yet the Ministers have endeavoured to dissemble it with much Application and would make the drooping People believe it was a thing so inconsiderable as that it is in a manner quite repaired already and that their Fleet is already so reinforced as to be in condition not only to obviate the attempts of the Enemies Navy But after they have taken on board some Necessaries to put out to Sea and provoke them to a second Engagement To which end they have Published a List of Seventy Men of War besides Fâ—igâ—â—s c. that they pretend to have ready which I shall not trouble your Lordship with a Coppy of because I know it to be false And if the French Ministers are thus put to it to support their Master's Credit at this Juncture they are almost past all hopes at St. Germans where the late King and his disappointed Followers are arrived and who have nothing now to sollace themselves with but the happy delivery of his Queen of a Daughter Which second production it s hoped may overcome the obstinacy of Mens minds and make them at last believe the first was Genuine But if there were a cloud of unlucky circumstances that attended the former there is one already known to have accompanied this also viz. that the Delivery was so quick that Madame who was in this City and made all the hast she could to go to the Labour as soon as ever she had notice of it could not yet get thither soon enough The affairs of Flanders and other parts where the War is I forbear to touch on as supposing your Lordship has an exact account of all the Transactions that happen sooner and more truly too than I can inform you from hence where most things to their disadvantage are as cunningly veiled over as the successes are magnifyed wherefore I shall take my leave of you till something momentous does occur and only subscribe my self My Lord Your Lordships most Humble and Devoted Servant Paris June 30. 1692. N. S. LETTER XXVII Conjectures of the French designs in the year 1693. against the Allies and of their Incendiaries to burn the Confederate Cities My Lord I am fully satisfyed what a great noise the scarcity of Bread in France makes in England and the other confederated Countries the misery indeed from that and other concurring causes is very great but yet what may seem to some less intelligent than your Lordship very little less than a Paradox is that the face of the Court is as splendid and gay as ever I have known it in the time of France's highest prosperity and nothing is talked of there my Lord but the mighty Armies they have on foot by Land and their great forwardness to enter upon Action as well as their their great power on the other Element I am assured the King will very shortly leave Versailles in order to be at the head of one of his Armies but whether he designs for Germany or the Neatherlands is yet a secret tho' the Vogue is that the intended Journey is for the latter and that provision is making for his Reception at Compeign and Valenciennes which I am told having occasioned a certain Courtier a day or two ago to say that that road leads directly for Flanders and the same discourse coming quickly to the King's Ears he made answer That a Man might go from Valenciennes to Germany Your Lordship may make what judgment you please upon the Expression I le leave it wholly to you and shall at present only further inform you that as I have formerly given you some account of what Fires have been kindled in several Cities of the Empire Hungary c. by the agency of this Court I have more than a suspition that the same practise is again set on foot and that there are very many incendiaries entertained by these Ministers to put the same in Execution in diverse parts of the Confederate Countries And I do desire your Lordship to believe that there is no villany they will boggle at for the compassing of their accursed ends as there is none but what I am very forward to discover to your Honour and proud of an opportunity so to do who am My Lord Your Lordships most Humble and Obedient Servant Versailles April 14. 1693. N. S. LETTER XXVIII Of Proposals of Peace made by France to the Emperor and Empire in the year 1693. My Lord THe successes of the French Arms since the commencement of this unhappy War against the Empire of Germany does not hinder this Court as I am well assured to make overtures of Peace on that side particularly the motions whereof the Confederates are narrowly to watch to prevent the fatality of such a disjunction in their present Allyance The Swedes are very busy in promoting the Work and the terms that are offered are to this purpose as I had them communicated to me by a particular hand First That in general the King desires That the Treaties of Westphalia and Nemeghen may remain in full force and vigour Secondly That the Truce concluded at Ratisbonne in August 1684. for 20 Years may be changed into a defensive Treaty of Peace with such alterations as are here after explained as First That in recompence of the City of Strasburg which the most Christian King is in possession of and designs to keep Mont Royal and Trarback shall be rased and restored to the Prince to whom they belong provided that neither of them be re-fortifyed for the future Secondly That all the Works of Fort Louis and Hunninghen that are beyond the Rhine shall in like manner be demolished Thirdly That Phillipsburg with the fortress thereof shall be restored as also Friburg in the same condition they are in at present Fourthly That Heidelburg shall be given up to the Elector Palatine and all the dependances of the Palatinate notwithstanding the claim of his Sister-in-law the Dutchess of Orleans to several Lands and Fiefs therein which losses the King will take upon him to repair And as for Saar Louis Biche and Homburg he is willing take condescend to any equivalent for them of equal Revenue to the Elector Fifthly That as for Re-unions if Commissioners appointed on each side shall not be able to adjust them in a limiâ—â—ed time the French King will refer himself to the arbitration of the Republick of Venice I am further informed my Lord that Cardinal Fourbin has orders to sollicite this point also with the Pope and to acquaint him how willing the King is to compose the affairs of Europe and those of Italy in particular and that himself shall have plenary Power to draw and regulate the conditions provided that in the first place the Restoration of the late King James be absolutely concluded upon with which I shall also conclude this Letter from My Lord Your Humble Servant Paris Aug. 11. 1693. N. S. LETTER XXIX Of Libells in France against the Government c. My Lord I am not to give your
