of them according to the Letter of the Treaty and your own repeated promises for which pretended expences persued they still your Majesty may instruct your Ministers to demand such excessive Sums as you know they neither can nor will disburse And as for their asserting their claim by a War after your seizing of Amsterdam that great Magazine of the dead riches of Europe and both Indies and of Warlike Provisions both by Sea and Land and the total reduction not only of that Potent Republick of which it was the Head but likewise of the living sources of Treasure both in the East and West by making their great Fleet Merchants Colonies and Commerce all your own which cannot but clear your way to Guinea and Peru What stomack said they can the English after this have by taking of their Out-works the Low-Countries debarr'd from all assistance from Italy Spain and Germany if in their right senses to have recourse to Arms. Alas what power to attempt any thing but what will move your pitty more then your indignation nay rather what greater Ambition will be left them than to Court your Majesty by an easie and voluntary submission to receive them as Honourable Tributaries thereby to retain a shadow of their Ancient Government and Liberty without incurring the certain destiny by an impotent and fruitless resistance of being forcibly reduced into a Province of your growing Empire to which the Roman Eagle it self abandoning the defenceless Towers of Austria shatterred both by Eastern and Western Hurricanes for the better preserving and re-establishing its Ancient State and Majesty will then be glad to retire This may be your Majesties method continued they to preserve Peace a while with England or stave off at least the War till your present grand design be accomplished and these your Measures how to deal with them afterward in case they suffer you quietly to atchieve this important Conquest But should we be able by no Art to buoy up the King of Englands Spirits against the head-strong opposition of the popular party about him nor so much as to delay a Rupture nor to hinder that violent People from immediately declaring against us yet all considerations on all sides duly weighed and perpended it will be much greater and more certain advantage to your Majesty and of much less dangerous consequence to your Affairs in general to venture a War with them now about a Town which with all they can do they cannot assist time enough to rescue from you and by whose acquisition against their wills you will not only be quit of all their Pretentions but gain power to crush them too at pleasure than after you have for fear of them quitted so great a Conquest to have a War in a little time after both with them and all the rest of Europe not only without those advantages but with the greatest disadvantage imaginable as without setting on work an hundred expensive and troublesome Intriegues you now will have no need off your Majesty will certainly have then notwithstanding all pour complyance to them if you quit your present Design For said they suppose upon your proceeding to the Expedition in question the English declaring a sudden War against you should cause the Amsterdamers to assume courage enough to repulse your Arms how easie were it for your Majesty upon advantageous Terms to clap up a sudden peace with those distressed People and by returning out of their Country to pacifie all those powers now preparing against you and then with your whole Force to fall upon the English with which perhaps too the Hollanders would easily be perswaded to joyn theirs as glad to see themselves delivered so unexpectedly their old Enemies drawn so genteely into the Snare and so fair an occasion put into their hands to revenge themselves on that Rival Nation for joyning with us against them with which it will not be amiss however by your Envoy to threaten the English King Nay and how probable it is that the popular party in England would on that occasion favour the Hollanders to keep down Absolute Power and to preserve their Religion against the aspiring Duke and Popery all which they strongly feared would have come in at once upon them after the ruine of that Protestant State At least said they how effectual may it be to let you Majesties Envoy add that threatning amongst the rest to the King of England But Alas continued they it is but a matter of meer Speculation never likely to come to pass that any thing the English can do at present should as the posture of their Affairs are now in hinder your Majesties taking that City whose Richest and Eminentest Citizens being already gained to your Party the very terror of your Majesties Navy and the appearance of your Forces will quickly open it unto you notwithstanding the weak opposition of a Party formed in a tumultary way among a Mobile by a few particular biggoted Citizens who at the noise of your Cannon would immediately turn to the other extream and cry out as loudly for a surrender And as for the English said they our Emissaries have been so busie and so successful at Amsterdam that it can never be thought what ever good Opinion they may have of the People of England that they can be induced to confide so much in their King whom they have so personally and so grosly affronted in all that can be sensible to a Prince and whom they know so much Frenchified as to think he can heartily intend them any good or that they can expect any milder terms of subjection under him either in respect of Religion or Property then under your Majesty Since they are daily and by very good tokens assured that he is privately advanced already towards Rome as far as the other and waits only the subvertion of their Republick to assume every whit as Despotical and Tyrannical a Dominion over his Subjects in both respects as the French Monarch had over his or in fine that they had so great an opinion of his Power in that Posture of Affairs as to think him able to rescue them time enough or remove the French from them if he went really about it And consequently that in the great Consternation they then were in and the little hopes they had of the slow Forces of Germany and the distrust they lay under both of their own strength and of the Faith and Power of the English together with the Apprehension they were possest with of losing the great Riches they had there by an obstinate resistance which they might secure by a timely composition they would undoubtedly submit upon the first Summons of his Majesty or any famed General of his at the head of a considerable Body of Men especially when his Majesty should offer them such advantageous Conditions as they advised him to do the more effectually to avert them from all thoughts or temptations to close with England and to propose
