highest consequence sent for those about her immediately she could most confide in doubles the Palace Guards and causes those to be seiz'd in fine who had resolv'd her ruine makes her manifesto those very Persons were intended to take away the young Duke and carry him to Spain which is more then I can say they meant not knowing whether true or not or whether only a Sham to render them the more odious to the People Be it as 't will the Dutchess having once retriev'd her self from so very great a danger order'd the French Forces to March into the Town thereby to shew she trusted more to them then to those of the Country A certain Print for all this remain'd with the young Duke of what had been remonstrated insomuch that though his Equipage was gone already before to Portugal and himself soon to follow after he talk't no more of the Voyage And as still some body there was in place about him who privately cherisht the suspicion they had rais'd broke him clean off order'd his Family to return their ways home again to the unspeakable satisfaction of his whole People France only remain'd much mortifid promising already to it self the conjunction of Savoy to that Kingdom and to enchase it amongst the fairest Flowers of the Crown The dissatisfaction conceiv'd lay not long hid the Count of Soisson who in case of decease of the young Duke was Heir presumptive to the Dukedom of Savoy after the Death of Prince Carignan his Uncle was then in love with a private Damosel in France call'd Madamoseille de Beauais all the Relations had thitherto opposed the thing in fear of his design to marry her the King himself had signifi'd as much and that he ought to think of bestowing himself some other way but being thus disoblig'd by the Grandees of Savoy he suffer'd Count Soisson to do what he had most mind to to humble him and that Count did do what his passion persuaded This what past in Piemont let us now go see a little what a doing in Germany France for a long time had a Months mind to the City of Strasburgh it had defeated them a number of its measures during the late War and France had so well felt the importance of that place to resolve upon the having it cost it ne're so much To speak of having it by force lookt a little difficult and to do that a War must be openly declar'd and the adjacent Princes round about would have engag'd in her defence The easier way then seem'd the getting it by trick A Resident they kept at Strasburgh in Character more of Spy then public Minister whose Business was to observe all that past he had given the King often times account no good was to be done till those Burgemasters of the Town in present station were out of place when new came to be made had by that time gain'd a great many of the Votes got Persons elected to the Magistracy affection'd to the Interests of France ready fitted to make sale of their Country for a piece of Money with these after that he strikes a Bargain for the delivery of the Town upon the first occasion and they for their Reward to have each a Hundred Thousand Crowns a Man The Market being thus set these Traytors give the Town to consider the great Burthens of their Debt they stood charg'd with occasion'd by her vast Expences incurr'd in the late War and that now in time of Peace they should reduce the Garison which was too numerous That the King of France whom they had the most cause to fear had his whole thoughts took up towards Italy whither he had drawn the best part of all his Forces and that before he could march them back again they should have time enough to implore the assistance of their Neighbours whose proper concern in their preservation was too great not to afford them aid happen what would they had the Winter before to look about them which was now at hand That the King was great way distant from them as indeed he was and Summer then near spent there was no manner of likelihood he durst undertake any thing actually that season by the means save a good Sum of Money in their Purses that when Spring time came they then should see what other measures were fittest to be taken The advice took with the People who were all for the sparing point and for all the ablest men amongst them could formally oppose what the People once would have of necessity to be there was no withstanding one part of the Garison must then be dismist and which was remarkable of those the Forces of the Eldest standing But as the King of France lay perdue but for the occasion took Journey forthwith from Fountain-bleau at the same time caus'd his Men to draw down with expedition and invests the City at a time they imagin'd him in the midst of his Kingdom Some playing with the Cannon there was upon both sides to take off all suspicion off Intelligence which hinder'd not but those of Strasburgh well enough understood themselves betray'd And tho they now understood so with the latest they yet entertain'd thoughts of making a Defence But a rable of People hired at the same time by the French Resident or it may be as well by the Burgemasters themselves came flocking to the Town-house crying out for a surrender of the Town which otherwise would be suddenly consum'd by the Fire of the Booms and by the red hot Bullets The Burgemasters soon listn'd to that demand cause beat a Parly set up the White Colours for token of a general readiness to capitulate and in a word to say all yields up the Town I do not condemn France for an act of this importance since not of humor to matter much her Faith in point of Treaty but what I am most scandal'd at to have the Face to colour it with a shew of Justice The Emperor indeed having sent Count Mansfeld to complain of the Breach of Peace was answer'd that they much wonder'd the Emperor would concern himself where he had not to do that it was but lawful for the King to reduce a rebellious City That Strasburgh as the Capital of Alsace did belong to him by Vertue of the Munster Treaty and if he did not lay hold on 't sooner 't was because he had more pressing work in Hand But any would but answer me if that City had been granted him as pretended why entertain'd he there his public Ministers so long time why did he in the last War treat with her in Order to her remaining Neuter and why so often complaining of her not remaining so But all that France can say upon the subject is indeed not so much as worth an answer so I proceed to her Enterprizes elsewhere The taking of Strasburgh open'd the Eyes of a great many German Princes lull'd for a long time like England in a profound