your Majesty never to let it go out of your own Breast any further tilâ— you put it in Execution Which when the King had promised to do they parted The King that night supped at P. Lodgings where he seemed to be very merry and in the close drunk a Dish of Chocolate prepared by a Wise Lady of which he complained again and again that it tasted hotter than ordinary but he sipped it off and thence went to his Rest Next morning which was Munday he was taken very Ill which no doubt was the effect of the last nights Entertainment however they might call his Distemper and so continued till the Fryday following in extream Misery and Anguish when he dyed most People suspecting he had foul Play And many that saw him during his Illness believing it to be so and particularly says the Author of his Character the most knowing and deserving of his Physitians Doctor Short did not only believe him Poysoned but thought himself so too not long after for having declared his opinion a little too boldly in the case And as the manner and contrivance of this King's Death was the work of Darkness so were his Funeral Obsequies for never any King who dyed possest of a Crown was so obscurely and contemptibly Buryed being hurryed in the dead of the Night to his Grave as if his Corps had been to be arrested for Debt and not so much as the Blew-Coat Boys to attend it King Charles was no sooner gone but James Duke of York his only surviving Brother ascends the English Throne by the style and Title of James II. And made open Profession immediately of the Popish Religion for which some in his Brother's Reign were severely punished for but saying he was such or so inclined and not only so but ordered his Brothers Dying in the Communion of the Church of Rome and before his Death his receiving his Viaticum and other Ceremonies of that Church and attested by Father Huddleston to be printed and also the Papers taken out of the King 's strong Box shewing That however he outwardly appeared otherwise in his Life yet in his Heart he was sincerely a true Roman Catholick He made profession in his Speech to the Council the day of his Brother's Death that he would preserve the Church and State of England as by Law Established and as he would never depart from the just Rights and Prerogatives of the Crown so he would never invade any Man's Property but how ill he conformed himself hereunto is but too manifestly known to all the World For the very first Week he took both the Customs and the Excise granted only for his Brothers Life before they were given him by Parliament And for the Church I think no Man so Audacious as to deny the design of his whole tho' blessed be God short Reign was to overthrow it by the introduction of his own Monkish Religion in the room of it But if he was unhappy first in making such a Promise of adhering to both Church and State as then Established contrary no doubt to the designs he had framed before of Ruining them he was much more so in the methods he took to bring his ends about which Terminated at last in a fatal Abdication yet so as that he remains to this day naturally alive to be a living Monument and confessor of his own egregious folly And the loss of the Button of his Scepter that day he was Crowned which as far as I could hear was never found was I remember then Interpreted by some as a presage of no lasting connection between him and the Nation His petty success against the D. of Monmouth and his Adherents did not a little elate his spirits which gave him an opportunity to keep a standing Army and put such Officers into it as were of his own stamp and so being backt with this Armed Power he proceeds bare-fac'd to dispence with the Laws by granting Liberty of Conscience to all that dissented from the Church of England thinking hereby and by a timely regulating of Corporations to gain such a Parliament as would quite repeal them And that in the mean time he might curb the Church and the Universities he puts his High Commission upon their Backs thinking by it to worry them into a compliance And because my Lord of London would not comply with his Arbitrary Proceedings Jeffery's with this Popish Bull I mean the High Commission roared him into a Suspension And because the Fellows of Magdalen-Colledge would not contrary to their Statutes and Oaths choose a President to the King's mind he first entertained them with a Dish of Billingsgate and then by virtue of the same Commission sent them a Grazing into the Countries to make room for his own Popish Seminaries and Cut-throat Jesuits But among all the actions of this King 's Diminitive reign That of sending the Bishops to the Tower not for refusing to take care to have the Declaration of Indulgence read in their respective Diocesses but for Petitioning of him in a regular and dutiful manner wherein they gave their Reasons why they could not comply with his order together with an Introduction of a Prince of Wales into the World as a new Miracle to the