chosen by this Court purely for his Capacity is not to be admitted of You know my Lord the Triple League stuck then close in the French King's stomach and that the danger Religion was in as well as Property from the progress of the French Arms before in the Netherlands contributed very much to the cementing of such an Alliance which this Court were labouring tooth and nail to break to pieces and more especially to get the King of England out of it and to that end Monsieur Ruvigny's Religion he being a Protestant highly recommended him How well he discharged his Commission then I need not recount to your Lordship the Event has sufficiently discovered it to England as well as to Holland's sorrow and to the no small regret of some of those of his own Religion and Fraternity in France It was much about Six years after that the same Marquess was entrusted with another Negotiation at the English Court to no less pernicious an end than the former and I fear at long run with worse effects They had my Lord besides the Instruments I have formerly mentioned for some time before this imploy'd several of their own Hugonots in England for the carrying their Intrigues more effectually on among our Protestants which Hugonots have been the more forward to please and obey the Instructions of their Prince and his Ministers in that they have believed them very compatible with their own particular Interests wherefore they have done all they could to contribute to the Elevation of the Presbyterian Government in our Nation which because the same with their own they have naturally had some desire to see established in a Kingdom so able to protect them and which had hitherto been the great impediment to their extirpation in France But to return from this Digression for which I beg your Lordship's pardon to the Marquess de Ruvigny his Instructions were to endeavour to possess the Protestants in general in our Nation which were now my Lord full of fears of some Secret Designs a brewing between the two Kings in prejudice to their Religion and Civil Rights too that they needed not to be so much concerned at Appearances that it was far enough from the thoughts of his Master to make their King great to his Subjects prejudice and that he was not so zealous for the Roman Religion as they might imagine whereof he was to urge several instances and to endeavour to throw off all the odium from him upon the Pope and the Court of Rome and thereby make them level all their Fears Jealousies and odious Reflections that way to the end that by the Royal Church-Party who had the King's ear they might still secure him further in their Interests and have their helping-hand to carry on those Points they aimed at that way viz. the hindring the Princesses matching with the Prince of Orange and the Offensive Alliance so much feared then and now with the Confederates c. But this was but one Party of the Protestants his Instructions also were to make a particular Interest among the Dissenters and such as inclined to them at the same time that in case they were defeated in the one and saw no likelihood of staving off the other they might have them ready prepared to enter the lists against the former and when War was ready to be declared against France to push them on if possible to raise a Civil Combustion at home and to insinuate into them That the King his Master was willing privately to assist them as his Predecessor had done theirs in the late Civil Wars upon occasion c. in which sort of Negotiation the Marquis was effectually enough seconded by his Countrymen Hugonots then in England and particularly by a man of singular Parts and Learning and exceedingly well versed in Intriegue named Monsieur but on the contrary in case they should have been able by the Royal Party to have been strong and successful enough to gain the two said Points and hinder both the Match and the War which was their business and is still in part to oppose they had Orders to have the same Dissenting Party still ready when King Lewis and his Cousins of England should have had that part of their ends of the Conforming Party to make use of them against them if they would not humour them so far as to suffer themselves to be carried quite back to Rome And because all our Protestants however differently denominated should take no umbrage at any of this Court's Proceedings they thought fit once more to let their Sun as they so often term him to cast some warm beams on the Hugonot Party at home and to entertain them awhile with some Courâ—ly Smiles whereby they have designed to amuse our people and at the same time make their own Protestants to be their Instruments to carry on the Divisions of those who while united are their only Protectors for hitherto while they have had War with the Confederates and chiefly with Holland and are in fear of one with England it being yet out of their power to destroy these people they have thought it their interest not to exasperate them whereby they may be tempted to run over to the Enemy but rather for the present to court them and make them serviceable unto them by working in the very Mines which in all human probability are designed to blow them up withal I will not intrude When Captain E returns I should take it as a singular favour to receive a line from your Lordship and particularly your Sentiments of our Home-affairs by him whom I shall expect with utmost impatience who am My Lord Your Lordship 's most Humble Servant Paris Iuly 20. 1678. LETTER XXXVI Of Prince Lobkowitz's being disgraced by the Emperor for Corresponding with the French about the Year 1674. My Lord YOUR Lordship cannot be ignorant that during this Intrieguing in England and Canvassing of Designs against our King and Kingdom the War went on on this side with various success but I find England is not the only Country that has been bubbled by the French Emissaries and had its Secrets betrayed I cannot tell any one part of the Confederates that have been exempted but Germany more particularly has suffered in this kind variously but in nothing so remarkably as in the business of Prince Lobkowitz's being disgraced some time since by the Emperor and which has made so much noise in the World that your Lordship could not but hear of it That he corresponded with this Court there is nothing more certain though when the business was once winded their Emissaries thought it adviseable to be the first Rumorers of it but related the same with Particulars so extraordinary that were scarce credible that thereby they might turn the whole at length into a ridicule But the way of their Correspondence with the said Prince and others in the Empire was so intricate to be fathomed that 't is no wonder the matter
King would be involved in equal Trouble on that Account as on the other For that if she were given to the Prince of Orange without first engaging him in the Interests of France that thereby he would have a double Claim to the Crown that of Course the King his Brother must be drawn into a War with France and that by so doing both the Royal Brethren would lose for ever the French King's Friendship and Support in case of Extremity which they would infallibly be reduced to by such a War or by but making a Shew of it For if it went on whether there were Cause or no there would be Jealousies of the Duke 's Corresponding with France yea and of the King too And that after all such a Match would be interpreted but for a piece of Policy only to hide from the People their Correspondence with France and would never cure their Jealousies nor take off the Fears they had of a Popish Succession by his new Dutchess but add Strength and Courage to them to oppose Remedies against it That thereupon when they had the King once in a War they would not give him any Money to carry it on unless they saw the laying of it out and had in a manner the Administration of the War in their own Hands in which His Highness would be but