that King nothing more could shew how extremely they were deceived who said he aimed so much at having his Son chose King of the Romans so far was he from designing that he should ever arrive at the Empire that 't was his Business to give it rather an absolute overthrow and so began first with the Electors that for the future such a thing as Emperor might be no more in Nature The Emperor the Princes of the Empire the Spaniards and in fine all those of the Cordial Allies saw but too plain the tendency of all these Designs but it seems such was the Fate of Europe whilst they lost whole years in deliberating about triffles France brings them under in the mean while and prepares their Chains whose weight is known by none but by those they load For in fine her own Ancient Subjects and those very Men who daily spend themselves to the last drop of their Blood in assisting them to compass their intentions meet with the same sort of Treatment is mett to others and to begin with those who serve in their Armies must be understood are all obliged to make a profuse Expence till their all be whole run out when she Knows they have nothing left them they pick a Fob-quarrel as one may call it are after all glad to take to an Hospital for the final recompence of Service 'T is for that end has she truly built and that a most sumptuous one but which stands them not in no great matter of keeping having laid hold on certain Lands which the particular Devotion of some People had given towards the relief of Lepers and converted to the use of that Hospital but as those Rents suffice not for the maintenance or at least will have it so supposed she detains in her Hands a certain Sum from both of the pay of Souldier and Officer and that way makes them purchase their Places beforehand which each is very well pleased to do for that they are satisfied thither they all must come and lay their Bones And those out of her Service have not a much better time on 't for though not oblig'd to so great an Expence as others are they squeese them to little by little till they have squeezed out the last of what they have And though they have continu'd some time in Peace they have diminisht nothing of their Taxes so that their King is the only Gainer by the War all besides losers The Franch County he has added to his Provinces with a great many more several Conquests which have very much augmented his Revenue which by his several new impositions he has greatly added to readier to lay more on then to suppress the Old Now if they who serve and who serve him not have so much to suffer there yet remains another sort of People in that State who certainly are yet much more to be pittied I mean those of the Reform'd Religion who must endure on all sort of outragious violences for tho they do not outright put them to death by the Hands of a Hangman as they are daily made to perish by little and little their death is but the crueller in that it is the more languishing and have for all that never given but Eminent proofs of their Fidelity and Allegiance and though when Henry the Fourth came to the Crown did he desert them it came not into their Thoughts to do as much by him which at that time had wholly ruin'd his Affairs some time they did remain quiet and enjoy'd the benefit of their Edicts but just it was they who were the great disturbers of Europe should too disturb a company of poor unhappy wretches excluded for ever from all Marks of Honour and places of trust have this however to comfort themselves that for their Religion 't is that they suffer Amongst the many of all sorts France thus undoes whether within or without the Kingdom the Prince of Orange was the only as one may say that nos'd them And though his power was no more then what the Common-wealth of Holland were pleased to limit him his great Heart was not so bounded and was incomparably greater then his Fortune he never gave over remonstrating to some that rather they should choose to perish then submit to Power so terribly dangerous to other some the absolute necessity of arming against her many things that Prince had retrencht himself to raise a Fund for the subsistance of some well deserving Officers which that State at making of the Peace had reform'd that so through necessity of Bread they might not be oblig'd to seek Employment elsewhere and when he had occasion for them might know where to find them France which knew she had in him an Enemy she most of all fear'd resolv'd he should feel in his Personal concerns a touch of her Resentment not to say of her Injustice his Principality of Orange lies between Languedoc and Avignon which as Sovereign of he had enjoy'd he and his Predecessors from the time it past out of the House of Chalon into that of Nassaw But that King who was for suffering no Sovereign in France nor in Europe neither besides himself had the Town of Orange dismantled and the Prince of Orange left without any reparation what complaint soever at that time he made of it to the King never so Instant But the King stopt not there in relation to his Affairs for having resolv'd to strip him absolutely of that Sovereignty he makes the Dutchess of Nemours put in who by colour of some foolish and idle pretences had the Prince cited at Law to their Courts of Judicature where not giving his appearance the Principality of Orange was adjudg'd her no body can no more than I tell upon what bottom that Decree could ground For if by Vertue of some pretended old Entail from the House of Chalon to which they will say the Predecessors of the Prince of Orange did not comply with as it is easie to give proof sufficient to the contrary 't is not without a likelihood of Truth to say that tho Madam de Nemours could make out the Title her time was laps'd in point of claim for that by the Laws of that Kingdom such at least as I have seen them in case of Custom the prescription of Thirty years Possession was sufficient to quiet a Title and that the Prince of Orange I mean the Prince and his Predecessors together have enjoy'd for above a Hundred and fifty years But whether this be so or not it hinder'd not but Madam de Nemours obtain'd her Decree which tho has for all that been since revok't in the mean while the Prince has sent Mr. Hemsius to Paris to shew the King the wrong done him The States General upon their part have particularly recommended that Affair to their Embassadour in France but hitherto ineffectually and tho 't is now six Months that Mr. Hemsius is working at it it yet appears not to have made any