Legend the next day after their Commitment was the rashest most inconsiderate and madest thing he could be guilty of Surely when he did this he wanted some body to pray over the Poets wish for him Dii te damasippe Deaeque Donent Tonsore For it was most apparent by the Universal Joy expressed throughout the Nation at their Acquitment how they resented their Commitment and Trial And if the King did before decline in the affection of the People day by day I may truly say this was a concluding act and lost him England For now all the Eyes of the People are turned from him towards Holland where the Prince of Orange was Arming to come to their relief The King would not at first believe that the vast Preparations in Holland concerned him tho the French King had given him notice of them the 26. of August before but being at length convinced by the States Manifesto of the truth of the matter he undid in one day all that he had been doing since his first coming to the Crown as dissolving his Commission for Ecclesiastical Affairs restoring the City of London to all its Ancient Franchises and Charters as fully as before the Quo Waranto and giving order for the resetling the Expelled Fellows of Maudlin Colledge in their places again He made also great Preparations both by Sea and Land for to defend himself but tho he be naturally still alive and he above knows who knows all things what his end may be yet all these Precautions and windings against the grain were so far from preventing that they did now but concur to precipitate his Civil death which we shall now briefly relate unto you The Prince of Orange having on November the Fifth Landed
day Not that I am able to Name either Person or Place or positive design to your Lordship but sure I am there is a Snake in the Grass and perhaps it will be found some of those from whom was expected most Service and Fidellity will be found to act a counterpart However it be I can assure you that Barillon late Embassador in England from this Crown though he has been forced to quit the Brittish Isle ignominiously enough yet he hath found out a way to leave two if not three Frenchmen of his Train behind to no good end to be sure and I do not question but you will hear more of them without they be secured in time And though it does plainly appear both by the countenance and minutes of this Court that things do not go so trim and glibly with them in England as in former times when they had no more to do than to consult those infallible Oracles the Dutches of Portsmouth and Goodman Peters yet I do not question but it will appear that their Oracles are not quite silenced there I beg your Lordship to pardon this freedom and to entertain a favourable opinion of the sincere intentions of My Lord Your Honours to Serue and Obey Paris June 25. 1689. N. S. LETTER VII A Summary of the Articles concluded on the French King's part for restoring of the Late King James to his lost Dominions My Lord I Can't forbear taking notice to your Lordship tho' I have done it once and again already of the great difficulties I labour under to procure any true and certain intelligence of matters transacted on our side in reference to the Affairs of England And I can as little forbear endeavouring to communicate whatever such intelligence comes into my Hands to your Honour though it be accompanied with such imminent danger as you cannot but be a little sensible off and which I heartily wish none of my Friends may ever have the black apprehensions of how much more your Lordship whom I ever have and shall Love and Honour Wherefore be pleased to receive hereby the heads of those Articles agreed and concluded on the French King's part for the furthering the late King James in the recovery of his abdicated Throne and they are these following First He doth Solemnly promise and engage to assist and promote the late King his dear Brother in his Pretensions with Men Money and all possible force both by Sea and Land and firmly resolves never to lay down his Arms or be at Peace with his Enemies till such time as his said Brother shall be remounted on the English Throne and be peaceable possessor of the same Secondly That till such time as the foresaid Article should be put in full Execution and thoroughly accomplished he hath obliged himself to support him the late King and all his other dependants in his Kingdom of France or elsewhere with all suitable grandeur and dignity Thirdly That he should with utmost expedition and application assist him with a competent number of Forces by Land and a sufficient Navy by Sea towards the reducing under his Obedience the hostile part of the Kingdom of Ireland and not desist till the same were entirely recovered unto him And after that it were so reduced and subjected by their conjoint Arms the late King should be in possession of it till such time as he shall be in full possession of the English Throne but no longer But how to unravel the later Clause of this Article at present is beyond my skill and so I will leave it Fourthly He hath also over and above the preceding Engagements promised to give him all the assistances necessary from time to time both by Sea and Land for the recovery of England and Scotland unto him when he shall arrive in one or either of the said Kingdoms in Person and in the mean time hath engaged to be aiding and assisting to his party in either of the two Nations as time and occasion should serve My Lord I do question but you would be highly satisfyed to have a view of the Stipulations on the late King's part to his Gallick Majesty and I hope your Lordship has Entertained such an Opinion of me as to think my satisfaction can be no less in being able to gratify your Honours Curiosity upon this head which I shall not fail to endeavour to do and heartily wish an accomplishment of in my next who am My Lord With all due Observance Your Honours most Obedient and Devoted Ser. St. Germ. July 31. 