a Cypher and would never be trusted That then not content with that it was not to be doubted but that the Exclusion of himself and of his Heirs by the Second Bed unless educated in the Protestant Religion would likewise be hotly urged in the next place in favour of a Protestant Prince so doubly Allied to the Crown of England a professed Enemy of France and a Native of Holland the Country next their own so much adored by them That such an Alliance would strengthen that Faction that was already but too strong That such an Exclusion being press'd the King must either grant it or deny it if he granted it as it was to be feared he might then was His Highness and the Heirs of his Religion lost without Recovery and then it would be out of the French King's Power as well as Inclination to assist him after having been so disobliged against the Power of England and Holland united neither could he propose that Advantage to himself be it as it will That if the King should resist the said Importunity about Exclusion that then he would expose himself to the Distractions of a Civil War which might end both in the Ruin of the Royal Family and the Monarchy it self for that the Republicans would not fail to lift up their Crests again in those Troubles And that besides the Interest of the Prince of Orange the Duke of Monmouth being already very popular might be tempted by so fair an Opportunity to put in for a Pretender to the Succession and that it was not impossible that the King if he saw him favoured by the People might be tempted too to prefer the Interest of a Son before that of a Brother and a Brother too for whom he must be necessitated to undergo so much Vexation and Trouble and run so great a Risque to defend That in the mean while England being in a War with France that King instead of helping him must be obliged in his own Defence to foment those Troubles and abet his Enemies That perhaps he might think some of these Fears but imaginary but that His Highness might assure himself they had better Intelligence than he in that Case and were very well satisfied that all the said Parties were ready disposed and had concerted all their Designs against him and that they were abetted by Men of the greatest power and Interest in the three Kingdoms and then of what Power and Influence such plausible and popular Pretensions would be among the People when promoted and advanced by such Men His Royal Highness could not be ignorant of That therefore all summed up and duly compared the Dangers attending the Espousing his Daughter to the Prince of Orange were as great if not considerably greater than those that would be incurred by giving her up to the Disposal of the French King for more could not be feared from that than what had been mention'd Therefore they conjured him as he tender'd his own Good and Safety or that of his Posterity or of his Brother or lastly of the hopeful Beginnings of the Catholick Religion in these Kingdoms that he should be persuaded and also persuade his Brother to take the Council of France both in the Disposal of the Princess and other things relating thereto for that the Danger of adhering to the French King was no greater than that on the other side but that the Assistance on his side would be great and powerful as well as Cordial whereas it never could be in the other Party's Power much less in their Interest or Inclination to afford him any Succour in his Troubles but rather to add Oil to the Flame And above all never to be so rash as to suffer himself to be tempted to consent to a War against France for that the Factions would then have their Ends of him as having a full Opportunity put into their hands thereby to compleat his Ruin without Controul These were the Arguments used to His Royal Highness against the March with the Prince of Orange And with which I shall at present conclude who am My LORD Your Lordship 's Most Humble Servant Paris Aug. 4. 1679. N. S. LETTER LVIII Proposals made to the Duke of York about consenting to have his Daughter the Lady Mary privately Trapanned into France c. My LORD I Gave in my last to your Lordship a Relation of the Remonstrances used to the Duke in general against his consenting to have his Daughter married to the Prince of Orange I shall now endeavour to oblige your Lordship with some new Proposals made to him upon that Head 1. That the Duke should use all the Power and Interest he had with the King his Brother to let his Daughter the Lady Mary take a Voyage into France to take the Waters of Bourbon or else to consent she might be privily sent away by the Duke as against his Knowledge and Will and that then they would get her speedily married which putting things past Retrieve Matters might the better by good Management be composed and made up to all their Satisfactions 2. That to this purpose the French King would send a most splendid Embassy into England of one of the chief Peers of his Realm with a very numerous Train of choice Nobility But if the King consented publickly to that Proposition the Princess might go over in the said Ambassador's Company Or if he gave private Consent she might be conveyed away as in the first Article 3. If the King should by no means consent to it that then the Duke should contrive a Way to get her seized and shipped off at the Ambassador's Departure without
time be interpreted much to his disadvantage by those of other Nations and particularly that there was no hopes to break the said League or to disunite it especially the King of England of whom he conceived the greatest hopes and had the greatest Eye upon as being not only nearest but also most powerful of any of the rest it was resolved to put forth an ample Declaration in Favour of the Reformed which revoked several unjust Judgments given against them and remedied many Important Difficulties and Severities they laboured under whereof they had made their Complaints to the King and which gave them hopes that they should for the future be left to live in Tranquillity and Peace They knew well enough unless this were done there was no very great likelihood to bring our King to their Bow of whom the Parliament had already entertained some Jealousies and who would not fail to be enraged when they came to understand he had entred into an Alliance with a King who gave way to the Oppression of his Protestant Subjects but this specious pretence of the French Indulgence might serve him very well to amuse his Parliament and at the same time to deceive himself and the Protestant Nations in general without might very well believe the French proceedings herein and especially that part of it which related to the Reformed's future Tranquillity were real when they themselves in France were fully perswaded of it and imagined that the Days of Henry IVth were returned upon them again It 's certain there had been considerable Efforts made since our King 's entring into the aforementioned Tripple Alliance to have it further strengthned by the Accession of other Protestant Confederates into it and that there was a certain Person whose Name was Marcilli a Rocheller Born and a Professor of the Reformed Religion that took indefatigable pains in it the true Story of this Man is very odd and falling pat with the Design of this Letter I shall give as concise an Account of it as I can not doubting of your Lordship's kind