to see before his death the Misfortunes of his Family and his illustrious Rival did not live long enough to comfort himself for his Disgrace and to see the Royal Family of Poland lose a Crown which it had robb'd him of The Remembrance of this Intrigue joined to the Indifferency and Hatred which Prince James bore towards the French none of which he would admit into his Service whilst he entertained Followers of all Nations was perhaps the reason why the Most Christian King hearkened to the Proposals which his Ambassador had made to him of placing a Prince of his Blood in the Polish Throne The Undertaking was Noble and no question but it would have succeeded had so great a Prince set himself heartily upon the Execution of it Melchior de Polignac Abbot of Bonport had resided at the Polish Court ever since the Year 1693. in quality of Ambassador Extraordinary from France This Employ could not chuse but be very agreeable to him by the Satisfaction which the King his Master took in his Conduct and the confidence which the King and Queen of Poland had of him Their Majesties kept nothing secret from him and nothing was determined in their Councils but what his Advice was asked upon which was always followed The Senate and Gentry had the same esteem for him his Genius seemed to them to be Superiour to that of other Ambassadors and this vast Jdea which they conceived of him made them find Defects in those that were invested with the same Character The good Offices which he had done for several Lords under the late Reign made the Poles extol him at a strange rate and none of them questioned his sincerity The Reputation of a Minister is always honourable and serviceable to the Prince that has made choice of him The Credit of this Ambassador was so well established that so soon as ever the King was dead a great many Gentry waited upon him to offer him their Service without desiring so much as to know the Name of the person in whose Favour he would declare himself Sobieski before his Death had recommended to his Children to maintain a strict Correspondence with and to follow the Counsels which that Able Minister should give them of whose Fidelity and Capacity he was very well assured He had likewise conjured the Queen to take this Counsel if she were willing to maintain the Crown in her Family Every thing is promised to a Man at his last Gasp but when he is dead Men think themselves disingaged from their Word The Queen had other Designs in her Head she looked indeed upon the Ambassador as the Supporter of her Family but after she had declared to him the Desire which she had to see one upon the Throne with whom she might share the Authority she entreated him without naming the Person to concur with her towards his Advancement Polignac hearkened to the Queen the depth of whose Design he could not fathom She should have spoken for her Sons but she did not open her Mind plainly upon that Head There were several Lords who would not have despaired of ascending the Throne if that Princess would but assist them and several were in a Condition of sharing an Authority with her which she should procure for the person she most approved of Prince Ketlerus of Courland had privately embraced the Roman Catholick Religion and those who were acquainted with his Design did not question but the Queen was the true Cause of his Conversion However had she been minded to have married a Prince whom the French King should have approved of his Ambassador would never have opposed it But she declared that she could not prevail upon her self to Marry but all her Care was for a Prince whose Duty would oblige him not to desert her Polignac having refused to follow the pleasure of that Princess blindly she was forced to explain her self more clearly and that she might not seem to dissemble with the Ambassador she first of all discoursed to him in the behalf of Prince James of whom she had formerly drawn so frightful an Idea that it was impossible for her to efface those lively Impressions out of her Mind Her best Friends had given her such Counsel which if it had been duly followed would have proved the most judicious and most safe Course she could have taken The King of Poland had left behind him very considerable Summs of Money and common Fame had so far multiplied his Riches that he passed for the richest Prince in Europe These Treasures were deposited in the Castles of Warsaw Marienburg and Zolkiew Those Friends we have been speaking of advised the Queen to affix her Seal and the Seal of the Republick to the Treasures without enquiring how much they amounted to Afterwards they proposed to her to offer them to the State as a Supply to its present urgent Occasions By this piece of Generosity she would engage the Armies and the whole Gentry in her Interests and prevent any Foreign Prince from opposing her pretensions They made her believe that she might choose Prince Alexander or Constantine or even the Elector of Bavaria if she pleased and that they would obtain the Most Christian KING'S Consent The Princess