consent not to her pretensions I know before hand what answer I shall have I know nothing less will be allow'd neither in regard to Teckely nor to the King of Poland that to what concerns the rest will be answer'd it was the Master-piece of a Politick King vers'd in King-craft and the Arts of Government to be making sometimes such sort of Alliances which have their use not so much in order to the support of War abroad amongst his Neighbours as to hinder his Neighbours from carrying the War home to his own door I do know as I said the unthinking part of Mankind may be put upon in disowning of the one and in giving some kind of gloss to palliate the other but I would a little fain know if they can answer this too which I am now about saying France was willing to raise the Blocus of Luxemburg a whole year before the Turks came down upon Hungary and when effectually they came with a Vengeance he frames a Camp in Alsatia to hold the Emperor in play makes another in Flanders to oblige Spain to be upon her Guard a Camp upon the River Soare he orders to frighten the Electors and in fine has another Camp drawn upon the Saonne to keep the rest of Europe in a Jealousie France would shew to the World she becomes less rapacious upon the considerations of the great misfortunes that hung now over the Head of Christendom and when those misfortunes are actually befallen her it then Thunders Threats and Rants and lets the Diet be roundly told he onely will give but such certain short day to grant her injust pretentions in and if not then granted would do her self that right by force of Arms And to be doing as well as saying presents with a great Army upon the Frontier ready at a mouthfull to swallow several of the Spainish Provinces War indeed they can't be said to make but make altogether as much mischief by their hindring those Princes which she just dreaded as she did the Turk from employing their Forces in favour of the Emperor The Emperor indeed himself obliged to leave his to guard the Rhine whilst a Company of Infidels invades his Dominions ravages to the very Heart of his Country and carries off for Slaves a hundred Thousand Souls burns his Palaces lays waste the Country round and in conclusion claps Siege to Vienna his Capital City and place of Residence But I perceive not all this while that having but now documented others I insensibly fall into the same Error my self I would have them avoid I fall off arguing the point as if every one could not do it as well without me let us have done then with these kind of entertainments and go on to our Examine of other places whether France aspiring to the Universal Monarchy be Truth or Fiction or rather let us see if she already usurps not upon the right of Sovereigns as if she actually were the Mistress of the World Let us see what she is about with her Mines in all the Courts of Europe not that I pretend to say Policy is a thing forbidden amongst Princes but that her meaning may no more be doubted of every one can tell what an Errand she sent the Republic of Genoua whose Coat she fain would pick a hole in sends word she will not have her put her Gally's out lest they should come to joyn with those of Spain if otherwise should take it for an act of Hostility and should use her accordingly as an Enemy declared The Hollanders just so dealt with about a Month or two since upon the intent they had of sending some new Ships to the King of Swede So that over those two Common-wealths where she hath nothing to do she already Lords it as absolute Sovereign she will not suffer Free States who have bought their Liberty with the Price of their Blood shall think to make Alliances and succour their Allies and they that call themselves the eldest Sons of the Church can yet suffer an Alliance with her most mortal Enemy But then let us see how she deals with those that leave her Interest and those it self who are mean spirited enough to adhere to her let us look a little upon the different Springs she sets at work to bring her matters about what says she not of the Duke of Bavaria for deserting the side and his so very generously embracing that of the Emperor what does she not at Leige where she makes it her Business to soment the Rebellion of that People against their lawful Prince that so the Prince not able to master them may not with the assistance of other Princes be in a post to make a Barrier of that City and stop her passage that way into the Territories of other States What does she not act at Cullen where the Inhabitants are all banding one against t'other and cutting one anothers Throats whilst the Enemy is at their Gates ready to devour What not at Hamburgh and Lubec where Intregues apparent as the Sun are carrying on to the ruine both of their Liberty and Country What leave they undone in the Courts of the Lunebourg Princes where People banisht France are most in Credit but banisht after such a fashion as to return again into that Kingdom when they will and privately to see and discourse the Ministers Indeed what is she not brewing in the Emperors Court it self where she foments Jealousies among the chief where she opens the very Cabinet Counsels with her Silver Key where not one resolution can be taken but she gets notice of at the same time Some may say I discourse but of these affairs conjecturally I shall most willingly leave them to their own thoughts after saying what I have in answer After the routing the Marshal of Crequi at the Seige of Treves France lay open to the prevailing side there then stood no more Forces in their way and had they been so minded might well have carried the Terror of their Arms into the Heart of the Country The French were much afraid they would and begun to pack their most valuable goods within the wall'd Towns when Mr. De Louvois told a certain Person with whom I had particular acquaintance during the time I was in France and whom I have it from that the Enemy would act no farther that Campagne and were then upon their drawing off I willingly would ask now if this was news one could reasonably well credit in the then present posture of Affairs if one ought not to be supernaturally gifted if one needed not a spirit of Revelation to be believing the contrary to what every one else had reason to believe But what will not a Man do as a certain old Author has remark't who devotes his whole thought to become rich To that very effect have the Suisses took the Bridle in their Mouths by the Fort of Huninghen and made sale both of Liberty and Country a Counsellor of their State might