Acceptance this Person I say taking the Advantage of the Conjuncture of the League between England and Holland and very much doubting of the sincerity of the Declaration made in Favour of the Reformed in France thereupon made his Application to several Protestant Princes about entring into the said Alliance and was no small Instrument to induce the King of Swedeland to come into it which gave occasion of its being called the Tripple League He had been also at our Court and opened the King's Eyes in relation to many things that had been misrepresented to him and wherein he had been imposed upon either by the French Agents or the falsity of his own Ministers of State but these Addresses of Marcilli were not long concealed from the French Court wherefore they took Council and dispatcht away the Mar-Marquess De Ruvigniâ— into England with Instructions to take off those Umbrages our King had taken upon the Conduct of the French Council towards him the Marquess his Religion being a Protestant as well as his Capacity recommended him as the fittest Person to assure the King of the sincerity of the French proceedings and that the Reformed should have all the Justice in the World done them in short the Marquess did his Business so effectually at our Court that tho' he were the Reformed's Deputy-General he had almost Bankrupt his Credit with all the Churches who did not a little resent his Complaisance upon that Head Marcilli having done as he thought his Business in England was gone upon the same Negotiation to the Swiss Cantons not without Directions as 't was believed in France tho' dissembled for a time from our King to induce the Swiss to come into the Alliance whereof when Ruvigni had advertized the French Court the King gave Mareschal Turenne who yet made Profession of the Protestant Religion Orders to Seize him if possible and Kidnap him back into France the Mareschal to disguise the Matter as much as might be and to give as little umbrage of any such Design as was possible pitcht upon Three Officers making Profession of the same Religion with himself to go into Switzerland to Seize him the sameness of Religion between Marcilli and them gave them easie familiarity with him so that at last having got him into a place where he could not be rescued they hurried him into France where he was Tryed forthwith and Condemned the Man during his Imprisonment shewed all the Constancy both of a Brave and Innocent Mind and all the Application of the Judges and Rigour of the Questions put unto him could never make him change his Language but he maintained his Innocence to the last and the Secrets he had been entrusted with by a great Prince whom I have heard some of his very Enemies blame for not interposing in his behalf or afterward resenting of it at all when there were some things put to him in relation to that Princes Person that little suited with his Honour even upon the publick place of Execution just as the poor Man was broken upon the Wheel and now my Lord they had Murdered his Body they went about also to Murder his Fame by giving out that they were forced to expedite his Execution because that having found a piece of Glass in the Prison he cut off his Privy Parts therewith as thinking he might quickly bleed to Death and so be his own Executioner which notwithstanding being soon observed by the Goaler he gave the Officers notice thereof who put him to Death Two Hours after And that France might seem to be sincere at all Points in respect to the Liberty of her Reformed Subjects out came another Declaration in August 1669 inviting all of them that Sojourned abroad or were in the Service of Forreigners back into their Native Country and particularly out of the United Provinces where there were of them great numbers as Officers Soldiers Merchants Seamen c. but tho' they were thus liberal in their Promises to the Reformed and made all the semblance of Sincerity in the World hereupon yet they never ceased underhand to tempt the most Considerable Persons amongst them by large Donatives and Hopes of Preferment to come over to the Church of Rome and what Success they had therein will be the subject of another Letter and so I am My Lord Your Lordship 's most Humble Servant Paris May 23. 1676. N. St. LETTER XI Of the Pervertion of the Prince of Tarent Mareschal Turenne c. to the Romish Religion about the Year 1669. My Lord FRance as I have informed your Lordship in my last having invited her Subjects of the Reformed Religion home out of all quarters the Prince of Tarent who had been settled several Years in the United Provinces and possest of great Employments quitted their Service thereupon and returned to his Native Country where he had not been long arrived but he was Charmed into the Popish Religion and
Game another way and employ'd their Emissaries in Holland to stir up those People to provoke the King's Resentments by all the ways that Artful Malice could devise they caused him to be represented to them as a mean Spirited Prince drowned in Pleasures and by them Bankrupt and that would put up any Affronts rather than be weaned from them a Moment That slender courage he had being Cowed in the last War as likewise were the Spirits of the proudest Merchants and Seamen his Subjects under such an Unactive Prince adding moreover that to their certain knowledge the Duke of York was now a Papist tho' in hugger mugger and that the People had a strong suspition of it how clandestinely soever carried and had thereupon conceived such an implacable Jealousie against the Duke therefore and against the King himself on his account that they would never patiently brook the Command of the one nor heartily assist or fight for the other in a War against a Protestant State but break into Factions and rather abet them then support so Unwarlike so Unfortunate and what was worst of all so Popishly affected a Prince that therefore now was the time to give that finishing stroak to that so Great so Glorious and so Advantageous a Work to their most Puissant and Renowned Republick which they had more than half done in the last War under the favour of the most Powerful Assistance of their great Master Viz. to obtain for ever the dominion of the Seas so highly contended for by the English and ingross the whole Trade of both the Hemispheares to themselves And that in so Glorious an Undertaking As the Great Monarch of France had when in extremity most opportunely and successfully assisted them in the preceding War So he was determined to do in this not with a few Auxilliary Troops and Ships as before But with his whole Force being resolv'd of nothing less than to concur with their High and Mightinesses for the Absolute Conquest of that Queen of Islands that had so long domineered over the Sea and pretended to give Laws upon that Element which God and Nature had left as free as the Air it self And that their High and Mightinesses might enter into no Umbrage of his designing any Greatness to himself that might be prejudicial to them by such a Conquest he was content to share it with them and that so Partially in their Favour that he would satisfie himself with the two Poorer Kingdoms of Scotland and Ireland the former for the sake of its Ancient Alliances with his Kingdom and the latter because of the Conformity of the Religion of its native Inhabitants with that of his own Subjects leaving to them the Principal which was England where all the Chief Trade Riches and Power both by Sea and Land of the Brittish Empire was concentred together with all its goodly dependances both in the East and West Indies with which he could not pretend to meddle the success of which Proposals I design shall be the subject of another Letter with the first opportunity From My Lord Your Lordships most Humble Servant Paris Feb. 28. 