rejected the proposal because she could not abandon Prince JAMES Her chief reason was lest she should thereby dispoil her self of the Treasures that she had gathered together with so much trouble She communicated her Design to the French Ambassador and conjured him by the Memory of the deceased King which he ought to revere to employ his Interest for the Prince Royal. This Minister declined alledging That the Prince had rendred himself too odious to the King his Master and represented to her the Difficulties that would traverse that Election His Remonstrances were not able to make her change her Mind so that he was obliged to declare to the Princess That Prudence would not suffer him to embark on Board a Vessel which could not avoid being Shipwrack'd The Queen could not bring her self to abandon the Prince her Son and much less to sacrifice her Money The Abbot de Polignac found a Method to deprive her of that Chief Support and ordered Matters so as that which was upon the Point of being imployed against France became a help to that Crown in the time of its need After having proposed to that Princess an Annual Income for that great Summ he possessed her with an Account of its being safe and of the Profit she would reap by it which so far blinded her that she made that false Step which rendred all her posterior Efforts against France of no Effect At that time she followed in part the Ambassador's Council and that the presence of the Princes Alex. and Constantine should not give any umbrage to her eldest Son she sent them to France with that Summ which compleated the Ruine of Prince James's Party without strengthening that of his Competitor The Abbot de Polignac gave Advice to
had pass'd at Sambor and she had sent him the same Summ to pay off the Army This General was for making up the business secretly with Baranowski and to this purpose had dissolv'd the publick Negotiation and did not begin his own private Treaty till after the Commissioners were gone As they were half way on the Road they were inform'd of the design by their Spies and spur'd back again with so much speed that they got time enough to be present at the conclusion of the Treaty and to dispute the Glory of having terminated this great Affair The Queen was for attributing the whole Honour of it to her self because it had cost her the Money she expected to have received the Compliments of the whole Nobility after such an Act of Liberality But they who made any Reflections upon it only said That those who excited Rebellions were more obliged than others to suppress them The Queen Prince James and Count Jablonowski were still looked upon by most Persons as the chief Fomenters of a Confederacy which had been the occasion of so many Disorders This Count was Sobieski's intimate Friend when he was elected King and had employed all his Interest to set the Crown upon his Head This piece of Service had raised him to be Great General Castellan of Cracow and by that means the the Chief Secular Senator of the Kingdom Out of Gratitude he took such Measures with the Queen as might bring about a Design the Execution whereof he foresaw would be very difficult The Intimacy which he held with that Princess gave an occasioâ— to those who had no good will to either of them to give out That the Queen being convinced of that Aversion which the Gentry had for her Family concerted with the Great General to espouse his Interests upon these Conditions viz. That she should supply him with Money to purchase Votes and that he should share a Crown with her which she could not procure for her Children This was no new Opinion in Poland they were afraid of such a thing even fifteen Years before the King's death so that to prevent the Execution of this Project the principal Lords had entred into private Confederacies which appeared too visibly in the Diet wherein the League against the Turks was concluded and wherein there was so much discourse concerning the Affairs of Count Morstyn Great Treasurer of the Crown These Reports flattered the Great General 's Ambition who did not trouble his head much in suppressing them And if he thought that his familiarity with the Queen would facilitate his ascending the Throne he was mightily mistaken since that was the Pretence which his Enemies made use of to hinder him from it Maria de la Grange d' Arquien Q. Dowager of Poland did not think fit to undeceive him The Gentry spake very loudly of the severity of the former Reign and it was not prudence by an unseasonable haughtiness to increase the Number of the Malecontents There were e-now already and the design she had laid of abasing the greatest Families drew upon her every day new Enemies It was a difficult Matter to quiet such angry Spirits by such a Conduct the Princess therefore to clear her self opened her Coffers and believed that her Liberality woud put a new Face upon her Affairs as if the Memory of Good Turns would be as lasting as that of Injuries The wound was so great that the Remedy proved useless They who had received the Money