1689. N. S. LETTER VIII Articles stipulated on King James's his part for the giving up Ireland c. to the French upon his recovery of England and Scotland My Lord THat your Lordship has safely received my last I have had some intimations of by my friend from I earnestly wish for the like success to this and your speedy receipt of it seeing it hath so luckily fallen out with me that the purport of it contains what I cannot but flatter my self will redound much to your Honours satisfaction I mean the Articles stipulated on the late King's part to the French King of which I gave an hint in my last though I could not then as much as hope with any tollerable confidence of being so soon able to procure them First then The late King hath agreed in consideration of the French King's assistances as mentioned in my last and as soon as he shall be restored and fully resetled in his Dominions and not before that he may not give any umbrage to the English to quit all manner of claim to the Title or Arms of France and take effectual care to put the same out of the Royal English Escutcheon Secondly That he shall entirely quit and resign up the soveraignty of the narrow Seas to the French and that to that purpose he shall give orders to his Ships of War c. to strike to the French Flags Thirdly That he shall be obliged to assist him the French King with thirty Capital Ships of War and Twenty Thousand Land-men in any War when he shall have occasion for them and this at his own proper cost and charges Fourthly That he shall make or enter into no allyance against France nor to any other without the French King's Privity and Consent but unfeignedly observe a perpetual League both Offensive and Defensive with the Crown of France Fifthly That he shall permit unto the French King at all times and occasions the free use of all his Ports for the retreat of his Ships and be obliged to furnish him then and there with proper Conveniences and able Workmen to repair his endamaged Ships or to build new ones when soever he shall require it Sixthly That he shall admit into his standing forces whose number and strength shall from time to time be limitted and regulated by him in concert with the French King a constant Body of Twenty Thousand French and Ten Thousand Catholick Switzers or more or
the Dirt and Mire and at last threw them into the Flames The Bells were rung in several Parishes the great Guns roared from the Bastile and in short for compleating the farce nothing was omitted which was usually done upon the most solemn occasions neither was this rejoycing confined to the narrow bounds of one day but lasted several Neither could the publick news from Holland and other parts that expresly imported the contrary make them abate one jot of their vain credulity nay the questioning the truth of it was almost a crime unpardonable And because nothing should be omitted to enforce the belief of it upon all that seemed in the least dubious the Opinions of the learned Physicians who I must tell your Lordship did not want practice upon this occasion were hotly urged for it and who for the most part mercenarily agreed to resolve their patient's Questions in the affirmative viz. That the wound of a Cannon Bullet was mortal from whence it was inferred as a natural consequence that because King William had received such a wound he must of necessity be dead of it Nothing could be more vain and frivolous than to tell them of the number of People that have had their Leggs and their Arms shot off by a Cannon Bullet and yet have lived in a good state of Health for a long time after for to this it was readily answered That all that was alledged upon that head was formerly true enough but that now Chirurgery was quite another thing and from that time forward whoever was but touched with a Cannon Bullet though the skin were but only a little rased was condemned to die Strange is the effect of prejudice my Lord and how easily do Men believe what they would have to be so but I shall not detain your Lordship any longer with so ridiculous a Narration though I question not your kind acceptance of it from My Lord Your Honours devoted and most faithful Servant Paris Aug. 10. 1690. N. S. POSTSCRIPT Just now there is a report spread up and down that the late King is to go forthwith on board the French Fleet and to endeavour to land in England where they are very confident to find a very considerable party that will declare for his interest but whether there be any such design in reallity I cannot yet penetrate into I am My Lord Yours c. LETTER XVI The French Court mightily concerned at the Proceedings of the Duke of Savoy and his declaring for the Confederates yet try one stratagem more to bring him to their side My Lord I Do not find notwithstanding whatever I subjoined in my last to your Lordship of a Descent or some such thing upon England that the same is any more talked of but generally concluded to be at this instant impracticable neither do the affairs of Britain seemingly half so much perplex this Court as those of Savoy at this Juncture I do not doubt but your Lordship may have heard of many attempts made by them to keep the Duke from falling in with the interests of the Confederates and especially that of the King of England but the last and sliest Effort of all is what but few know and an account thereof I know cannot but be pleasing to your Lordship now I have nothing more material to inform you of Monsieur de Croissi as I suppose your Lordship knows very well being the grand Minister of State in this Country for Forreign Affaiâ—s finding by his secret intelligence that the Duke of Savoy had declared for the Confederates hastened