1677. N. S. LETTER XX. The Dutch upon the foresaid Remonstrances made to them by the French King being induced to enter into a Treaty with him were wheedled by the French Embassador to sign their part of it and to send it to the French King for him to sign it but he pretending specious delays sends it to the King of England using it for an Argument for his compliance with the Proposals he made to him of entring into a War in Conjunction with him against the States But ordering his Embassador withal to acquaint him that in case of his Refusal he must be obliged to turn the Sham-League with the Dutch into a real one My Lord THE Specious Remonstrances and moâ—e Inviting Proposals made on the French King's part to the Dutch as mentioned in my last to your Lordship so tickled the Hogens that they suffered themselves to be deluded into a close Treaty with the French Court for that great Expedition not at all thinking what Ruine was designed themselves and Division of their own Territories between the French and English was then Modelling among the Monsieurs as a further tentative to induce our King to arm with France against Holland and that the very League the French pretended to be making with them was but the master Stratagem to procure that other Allyance that without the unexpected and timely interposition of Divine Providence had proved the Mene-Tekel of their Flowrishing State and turned that great Magazine of the Trade and Riches of the Universe into a sorry bank of Lillies accordingly they began first to insult our King in his Person by multitudes of most scandalous and insupportable Pasquirades and Pictures which the French Agents endeavouring to make him resent as they deserved and finding still that he declined to comply with their desires alledging again for Answer the ill success of the last War caused chiefly by them the averseness of his People to another War c. And farther his unwillingness only for Injuries that personally concerned himself alone to engage those Nations again in so bloody and destructive a War as after all could be of no very considerable advantage to either side be the event what it would They proceeded then to tempt him further by offering a larger proportion of those Provinces when Conquered and besides such an assistance in Money as should enable him to go through with the War tho' his Parliament should deny their Concurrence with him therein and to make their perswasions the more effectuall they did again warmly ply the Duke of York attacking of him on the blind side Viz. his Religion and telling him that tho' he were privately a Catholick yet the People began to have a strong suspition of it and would at long run come to know it and would not fail then to make such strong brigues against him as that they would certainly put him by the Succession unless before such a Discovery were perfectly made he could induce his Brother to joyn his Arms with those of his Most Christian Majesties for the Conquest of Holland where were the Vitals that Administred Life and Spirits to all those Factions he had to fear and which after the Conquest of that United many-headed Hydra would soon be supprest â—ut could be by no other way and that then the introduction of the Roman Religion into these Kingdoms whenever he should succeed to them would be easie else impossible that his Most Christian Majesty was then provided with such formidable Forces and had laid the Empire into such a Sleep of Security and so amused the other Neighbour Princes with such doubtful and contrary appearances that before they could awake and rub off the dust they had thrown in their Eyes they might have done their work on the Hollanders who least of all the rest expected an Attack and were therefore
or otherwise interrupt the only Powers in Christendom that were able to prevent that Disaster and render it quite of none Effect 6. That his Most Christian Majesty Lewis the XIVth of France had solemnly engaged to his Britannick Majesty the King of England that upon the Condition of a Neutrality agreed by Spain he was willing to relinquish all pretensions to the remainder of the Spanish Netherlands and all the other Dominions of Spain and to get that same Renunciation Signed and Ratified by the Dauphine his Son as well as by himself and to leave no room for any future Jealousies even by the consent and approbation of the Three Estates of his Kingdom whom he would take care to Assemble for that very end and purpose as also by the Parliament of Paris that so all occasions and pretences of any future War between the Two Crowns of France and Spain might be entirely and totally cut off by this one Amicable and Advantageous Concession nay and that rather than fail in this particular his Most Christian Majesty would be brought to re-deliver to the Catholick King even all the Towns Cities and Territories taken from him by France in the last War and keep strictly to the other as well as the Pyrenaean Treaty which was as much as the Spaniards could wish for themselves or had upon any occasion insisted upon 7. That the French King would be punctual to give such strict Orders to his Troops and Armies that in all their Marches through the Countries belonging to the King of Spain they should be so far from being injurious and burdensom to the respective Inhabitants of them that they should receive very great benefit and advantage from them by their exact and liberal paying for what ever they had of them and that he would afterward leave such a firm barrier on all sides the Country as should for ever secure them from all Apprehensions of encroatchments from France or any other Neighbouring Nation whatsoever and that by this means the Spanish Territories would remain very fertil and be filled with Money and all sorts of Rich Commodities whilst the United Provinces would be run down and never be in a condition to molest or annoy them more and what advantage and security that would be to them they themselves could tell and a remembrance of former experiences in that kind must needs corroborate and add strength to the same 8. That there was no just cause of Jealousie to be entertained or any great Reason to fear the growing greatness of the Kingdom of France upon such an occasion for that the accession of strength which by such means might in some degree happen to her would be much more than ballanced by that which would accur to England by which his Britannick Majesty would become a much more powerful Assistant to Spain and the Spanish Territories against any Violations of Treaties that might afterward upon any account whatsoever happen to be offered by the French then he could be at this juncture of time even tho joyned with the Republick of Holland and yet rid the Catholick King even at the same time of such a dishonourable as well as dangerous Ally as Holland was at present and which would certainly prove within a small Revolution