gave out that she had made those Restitutions which Father Lewis of Amsterdam a Capuchin who they said was her Physician and Confessor had enjoyned her to make and that Poland was indebted to that holy Man who took an equal Care of the Health of the Body and of the Salvation of the Soul of his Penitent But it was not this alone which had estranged the Minds of the Poles The Queen and Prince James had contributed as much as others to the weakening of their own party Ever since the Eldest Son was married she had shewed a particular Affection to Prince Alexander and this preference she had given him in her Love had made her think him not unworthy of a Crown She had perhaps explained her self too openly upon that Subject and Prince James had conceived so great an Indignation at it that he quite forgot those Sentiments which Nature it self should have inspired in him This happened a little before the King's Death The Queen never since looked upon Prince James as her Son because he had not respected her as his Mother At first she neither declared for nor against him and it seemed as if she would rather have been the Wife than the Mother of a King In this Suspence she waited till time should give her such Advice as the present Posture of Affairs would not admit her to take James Sobieski the late King 's eldest Son did not renounce his Pretensions though the Queen seemed indifferent or rather disaffected to his Designs He knew that the Poles had always chosen their Sovereigns out of the Royal Family and though the Gentry had a Right of chusing whom they pleased yet he thought his Brother 's had no more merit to plead than he he never found that the younger had been preferred before the Elder and therefore he flattered himself that they would not make him the first example of that kind His Reputation was established by a Passage which the Poles could not but be pleased with He had attended the King his Father at the raising the Siege of Vienna and had fought near his Person in the two Battles of Barcan near Strigonium wherein the Turks had been totally defeated The Emperor ought to use his Interest in assisting him and the honour of that Prince whose Brother-in-Law he was would not allow him to be engaged for any Body else The Elector Palatin whose Sister he had married promised to do as much for him as he had endeavoured for himself the last Election The Elector of Bavaria gave him the same Assurance though he was employed too much otherwise than to do any thing else besides praying for his Success Charles XI King of Sweden had rather see Prince James on the Throne than any other of his Competitors Livonia was up in Rebellion and it seemed these People over-burdened with Taxes and Grievances were weary of the Government of their old Masters A designing and busie Prince might have favoured their Revolt and so robb'd the Crown of Sweden of a Province that was very advantagious to it He who should have formed a design of reuniting it to Poland could not have been blamed by any Prince for they all knew that Sweden had seized upon it contrary to all the Rules of Equity and Justice and they had not so much as the least Pretence for what they did They had made their Advantage whilst the Poles were engaged in a War against the Turks in the Year 1621. and whilst they were defending Christendom against
those Infidels those Swedish Christians had robbed them of this Province Time could not make the Poles forget so considerable a Loss and though they have not for so many Years together been in a Capacity to remedy it yet by their Complaints they have testified That they only waited for a fair Opportunity of doing it For this Reason the Election of a Prince who loved and understood War would have caused those Alarms in Sweden from which the Choice of Sobieski would free them He passed among his Neighbours for a quiet and peaceable Prince and one who being contented with the Possession of a Kingdom would leave his Successors to take Care of enlarging its Bounds It was likewise thought that he had promised Sweden to abandon to it Samogitia the Sovereignty of the Dutchy of Courland and the Bailiwick of Piltin which POLAND was still in Possession of in Livonia These Measures seemed to be so very well taken that a favourable Success might have been expected from them but the Death of the King of Sweden happening at Stockholm the 15th of April 1697 made all those Projects to vanish into Smoke The Elector Palatin and the Elector of Bavaria fell from their Words and it was supposed that the latter had himself some Pretensions to the Crown The Abbot of Scarlati had been in his Name at Warsaw to make his Complements of Condolance to the Queen upon the Death of the King This Minister had made his Observations on the Sentiments of the Gentry with Respect to the Interests of the Royal Family and perceived that it was no hard Matter to supplant the three Princes of the Blood The Reasons which kept them from the Throne was a Bar to the Elector's ascending it because besides his being a German he