to give the King an account of it whereupon two of the Duke's Ministers were somewhat confined but after a little consultation upon the matter the King thought it advisable to give his subtil Minister orders to confer with the said Embassadors once more yet so to order it that it might not look like a formall conference or a thing concerted before hand Croissi ordered his matters so well that he met them one day in the street when he told them that he wondered he never could see them that Madam de Croissi had thought they would have come and drink a dish of Coffee with her to which purpose he would invite them to his House at such an Hour The Ministers to be complaisant and being not accustomed to deny Ladies such Civilities willingly accepted his offers and promised to wait upon the Lady at the hour appointed which they did accordingly and the Venetian Embassador who had the word given him meet there also but made as if it had been by meer accident After they had discoursed of several things too and fro by the bye the Venetian Minister very dexterously turned the discourse into the Battle of Fleuri and the Engagement at Sea against the English and Dutch Fleets and so took occasion to aggravate to the utmost of his Eloquence the advantages which his most Christian Majesty had reaped thereby and to lessen at the same time as much as he could the power of the Confederates From thence passing forward to the affairs of Italy he laboured to shew how difficult a task it was for the Spaniard to resist the Arms of the most Christian King and laid the chief stress of his Arguments upon the pressing desire which both the Pope and the Venetians had to prevent the fire of War from flaming over the Alps and so take hold of all Italy To all which decoying Discourse Monsieur de Croissi said no more but only so much as he adjudged necessary to shew the Venetian Embassador spoke nothing but what was true for fear least the Savoyards would have occasion to discover the concertship between them and that the Venetian said nothing but what the Monsieur put into his Mouth However it seems the Savoyards were not so stupid but that they apprehended quickly a good part of the Truth And therefore being unwilling to engage themselves in long disputes to no purpose they thought it sufficient to answer once for all that the Duke their Master had made choice of his side and that no consideration whatsoever could oblige him to fail in his promises to his imperial Majesty King of Spain and the rest of the Confederates And if the Court are so highly perplext for the ill success they have had upon the Duke and his Ministers the common Vogue is they are not a whit less at Monsieur Tourville's Conduct after his Sea Victory that he has made no more improvement of it but I can say nothing positively upon this head and therefore shall only subscribe my self My Lord Your Lordships most Humble and Faithful Servant Paris Sept. 1. 1690. N. S. LETTER XVII Of close designs hatched in France of Monsieur de Tourville and the rumour of his being disgraced for his Conduct and of the reports concerning the Dauphins's marrying again My Lord NEver were frequenter Consults held than at this time here both as to the Sea and Land Affairs and the King's time is
the Queen to Dispose of her self in Marriage till at length came an English Ambassador who declared That his Mistress did much admire that seeing both of them were equally Allied to her they should precipitate so great an Affair without acquainting her with it and therefore she earnestly desired that they would stay a while and weigh the thing somewhat more seriously to the great Benefit probably of both Kingdoms But this Embassy effected nothing so that Queen Elizabeth dispatched Sir Nicholas Throgmorton to tell the Earl of Lennox and his Son that they had a Convoy from her to return at a set day into England and that day was now past and therefore she commanded them to return which if they refused they were to be Banished and their Goods Confiscated But this Commination would not do neither but they persisted in their purpose and because the Queen of Scots would not be thought to Marry a private man she Creates Darnley Duke of Rothsay and Earl of Ross moreover the Predictions of Wizzardly Women in both Kingdoms did contribute much to hasten the Marriage who Prophesied That if it were Consummate before the end of July it foretold much future advantage to them both if not much Reproach and Ignominy which Predictions how true will appear by and by Besides there were Rumours spread abroad of the Death of the Queen of England and the day mentioned before which she should Die. This Marriage was no sooner Consummate and Proclaimed by an Herauld at Arms in Edenburg and elsewhere but the People began to murmur grievously and especially the absent Nobility stormed mightily at it and did not only rest there but take up Arms but having no good Correspondence one with another they were soon dissipated and supprest and in some time after a Convention of the Estates of the Kingdom was Indicted to be held that so the Goods of those who were Banished might be Confiscate their Names struck out of the Nobility and their Armorial Ensigns torn to pieces And the Queen was continually solicited by David Rizzio to cut off some of the Chief of the Faction and to have a Guard of Foreigners about her Person a project that is wont to be the beginning of all Tyranny and because they should be the more at David's Devotion they must consist of Italians his own Country-men but because this must not be done bare-faced they were to come in from Flanders by piece-meal one by one and at several times too which way of procedure was another step towards this Queen's Ruin But as David's Power and Authority with the Queen daily increased