of Years a destructive Enemy also if they were not now in this favourable nick of time obstructed and throughly prevented 9. That the King of Swedland who was the other Crowned head that had engaged himself in the Triple Alliance for the protection and security of the Spanish Netherlands was likewise of the same mind and disposition to remain Neuter in the present case unless he were provoked to joyn with the French and English But that however he would at the same time joyn and sincerely concur with his Britannick Majesty for the guaranty of this desired and useful Neutrality with France that both Kings would be ready to enter into a League Offensive and Defensive with the Crown of Spain to assist the same with their full force and whole power against any manner of infractions that should happen to be made or fall out against this or any other former Treaty or Treaties on the part of France whatsoever 10. And Lastly That the French King was ready and willing to accept their guaranty and not only so but freely to permit the Emperor of Germany and other of the German Princes that could be brought to stand Neuters and were willing to enter into the same to be made Partners therein that all the World as well as the Council of Spain might be convinced beyond all suspitions to the contrary of his Most Christian Majesties as well as the King of England's sincerity in that matter These my Lord were the instructions Mr. Coleman had and the Topicks he was to go upon for the carrying on this pretty Design but how far he put the same in practise that I could never learn but he was not the only Engine they imploy'd for that purpose they had their Agents in Spain it self who did their utmost to effect this Neutrality of which I may be able to give your Lordship an account another time In the mean while I am My Lord Your Lordships most Humble and most Obedient Servant Paris July 24. 1677. N. S. LETTER XXIII A farther Argument used at the Court of Spain by the French Agents to perswade that Nation to a Neutrality My Lord TO the Topicks used by Mr. Coleman and other French Emissaries of which I have given your Lorship an account already to perswade the Spaniards to a Neutrality they judged fit to superadd another to be more particularly and closely insisted upon at the Court of Spain it self alledging that the ruine of the Republick of Holland was very necessary as upon other accounts so more especially in that thereby the King of England who was so well enclined to the Roman Catholick Religion and only wanted an opportunity to declare for it and to have the Glory to Establish it in His Dominions which had now for above an Age and half groaned under the burden of a pestilent Heresie would become so much master of his Subjects that he would be in a condition without any danger to himself and the Royal Family to introduce the same Roman Catholick Religion into his Kingdoms again which great and glorious as well as meritorious Work the Catholick King and those who had the Administration of his Dominions ought to have to heart above all other Interests and Considerations whatsoever especially since this would enable the Crown of England to do Spain many good and friendly offices in the Court of Rome as well as elsewhere and be a means to ballance the French Faction there when they should take upon them as they frequently did to oppose the Interests and Advantages of the House of Austria as Henry the VIIIth and other Kings of England had formerly done before the Schism broke out and their Kingdom came to be overspread
or Six Millions of Livres allowed him with all convenient Speed towards the Payment of his Debts and the Retrieving of his lost Credit The Success of which Remonstrances and Proposals both from the King and Duke your Lordship may perhaps be informed of another time by My LORD Your Honour 's Most humbly devoted Servant Paris Mar. 16. 1680. N. S. LETTER LIV. Giving an Account how far the French complied with the King and Duke's Remonstrances for Money and how the same was resented by them My LORD YOur Lordship may refresh your Memory by calling to mind what I have some time since writ to you concerning the King and his Brother the Duke's pressing of this Court for the Remittances agreed on and what further Additions they wanted for Negotiating of Businesses then in Agitation with Coleman's Countermine to part of their Designs I am now further to acquaint your Honour that the fore-mentioned Importunities together with those Cautions of Coleman produced this Effect that they sent about half as much Money as they had advanced at first to each of them telling them at the same time that the Most Christian King's Conveniency would not admit of a larger Remise at present neither could he do it with that Privacy he would but by his Jews at Genoâ—a and therefore desired them to make what shift they could with that Proportion till the Event of the Parliament was seen whether it were Prorogued or no. But to the Duke they more particularly told that if what was then remitted would not serve turn and that he wanted more rather than baulk his Designs he might venture hardily on the Most Christian King's Word to lay out of his own Store that he should certainly be re-paid again at the time mentioned with an Overplus And that as for the Conversions he spake of they waved them and said Father la Chaise and that Society had provided now a Fund for that Work without troubling them But to Coleman not mentioning the Motion about Conversions they only sent a good Gratuity for the Prorogation before and about the Sum of Twenty Thousand Crowns Advance Extraordinary in order to hire an House and to do other things in order to the Corrupting of Parliament-men c. If he saw likelihood of it he was to have 000 Crowns more for to try Events if he succeeded he was promised 0000 besides and for a Prorogation when judged necessary for so long as desired another very considerable Sum not particularly mentioned How far any of the fore-mentioned Persons did proceed by way of Compliance with this Court I know no otherwise for the present than thus in general that they have noted the two Royal Brothers were a little disheartned to see their Friends on this side so backward to supply them but that however considering the Plausibility of the French Excuses and their own pressing Necessities but more especially the King 's they not only took what was sent them but resolved also to proceed to oblige the Messiurs as much as they could to the end they might induce them by Performances to send them more The Effects of which dangerous Complaisance to say no worse of it the Nation has but too much felt already and God knows where it will terminate I am sure your Lordship cannot but think it bodes ill as does My LORD Your very Humble and most Obedient Servant Paris Iune 4. 