had married their Sister Scarlati informed his Master how the Gentry stood affected This Prince considered how little Pretensions the Younger Brothers had to the Crown which themselves had renounced because of their Youth and that the Queen how passionate soever she was for Prince Alexander thought no more of it The Elector who likewise saw how odious it would be in him to dispute the Crown with those whose Sister he had married thought of nothing else but serving Prince James and so preferred his Honour before his Ambition The vast designs which he had in hand contributed likewise to the making him lay aside one which was not as yet ripe for Execution He was entred into the Confederacy with the Empire England Spain Holland and Savoy had concluded against France So many united Forces seemed at least to be able to reduce that Monarchy within its Ancient Bounds The Confederates had already shared the Provinces among themselves even before they had conquered them But the Prudence and Undauntedness of his Most Christian Majesty had rendred their great Designs useless and seconded by the valor of his Troops and the Affections of his Subjects he took Towns won Battles and conquered Provinces All Europe had their Eyes upon him and looked on him with Admiration and his Enemies wished for a Peace which they were only ashamed to beg The Elector of Bavaria reflected seriously on all that passed in Europe and without thinking of Poland he was very intent on making himself Satisfaction by the Monarchy of Spain This was not enough to reanimate the Friends of Prince James and the Queen's Indifferency was a great Affliction to them They remonstrated to her That she did more injury to her Family than those who disputed the Crown with them that if she would espouse his Interests more heartily and when she recommended him would forbear mixing her Complaints agianst him his Faction would become more powerful She hearkened to their Reasons but she had so far cryed down that Prince in those former quarrels and especially since the King's Decease upon the Account of their Domestick Interests that she came too late to apply a Remedy to an evil that was become incurable Martin Matezinksi Palatin of Russia dyed about this time and by his last Will bequeathed the Queen and Prince James part of his Estate which they thought to be very considerable and enough to comfort them under the Loss which they had sustained The Pictures which they met with in his Closet were not so pleasing to the Legatees as the rest of his Estate The first was a lively Representation of a Battle wherein a Conqueror was described giving out his Orders for a general Assault the place besieged seemed to be in the utmost Extremity its Bastions thrown down and the Number of the Besiegers shewed that it had nothing else to trust to but the Clemency of the Conqueror The second quite different from the first represented a long Procession whose march was closed with a Jesuit beating time as he went This Religions was followed by a Prince who had a Crown on his Head with a Scepter in one hand and a Globe in the other Two other Jesuits held before him a Book of Musick on which he seemed to have fixed his eyes If this Picture inspired Piety the next excited Compassion A meager Prince appeared upon the Lap of a young Woman and sucking the Breasts of an old One. She whom he sucked seemed to be no stronger in Health than he was Those many Crowns which the sick Man had upon his Head pressed him down and contributed as much to his Weakness as his Constitution did He wanted a great many Jewels in most of his Crowns which seemed to be in as bad a condition as he who wore them The last Picture was more pleasing to the sight especially to the Covetous Men of several Nations were telling out of Money and Bethsal the Jew being represented to the Life was examining whether the Ducats were passable or not in one Corner of his Garment was his Master placed and if the Crown had not been discerned on his Head one would have taken him for a Banker or Stock-Jobber The Estate which the Palatin had left was designed by the Queen to strengthen the Party to which he was absolutely wedded However this supply was not so useful as was expected because the Money was sequestrated by order of the Cardinal and the Executors of the Will The Reunion of the Royal Family would have excited great hopes in them had not a fresh Candidate caused new alarms The Queen was of Opinion That France would espouse no other Cause but her's and indeed that Crown would have stood up for the Prince Royal if he had consulted his own Interest but the Kindness which he had expressed for the Enemies of France put it upon taking other Measures It was then remembred what had passed at the Diet of Election in the Year 1674. wherein Sobieski appeared seemingly to carry on the French Interest and was so successful in the Attempts he had for himself that he supplanted a Prince as easie to be deceived and as hard to be conquered Sobieski was so happy as not