so the King grew into greater Contempt with her every day for as she had rashly precipitate in Consummating the Marriage so did she as soon repent of it and gave manifest Indications of her alienated Mind For as she had presently after the Celebration of the Marriage publickly proclaimed him King by an Herauld without the Consent of the States and that afterwards in all her Mandates till that time the King and Queens Names were exprest now she changed the Order keeping both Names in but setting her own down first At length the Queen to deprive her Husband of any opportunity to do Courtesies to any began to find fault with him that whilst he was busie in Hawking and Hunting many slight matters were acted unseasonably or else were wholly neglected and therefore it would do better that she should subcribe her Name for them both and by this means he might enjoy his Pleasure and yet no publick Business be retarded The poor King was willing to gratifie her in every thing and yielded to be dismist upon such frivolous Grounds that so being remote from tha Council and Privacy of publick Affairs the obligation for all Boons might redound to the Queen her self For these were her Thoughts that if her Husbands Favour could do no good Offices to any and his Displeasure were formidable to none he would by Degrees come to be contemned of all And further to increase the Indignity David was substituted with an Iron Seal to impress the Kings Name on Proclamations Being thus fraudulently Cosened out of Publick Business least he might also prove an interrupter of their private Pleasures he was dispatch'd away in a very sharp Winter to a place called Debly with a very small Retinue far beneath the Dignity of some private Persons for a Prey rather then for any Recreation At the same time fell such a quantity of Snow that the place which was not very plentiful at best and besides troubled with Thieves was enough to starve him who was bred always at Court and used to a Liberal Diet And he would have been in great hazards of wanting Necessaries had not the Bishop of Orkney casually came thither for he knowing the scarcity of the place brought with him some Wine and other Provisions for his use The Queen not Content to advance David and as 't were to shew him to the People from such an obscure Original on the account before-mentioned but she took Counsel another way how to Cloath him with Domestick Honour for whereas the Queen had for some Months past permitted more Company than usual to sit with her at Table that so David's place in the crowd might be less envyed She thought by this shew of Popularity to gain the point that the unaccustomedness of the â—ight might by the multitudes of guest and daily usage be somewhat alleviated and so mens high Spirits by degrees be innured to bear any thing But at last it went so far that none but he and one or two more fate at Meat with her and that the narrowness of the Room might detract something from the Envy of the thing she would sometimes Eat her Junkets in a little Parlour and sometimes also at David's Lodgings but the Methods she thus used to lessen did but increase the Reflections for this maintained Suspicions and administred occasions to add Discourses Now were Men's Thoughts let loose and they were influenced the more that David in Houshold-stuff Apparrel and number of brave and stately Horses exceeded even the King himself and it made the matter look the worse that all this Ornament did not credit his Face but that rather his Face spoiled all this Ornament But the Queen not being able to amend the fault of Nature endeavoured by heaping Riches and Honour upon him to raise him up to the Degree of the Nobles that so she might hide the meanness of his Birth and the imperfections of his Body too with the vail of his lofty Promotions but care must be had that he should be advanced by Degrees least he might seem to be but a poor mercenary Senator The first attempt was made upon the account of a piece of Land near the City of Edenburg called by the Scots Malvil The Owner of the Land together with his Father-in-Law and others that were best able to perswade him were sent for and the Queen dealt with
all his days they framed an Accusation against Morton and got him committed to Edinburgh Castle from whence in a short time he was brought to his Tryal and Condemned for having an hand in the Lord Darnley the King's Father's Murder that he was privy to the same he did not deny at his Execution and withall confessed that he had a design to send the young King into England for his Safety and so there 's another Governor gone who was the fourth and last and every one whereof died a violent Death and now the King assumes the Government himself and if he was unhappy during the time of the Regency I think it will appear it was no better with him ever after for he himself was as much governed now by his Favourites and Sycophants as the Kingdom had been by a Regent and the first into whose Hands he fell was Aubonie now Created Duke of Lennox and a Papist and the aforesaid James Steward who assumed to himself the Style and Title and then the Earldom of Arran These two led him by the Nose at their Pleasure and carried all things with an high Hand lording it over the rest of the Nobility and aiming at their Estates which made them begin to look about them and concluding after serious Consultation that from two such Counsellors no wholsome Advice could proceed for the Peace of the Country and Establishment of Religion but rather if they were suffered to go on still both the one and the other would be endangered they resolve to remove them The King was at that time designing to go from Athol to Dumfermling to take his usual Divertisement of Hunting where the Lords designed to encounter him with a supplication