1680. N. S. LETTER LV. Of the Methods the Iesuites used to promote Conversions in England and how St. Germain attempted King Charles II. With his Answer c. My LORD I Need not tell your Lordship that Father St. Germain a Jesuite and one called out on purpose by the French King's Confessor was the head Manager of Conversions as they called them and of their other wicked Designs upon our Country under the covert of that and who having gained Coleman now a fellow Domestick into a close Confidence and Compliance with him soon found means to procure several other fit Complices among the most considerable Orders and Parties of Men in the Kingdom whether seated in or resorting to the famous Metropolis thereof and the better to draw in the Men they were very industrious in plying the Women of Quality most fit for intreague to declare themselves for their Church and under that pretence to make so many Partizans for France as they could whose Grandeur chiefly they had in view as to the best of my remembrance I have noted once and again to your Lordship And not that of the Pope of Rome or his Religion which was only to serve for a Covert to the other to the end their Practices might not be discovered or countermined by the other foreign Ministers of that Communion And so good success they had in those Jugling-proceedings that it bred in them indeed too much confidence of their going through with the rest of their Work with the same ease and so made them guilty of the weaknesses of an over-hasty bragging and betraying of the Secrets of their Measures which in so jealous a Nation as England is for a Jesuite and a French one too to do it was a very great Error in Policy for St. Germain and his Gang having met with such success in their work as they dreamed not of they hence after having made sure of the Duke took the confidence to attempt the King himself and were as they imagined heard very favourably by him having been often told by him in Complement that he looked upon their Religion as the most politick and that they had really made him so much a Convert as to think that the Protestant Religion produced but ill Subjects c. But finding for all this that the effect was not answerable to the hopeful and favourable incouragement that he could not be brought actually to declare for them they oftentimes railed at him in private in England and when any of them came over hither occasionally the mildest Character they could give of him was That he was a Prince that looked upon all Religion as a politick Cheat to keep the World in awe c. but this was afterwards for before upon such Complements from the King as aforesaid they were so over joy'd that it did indeed make them indiscreet upon it so far as to make it almost their common and ordinary Discourse not only to those already fixed in their Opinion and that were of a stay'd and reserved Temper but even to new Converts and baulling talkative Women nay and inserted it in their Letters too both In-land and Foreign that they had gained both Duke and King to their Religion that they had fished in the British Ocean with such wonderful success that they fished now only for the greater Fish of all leaving the small Fry to come of themselves having already catcht two Royal Fishes the Dolphin and Tung with many such like Expressions and it was very ordinary with them in Conferences of Controversies when they saw other Arguments
heard it more than whisper'd here for a general Revolt of the Irish Natives in their favour whom they had provided to succour on a sudden without declaring War or the least Intimation beforehand of their Designs to the King But now having prevail'd with him to make such Advances as he has begun against the said famous Act which they have looked upon as it were the Band of Peace not only to Ireland but even to the Three Nations and perhaps they are right enough in their Judgment they believe they have hereby put him on a Point that will quickly bring him into Distress enough to need them and consequently to the necessity of taking his future measures from them expecting henceforward a more implicite Complyance than ever Thus my Lord have they laid their Foundation the Success and Event Time must determine but from such undermining Politicians Good Lord deliver England c. for the Dangers which threaten both its Religion and Civil Liberty are very great tho' I hope not inevitable Pardon the freedom in these Particulars of him who is and ever shall remain ready to please your Lordship to the utmost of my power and cannot but subscribe himself My Lord Your Honour 's most humble and most obedient Servant Paris Mar. 26. 1687. LETTER XXXII Of K. James's Closetting several Persons and the Arguments he was advis'd to use to them to consent to the Abrogating of the Penal Laws and Test. My Lord YOur Lordship for ought I know may know much better than I can inform you what Arguments the King has us'd to such as have been lately Closetted by him and if Fame be not a you are one of that number for a List of them is not yet come into our but I can transmit into your Hands what has been concerted here in the nature of Instructions to the French Emissaries at White-Hall hereupon they were to represent to the King and he to the closetted Gentlemen That there were four Kings who had endeavour'd to bring the Kingdom of England into an Uniformity in Religion that so the People might live in Amity one with another and notwithstanding all the Expedients tho' seemingly very likely to take effect and succeed according to wish which wise Politicians had suggested from time to time yet they had hitherto proved abortive and their Endeavours had been in vain That therefore the only way left for to settle Tranquillity in a State so as to be no more to be disturb'd about Religion was to grant every one the freedom fully to enjoy his own That such an Iudulgence of all Religions in Holland was as much a cause of the flourishing of that State in Wealth and Greatness and more than any other that could be assign'd and to say that such a Liberty tho' it might be compatible enough with a Republick was not yet with Monarchical Governments was a gross Mistake and Experience shewd it to be quite otherwise both in the Turkish Empire Kingdom of Persia and elsewhere where the Greek and Armenian Christians have been tolerated in their Religion for many Ages and yet have been so far from being mutinous or Disturbers of the respective States they have liv'd under that they are great Supporters of them especially the Armenians who are almost the only Merchants they have in that mighty and extensive Kingdom of Persia That the Persecutions which our Nonconformists in England have from time to time been under had been the cause of the flight of many good Subjects beyond the Seas of whom our neighbouring Nations drew great and solid Advantages and that those who have staid at home have by reason of the Pressures they have labour'd under provd uneasie and turn'd Malecontents and if they have not had Virtue and Constancy enough patiently to suffer under their Misfortunes they were alwaies ready to favour Revolts and enter into Factions whereof they had seen fatal effects in the late Reigns from which no King could be able to secure his Person and his Subjects but that uneasie and turbulent Spirits would be alwaies ready under Pretence of Religion which they abused to disturb and molest them Which Reasons the King was to back closely with large Promises of Favour and if he found any obstinate to mix his Reasons and Promises with some Intimations of his Displeasure and upon an absolute Refusal to proceed to divest some of their Places under him and to alledge for a Reason of his so doing That it was not reasonable that they who refused their Services should enjoy his Favours and that if hereupon any should be so audacious as to tell him That this Practice