to enquire after the true Authors of so many Disorders They excluded those that were accused and convicted of them The Storm fell in divers Places and all at once upon the Head of Prince James who then perceived the sudden Change of his Fortune and began to repent him of his useless profuseness He who thought himself sure of the Crown in November saw himself excluded in December by the different Results of the petty Diets Prussia was the first Province that gave him the fatal Blow and described him so well without naming him that no Body could mistake him Volhinia afterwards Russia the Palatinates of Lublin Plosko Vilna Novogrodok and many others did likewise exclude him so that it was astonishing to find such a great unanimity betwixt Provinces so remote from one another The Bishop of Cujavia to mortifie the Prince of Conti's Party and to advance that of Prince James sent Circular Letters to all the Nobility In some Palatinates they were rejected and in others not read A Gentleman amongst those that assembled at Sroda having demanded the Bishop's Letter put it to such an use as Modesty forbids to mention The Nobility of Russia assembled at Visnia treated this Affair with more seriousness and ordered the said Letter to be burnt by the hand of the Hangman Prince James during this time lost his Courage The Ardor and Zeal which some of the Senators had testified for his Interest cooled exceedingly He himself had a mind to discover the Sentiments of the Nobility in the Neighbourhood of Warsaw and that he might do it with more ease he went in disguise from Czersko which is the first District of Mazovia where a petty Diet was held but the Prince was known and some Gentlemen pursued him with Sabre in Hand into the very Church where he was forced to hide himself amongst the Organs and had he been found they would certainly have killed him After this the same Diets excluded all German Princes The Party that opposed France made Efforts to obtain the like advantage in some Diet or other against the Pr. of Conti but could not effect it They could not express their malice against him any other way but by such dull insipid Writings as those of the Bishop of Cujavia This obliged the Queen the Court of Vienna and the Allies to have recourse to other Methods than Negotiations Every one took different Measures but all of them tending to the same end The Enemies of France perceiving that the Prince of Conti's party increased every day in Poland thought fit to retard its progress at the French Court They wrote Letter after Letter to Paris to ridicule the Abbot de Polignac's Hopes alledging that he had suffered himself to be blinded by the Enemies of the Royal Family they aggravated his Promises and Liberalities they maintained that the Poles would never chuse in prejudice of their King's Son a Foreigner who would engage them in War with all their Neighbours Those Discourses some of which made Impression together with the fear of rashly hazarding new Summs occasioned that the Court for more surety did send a Person they could confide in either to verifie those Accusations against their Minister or to justifie his Conduct The Abbot de Castagnetes de Chateauneuf was honoured with this Commission and the Quality of Envoy Extraordinary he set out secretly in Feb. 1697. with the Count de Touanski Nephew to the Cardinal Primate who in July 1696. had been sent by his Uncle to notifie to the Court the death of K. John III. The Abbot arrived in Poland the beginning of April he found the Affairs of France in as good a Condition as the Queen had represented them bad He himself found that most of the Lords and Gentlemen were for the Prince of Conti and that only two things were wanting viz. the Prince's Presence and the Money promised to the Armies He was entrusted with a Letter from the King his Master to the Queen according as he found her Affairs and Intentions and the need that France should have to make use of her Service That same Day this Envoy Extraordinary arrived at Warsaw the Queen left it by order of the Palatinats who forced the Cardinal and Senate to that Rigor The absence of that Princess was not the only cause why the Most Christian King's Letter was not delivered to her The Lords of the French Faction demanded it because of their Apprehensions that a Princess who was for making her advantage of every thing might make use of it with the Publick and perswade them that the Abbot de Chasteauneuf was come to overturn what the Abbot de Polignac had done to serve the Royal Family against the Prince of Conti and by that means to baffle all the hopes of the Republick The Envoy did not think fit to oppose those demands which appeared so Just It was his prudence to give no cause of Suspicion to the Friends of France and not to suffer himself to be surprized by the Queen who did not alledge that the Prince of Conti's party was so weak in the Kingdom but to have Pr. Alexander substituted to him to the end that he who was so unacceptable to the Poles being supported by France her Son Prince James as she thought would