full of Complaints against the Duke and Earl with pressing Instances for the removing of them and least their supplication should miscarry they backt it with strong Forces which could not be resisted The King had but a very few attendance at Dumfermling for Lennox staid at Dalkeith and Arran at Kinweel and several of the Council were gone to hold the Assizes in divers Shires of the Country Sir James Melvill was at Edenburgh whither a Gentleman one morning came to his Bed-side and told him that he had formerly done him several kindnesses which till then he was never able to recompence but that now he would make him an Instrument of saving the King his Master out of the Hands of those who were upon an enterprise to take and secure him Melvill replied he could hardly believe such a thing but that he feared the Duke of Lennox might be in danger who was gone to Glasgow because of the Hatred that was bore to him by the Nobility The Gentleman subjoyned they will lay hands first on the King's Person and then the Duke and Earl of Arran dare no more be seen their insolency being looked upon as the Cause of almost all the Disorders of the Nation and when he had so said he desired the King might be acquainted with the matter but to have his Name concealed from him for he said that design would be put in execution in ten days time and as Sir James started up to put on his Cloaths he slipt out at the door with a short farewell Sir James upon this Information rides with all the expedition imaginable to Dalkeith where the Duke of Lennox then was and laid the whole matter open before him and advised him withal to lose no time but to Ride to the King to give him notice that he might make timely provision for his own security but the Duke chose rather to dispatch a Gentleman with all possible diligence to the King upon that Occasion and wished Sir James to write to the Earl of Gaury about the same for it seems the Gentleman that gave him the first Information of the Plot had not named Gaury with the rest of the Lords to him either out of forgetfulness or else because he had been but lately won over to the Party by the Land of Drumwhafel who had assured him that Lennox had resolved to kill him whereever he met him and used this as a convincing argument to Embark the Earl in the same Cause but however matters fell out the Lords receded from their first Resolution of presenting their supplication as aforesaid and would not tarry 〈◊〉 the King came to Dumferling but they surprised him at Huntingtown-House which was the Earl of Gaury's its uncertain whether it were not done with a design to imbark the Earl more deeply in their Bond or that fearing least the design was discovered they made the greater haste to execute the same by seising the King there which was afterward called the Road of Ruthven The King is once more a Prisoner and the Lords conduct him to Sterling-Castle where he is kept for a time In the mean while the French King and Queen Elizabeth by their Ambassadors make Instances for his Liberty and Condole his Misfortune but so hen-hearted was he that he ordered their Ambassadors to declare to their respective Princes that he was well satisfied with the Lords that were about him that they were his own Subjects c. and when the Lords called a Council to resolve what course to take he agreed with them to form an Act declaring That what they had done was good service to himself the Kirk and Commonwealth though Mr. Carey who I think was afterward Created Earl of Monmouth whispered him in the Ear and desired him to tell the plain Truth which he engaged to conceal from all others whatsoever and only acquaint the Queen his Mistress therewith he told him his Heart was full fraught with Grief and Displeasure at his Misfortune The Lords having thus effected their purpose as having now rid the Court of the Duke of Lennox who fled into France and the Earl of Arran whom they committed to the Custody of the Earl of Gaury most of them withdrew from the Court to their respective homes whereupon the King retaining a displeasure still in his Heart towards them takes occasion to appoint a Convention to be held at St. Andrews whereunto by Missive Letters he invited some of the Nobility but none of the Lords that had lately left him designing thereby to get loose out of their Hands and to retain about him such Lords as he had written for and notwithstanding some about him endeavoured to divert him from the said Resolution alledging the fresh Jealousie that would be Created in the absent Lords by such a procedure and with all the Power they had to be revenged of the conceived affront he rejected the advice wherefore for the better management of his design it was thought expedient that he should go a few days to St. Andrews before the Convention was to meet that being once there a Proclamation might be issued out to forbid any Nobleman whatsoever to come to the said Convention without express Orders from the King so to do and to this end it was
