of Trade to oppose the King of France his Conquests in the Law Countries for if he does not and supposing that after the loss of that Countrey Fortune favours him and lets him be Master of all the Seventeen Provinces which may very well come to pass if the States are not seconded and stand only upon their own Leggs in what a condition will England be France will be stronger at Sea and more Potent in the Indies than she France will interfere with her in Traffique every day she will constantly have a brave Navy at Sea and especially in the Spring which will not let a mouse stir out of the English Ports without leave and upon the least resentment farewel England to all intents and purposes since there 's no body left who will or dare lift up a finger in her defence Moreover Englands best Policy is to keep France under not only to maintain her Dominion of the Seas but also to find a convenient opportunity for the recovery of her Antient Demesnes which France keeps from her for Example Britain Normandy Poitou Languedock and all France too which belongs to it by the Marriage of the King of England with Margaret