have no other Competitor to dread These were the Measures that the Royal Family took The Court of Vienna and the Allies took far different Methods to have the Prince of Conti excluded They proposed other Candidates who were no other ways agreeable to the Poles but because of the Money they hoped they might receive from them The Prince of Newburg would fain have been proposed till such time as another came to take his Place and to furnish the Summs of Money that he had neither Will nor Power to distribute He knew what the two last Elections had cost his Family and so took warning by that Example Leopold Duke of Lorrain was also proposed He had no greater reason to expect success than the Duke of Newburg His Mother had no great Cause to be content with the Poles who after having prefered a Fr. Lady to her had also refus'd her her Dower The Family of Patz that stood up for her at the last Election had now lost all their Credit and such of them as remain'd were young and had no publick Posts so that she saw it was in vain for her Son to pretend to thâ—â—â—rown which had been twice refus'd to so Great a Prince as Charles â—â— of Lorrain her Husband This Proposal however gave new Allarms to the Queen and Prince Sobieski They look'd upon it as an Intrigue of the Court of Vienna They expressed their Resentments of it and complain'd that it was an ungrateful Retribution from the Germans to the Family of a Prince who had sav'd the capital City of the Empire These complaints were very touching because they were just The Imperial Court was as high on the other hand and answer'd that Sobieski
other for the Catholick Religion The Primate wrote to the Elector that the Diet had chosen the Prince of Conti that he hoped he would not look upon the Tumultuous Election of a few Seditious Persons as the Unanimous Consent of the whole Nation and that he in the behalf of the greater and better part of the Nation intreated his Highness to be rather their Friend than their Soveraign This Letter the Elector would not receive because 't was not addresed to him as King The Cardinal gave Advice also to the Emperor and the Elector of Brandebourg of the Election of the Prince of Conti That Elector answered that he was sorry for the Divisions of the Republick and offered himself as Mediator The Emperor's Answer came later 'T was wrote to the Envoy in these words Non est nostrum dare consilia Domino Cardinali aliis Nobilibus Polonis tamen optaremus ut amici fierent Regis Poloniae quando quidem aliter fieri non potest 'T is not our business to give advice to the Cardinal and Polish Nobility however we wish they would make a Virtue of Necessity and stand by the King meaning the Duke of Saxony These Letters were as ineffectual as the Conferences After the 5th every one followed his own measures The Cardinal called a Diet on the 26th of August to confirm the Election The Bishop of Cujavia in opposition to the Primate proclaimed that the Coronation of the Duke of Saxony was to be solemnized on the 15th of September and the preceding Diets should meet on the 6th of August In the mean time the French Ministers were not idle On the 27th about two hours after the Election the Abbot of Polignac dispatched his own Secretary for France to acquaint the King and Prince with the welcome News The Courier being big with hopes of success and full of the great News he brought was afraid of lessening their agreeableness by keeping too close to the naked truth or to his Instructions especially since the Ambassador had once thoughts of employing another and upon his sollicitation the Prince had desired that he should be sent So his Vanity not being satisfied with a simple Recital of what passed he added a great many particulars which could not have happened till after his departure and by that means betraied his Levity He had Orders to give an Account of what passed at the Election where he was an Eye Witness and to represent how much Poland stood in need of having their Elected Prince immediately at their Head to draw together their Armies and prevent the Saxons marching into their Kingdom who would not fail to take advantage of his absence The Secretary arrived at Versailles the 14th of July and being interrogated about the Divisions said they were not at all to be feared and perhaps by that time they were already appeased The Prince asked if 't was necessary for him to set out immediately He answered he had no occasion and that 't was more proper for him to wait the arrival of the Embassy which the Republick would send him These News filled the Court City and Armies with Joy but the next Day made a wonderful alteration when they received the Copy of a Letter wrote by the Elector of Saxony to his Minister at the Hague in which he gave Advice of his own Election without mentioning Conti's Doubtless his design was to put off Conti's Departure for Poland in case the Couriers with the true News were stopped in Germany Some Letters wrote from Dantzick with the same view and to the same purpose increased their trouble Thus