Country he might apply what he pleas'd to the King at the Court and besides had the Medicine been the best in the World the Act was Daring and no ways Justifiable in him because he wanted the Consent of the King's Physitians thereto and one of Buckingham's great Provocations was thought to be that the King now being weary of his too much Greatness and Power was about to set up Bristol his deadly Enemy against him to pull him down The Application of this Medicine was one of the 13 Articles charged afterward upon the Duke by the Parliament who rarely accuse upon false Rumour or bare Suggestion and surely he will have work to do that takes upon him to excuse the King his Successor in this Matter for Dissolving the Parliament to preserve one that was accus'd by them for Poisoning his Father especially if it be consider'd that the Commons had then Voted him Four Subsidies and Four Fifteenths which they had not time to pass into an Act. What did farther increase Mens suspicions was one Doctor Lamb a Fellow of a most Infamous conversation his frequenting to and being much imploy'd by the Countess and her Son which did at length so incense the People against him that finding him in the Streets of London An. 1628. they set upon him with Stones and Staves and knocked out his Brains as also one Butler an Irishman that pretended to be a Chymist and was very intimate with the foresaid Company I mean the Duke and his Mother and indeed the Story of his Death as was then reported is a very convincing Evidence of some secret Machination betwixt the Duke and him which made the Duke be desirous to be rid of him For Mischief says Mr. Wilson being an ingrosser is unsecured unsatisfied when their Wares are to be vented in many Shops This Man was by the Dukes means recommended upon some plausible pretence to some Jesuites beyond the Seas where he was entertain'd with a great deal of specious Ceremony and Respect in one of their Colleges and at Night being attended by them into his Chamber with much Civility which was hung with Tapestry and had Tapers burning in stretched-out-Armes upon the Wall when they gave him the Good-night they told him they would send one should direct him to his Lodging and they were no sooner out of the Room of Death but the Floor that hung upon great Hinges on one side was let fall by Artificial Engines and the poor Vermine Butler dropt into a Precipice where he was never more heard of To conclude King James was Learned and had fine Notions in Conception but could bring but few of them into Action tho' they tended to his Honour and Safety for this was one of his Apothegms which he made no timely use of Let that Prince that would beware of Conspiracies be rather jealous of such whom his extraordinary Favours have advanc'd then of those whom his Displeasure hath discontented these want Means to execute their Pleasures but they have means at pleasure to execute their desires But a late Learned Author has exprest as much contempt of his Learning as Ben Johnson did of his Poetry saying It was a Scandal to his Crown meaning his Writings against Bellarmine and Perrone about their King-killing and King-deposing Doctrines and it seems Henry 4. of France had not a much better opinion of the same who when he heard some Men Celebrating of him with these Attributes answer'd truly enough That he was a fine King indeed and Wrote little Books King James was Succeeded by His Son Charles in all His Dominions but much more so in all His Misfortunes for this was one of the unhappiest Princes that ever Swayed a Scepter There is little remarkable concerning this Pâ—â—â—ce in his Infancy only he was noted as Lilly says to be very wilful and obstinate by the old Scottish Lady his Nurse and even by his own Mother Queen Ann who being told on a time he was very Sick and like to die said He would not then die but live to be the Ruine of himself and the Three Kingdoms through his too much Wilfulness And it seems the Symptoms of his Fore-Fathers Destiny appear'd in his very Face for his Picture having been presented to the then Duke of Tuscany the first sight and inspection thereof made him sâ—art and say He saw something in it that Presag'd a strange and violent Exit Moreover if what the said Author says be true That Laud at His Coronation at Westminster alter'd the Old Coronation Oath and framed another New one for him in the room of it it was a foul stumble at first dash It rarely happens and I think but very few Instances can be given that one and the same Person proves a Favourite to Two Princes together but it seems nothing could resist the Charmes of the Glorious Buckingham who now Governs the Son more Despotically than ' er he had done the Father and put him upon those very Expeditions that with other concurring Mismanagements made Shipwrack of His Honour at home procured him scorn and contempt abroad and hastned those Calamities which at length resolved in his own sad Catastrophe and Ruine But surely it argu'd a very mean and poor spirit in him to take him into his Bosom and to be govern'd by one that had twice in his Father's time so highly affronted and disdain'd him the first at Royston before many People by bidding of him in plain terms Kiss his A And the second time at Greenwich in the sight of about 400 Persons when lifting up his hand over his head with a Ballon Brasser and saying in most undutiful terms to him By G. it shall not be so you shall not have it The Prince answer'd What my Lord I think you intend to strike me It 's true to have forgotten and never to revenge such Injuries when he had been King had been worthy the Noble Mind of a Prince but it also became him never to have suffer'd him to come near his Court to be upbraided with the sight of so much scorn that had been so publickly offer'd him and some Criticks at Court at that time did not stick to read his future Destiny At King James's Death the Nation was rent into Four Factions viz. the Prerogative Popish Puritan and Country Party which in a short time was reduc'd into two the two former uniting their force against the other two and one should have thought it had been the business of the New King to have composed those first rather then make War abroad But King James his Body was scarce cold when Buckingham put King Charles upon a War with Spain Both of them when in that Kingdom had receiv'd so many Civilities from his Catholick Majesty that they now resolve to Invade his Country with a Powerful Fleet and a Land Army under the Command of my Lord Wimbleton but in their passage they met with a Furious Storm which so scatter'd the Fleet that of