they passed the 14th 15th and 16th in great uneasiness and in admiration of the Prince who carried the uncertainty of his Lot with such firmness and constancy of Mind as proclaimed him worthy of a Crown They looked impatiently for the arrival of the Ambassadors that the first Courier had mentioned But on the 16th at Night the Abbot Rioux having been dispatched by the French Ministers arrived who gave a solid and circumstantial Account of the Rupture Remonstrated the necessity of the Prince's Presence and in fine told them They were not to expect an Embassade by reason of the difficulty of the Passage during the War for which and several other reasons the French Ministers had dispensed with that Ceremony in their Propositions Printed a few Days before the end of the Diet. When the Prince knew how things stood he made Preparations for his Departure but since he was not to expect an Embassade thought it convenient to wait till the Cardinal notified his Election to him by a Letter This Letter of the Cardinal 's was ready the 30th of June and given to one of the Abbot of Polignac's Gentlemen to be sent by the Abbot of Rioux but the Gentleman being designed for a third Courier had a mind to deliver it himself and accordingly kept it for he thought to set out that same Day and fansied he would pass more speedily and safely than those who went before him A certain Missionary called Mommeian who was Superiour of the Boarding-School of Lowitz the Cardinal's Favourite and very Zealous for France discovered the Intrigue and gave the Abbot of Polignac to know that the Gentleman had reason to be impatient to be gone for he had shown him the Cardinal's Letter As Cases stood then the Abbot could not but chide the Gentleman The Elector's Preparations and Profuseness were likely to gain him new Favourites those who confided so much in Conti's distance and Saxony's nearness would not listen to the moderation of the Law in case of Divisions And these Reflections did so frighten Conti's Party that in a Grand Council held in the Great Treasurer of the Crown his House they declared to the French Ambassador that they could stand no longer by him that the Act of Election which he demanded so earnestly was useless that they had resolved they would not deliver it till they saw the Execution of his Promises of Paying four Quarters due to the Army since 't was that alone could put them in a Condition to resist the Elector's Forces Then the Ambassador asked what should become of the Prince they had called they answered That he must be Countermanded The Ambassador finding this Answer both positive and unfavourable was in a quandary whether the Primate's Letter should be sent For he considered that if the Prince was already on the Road in compliance with his own Letters as he hoped he was then he would arrive in time enough to recover his Party if he was not yet set out 't was not prudential to call him in such an unfavourable juncture unless he were sure of the Constancy of his Faction In the mean time he made it his business to make sure of those who had not yet abandoned him At length he compassed his Designs in having the Act Signed by the Cardinal Archbishop of Leopol and all the Prelates of his side excepting the Bishop of Cracow who
promised in his Master's Name to advance Ten Millions for the Use of the Republick to maintain Fifteen thousand Men during the War with the Turks to retake Caminiec upon his own Charges to re-establish the Catholick Religion in Saxony and that the Electoress should make an Abjuration before she were crowned or else forfeit all her Pretensions to the Crown The Bishop was not ashamed to administer the Oath to a Calvinist Envoy in the Presence of the Holy Sacrament notwithstanding the Opposition of James Halecki Huntsman of Podlachia and Martin Grazewski Vice-Chamberlain of Vilna upon whom they drew their Hangers in the very Church where the Sacrament was exposed And this Prelate instead of redressing the Disorder cried Kill Kill whereupon they made a verbal Process before the Nuncio who publickly disapproved the action but did not think fit to punish it When the Election was over the Cardinal hoping the smaller number would be brought to comply proposed a Conference between the two Parties Accordingly it began on the 28th the most noted Lords on both Parties being present George Albert Denohoff Bishop of Premislia and Great Chancellor of the Crown opened the Conference with a Speech in which he told them the day of the Election was a representation of the day of Judgment and the Favourites of France on the Right represented the Elect and alluding to the Lamb upon the Primate's Arms quoted that passage of Scripture Hi sequentur Agnum quocunque ieret And compared Saxony's Faction to the Goats that put all in disorder applying to them that other passage Vos enim depasti est is vineam Then the Deputies were named Conti's Party demanded that according to Law the two Competitors should not enter nor send Troops into the Kingdom nor seize any Place or claim aright for Coronation till the publick were assembled again in a second Diet to confirm the Election and determine which of the Candidates should mount the Throne Saxony's Party considering Conti was far off and Saxony just at hand gave no other answer but a flat denial and on the fifth of July which was the last day of the Conference declared that they saw the French had a mind to gain time but the Saxons would not loose the opportunity While the Conference was held those who were not admitted enjoyed themselves in Feasting and their heat was so much abated that they seemed to bury the Old Polish Humour By their Voices one would have thought they were rather pleading upon some particular cause before Judges than managing the Election of a King in a General Diet of the Kingdom Some wondered the Bishop of Cujavia should encroach on the rights of the Primate in nominating a King in a tumultuous Assembly but they were more surprized to hear him say the Elector had made an Abjuration at Rome two years ago 'T was Publickly notorious that he had not performed one external act of the Catholick Religion On the contrary he continued openly in the Lutheran Profession And the more zealous among them owned that if his Abjuration was true he should be looked upon as an Apostate Others examined the qualities of the two Rivals They extolled the Prince of Conti whose Vertue they had sensible impressions of from the French Ambassador Prince Lubomirski Great Treasurer of the Crown and many other Polish Gentlemen were witnesses of his Bravery at the Siege of Newhausel and they could not but credit their Report that 't was by his means chiefly that that important Place was taken Others would have spoke on the Elector's behalf but his Defeat at Temeswaer in the Month of April 1696 was too fresh in their Memories to consist with his Glory Though afterwards the disgrace was in some measure extenuated by Prince Eugene of Savoy's Reprisals They boasted of the Elector's strength which indeed was extraordinary and declared every Day by fresh instances His Enemies could not deny it but they distinguished between Hero's and Gladiators and affirmed that Milon of Crotone went beyond him When the News of the Election of the Elector came to his own Country they were as much disturbed as Poland Prince Eugene of Furstemburg their Governour having caused Te Deum to be sung at Dresden on the 4th of July would have said Mass in the Castle Chappel But Christian Ebrarde the Electoress Daughter to the Marquiss of Brandebourg Baroth being a Calvinist ordered the Gates to be shut and refused to take upon her the quality of Queen The Electoress Dowager was not less zealous So that both these Princesses upon this occasion show'd all the transports of anger that Women in a passion are capable of I know not whether they did it out of Zeal or to serve the Elector's Interest in seeming to stand by the Country of Saxony However the States were as resolute as the two Princesses and declared they would admit of no change in the point of Religion They went upon the latter will of John II. the Elector's Grandfather which obliged all his Successors to Profess the Lutheran Religion This Act they would have looked upon as Authentick had not some former accidents given them a jealousie of what might come after George Duke of Saxony Died in 1539. He was the most Zealous Prince of his time for the Catholick Religion as it appeared by many proofs in his life-time and at his Death by his latter will He had no Children to Succeed him Henry his Brother Maurice and Augustus his Son had imbraced the Lutheran Profession in 1537 and he was unwilling his Country which by his means had kept up the Purity of the Gospel should fall into the Hands of Hereticks that had corrupted Saxony and a great part of Germany In order to compass his Pious Design and at the same time to give his Family no occasion to complain of Injustice he made a latter Will in which he determined the Succession to Henry and his Children providing they introduced no Change of Religion into the Countries which he gave them And declared that if they counteracted that Condition they had no Right to his Heritage He entreated the Emperor Charles V and King Ferdinand his Brother to be Executors of his Will and not to give the nearest of his Relations Possession of his Country without they Professed the Catholick Religion Had these Executors been possessed by the same sentiments of Piety with that Prince Leipsic might have been a Catholick City this Day but their particular Interests prevailed above Religion They gave Henry and his Children the liberty of establishing Heresie in that City at a time when they were pretending to extirpate it out of the whole Empire Henry took advantage of their weakness and invited Luther to that Town which he perverted as well as many other Cities in Germany Now the Saxons considering how Prince George's Will was executed were apprehensive of the like Treatment for Prince John's They and the Poles were equally in fear the one for the Lutheran the