of his was irregular and contrary to the Freedom which the Laws of the Land allow'd to them especially as Members of Parliament whose Suffrages ought to be spontaneous and free they were to be put in mind that they had forgot the Violences used by King Henry VIII upon the like occasions and the methods so many other Kings had put in practise to engage their Parliaments to subscribe to their Wills that they might consider that two of the most famous Parliaments that ever were in the Kingdom of England had authoriz'd this Conduct in the Reign of Edward III and King Richard II when some of the Pope of Rome's Bulls were contested as being looked upon too much to entrench on the King's Prerogative that the Parliament prayed King Edward and obliged Richard almost against his Will to give their Consent by particular Conferences with the Members to promise to use the utmost of their Power to maintain the King's Prerogative and the Rights of the Crown against that See c. But if that after all the King should find that neither Arguments Promises Threats nor Examples would do he was advis'd to proceed in his Brother's Steps by â—uo Warranto and so to concert measures with those that presided over Elections for the regulating of Corporations whereon they depended tho' this was by far the more tedious way but yet there was one way to hasten it for whereas new Charters in his Brother's time granted in lieu of the old ones were many of them retarded because the Court-Officers insisted upon too much Mony the King now might give positive Directions to such persons to dispatch them without such Considerations with a Promise to gratifie them another way and if he found that would not do then he was to cashier such Officers and put others in their room who would engage to do the business to effect I am afraid my Lord I have wearied you with an impertinent Letter and therefore if an abrupt conclusion will any way mend the matter I remain My Lord Your Lordship 's most humble Servant Paris Nov. 19. 1687. N. S. LETTER XXXIII Of my Lord Castlemain's being sent Ambassador to Rome by K. James and of his receiving the Pope's Nuncio in England My Lord THAT my Lord of Castlemain was sent Ambassador to Rome has been transacted wholly on your
Interest as I mentioned to your Lordship in my my last have failed tho' he were briskly seconded therein by the Lord Marquess of Powis the Pope's Nuntio and Emperor's Minister whose Reasons or rather Remonstrances to the King upon that Head for want of better Intelligence I shall at present take notice of to your Lordship as entred in our Minutes and which indeed were such that 't is a wonder he should withstand them sed quem Deus 1. They prest it very home upon him That such a War against the States of Holland could not be attempted with any apparent Advantage to his Majesty without a junction with the French Power which yet in all human Probability would never enable him to conquer those Provinces since both the Crown of Spain and the Emperor nay the Empire would be obliged to protect them to war with whom especially with Spain whose Trade as he well knew was most beneficial to England of any in the World would be attended with such manifest Disadvantage as all the Power of France were that King a faithful Ally would never be able to make the Nation amends for and that supposing he should be able to conquer the said Republick by the Assistance of the French Arms yet to conquer it by French Force would necessarily but make himself as well as that Nation a Tributary and Underling of France 2. That in all likelihood a War with Holland and against the House of Austria would disgust his Subjects and set them all against him yea and perhaps move some hot Spirits to form Designs to dispossess him of his Throne or at least so far to make Opposition as to knock on the Head all his fine Projects for the Advancement of his own Religion in England and engaging of his very Catholick Subjects against him 3. That if his Majesty intended the re-establishment of the Catholick Faith in England it was to be considered that the same was a Work of Time and required great Moderation but that they were sure the hot and furious Methods of France and the Jesuits would never effect it 4. That to them for the effectual bringing about of the said Work there seemed a kind of necessity that he should stay till the Discords between the Catholick Princes were so far appeased as to be without Danger of breaking out in a long Time for that all their Concurrence would be found to be little enough to enable him to accomplish his Ends therein 5. That if he should chuse rather to enter into a strict Allyance with the House of Austria against the French he would thereby render himself secure of his People's Hearts and Affections of the Dutch Naval Force to strengthen him at Sea as occasion required and of all the other Allies Forces to divert the French Armies by Land And that if he should lose upon that account as 't was likely any Remittances from France they assured him the Pope would allow him a much better Pension to countervail it and that being engaged against France his People would be so intent against the French and upon that War so agreeable to their Inclination that they would not be so very jealous of and so prying into the Advances he should make in the Change of Religion at Home and that if by that means than which nothing could be thought on more feasible he could not settle that Religion he might at least secure it and make Matters easie to those of his own Perswasion 6. That if his Majesty persisted to make War against Holland which would inevitably draw on one with the House of Austria if his Arms did not prevail so far as to come to an entire Conquest he was certainly ruined and all the Catholicks in the three Kingdoms along with him without resource and would perish unpitied and without any Hopes or possibility of Succour from any Catholick Princes but the French King alone and that if on the contrary as it was the most unlikely thing in the World he should prevail to a Conquest over Holland and his own Country that yet thereby he should under the colour of an imaginary establishment of the Catholick Religion in the Brittish Kingdoms but settle an irreligious Tyrant over all Christendom worse to the Catholick Religion and Christianity in general than any Heretick in the World nay than the very Turk himself and who would insolently trample upon the Pope's as well as his Fellow Princes Power and set up a new Empire and a new Religion of a third sort neither Catholick nor Protestant but such as suited with his own ambitious Designs as the Steps he had already made that way did sufficiently declare And so instead of resettling the Roman Catholick Religion where it had lost Ground and in the Soil of Great Britain which would prove but a Quick-Sand to it he would destroy it all over Europe where it was now established in terra Firma c. I le leave it to the Decision of your Lordship's Judgment whether these or the French Remonstrances carried most of Reason Probability and Truth in them as I ever shall all that comes from My Lord Your Honours most humble and obedient Servant Paris Apr. 30. 1688. LETTER XXXVIII Of the Differences continued between the Pope and the French King and of King James sending am Embassador to Rome to reconcile them My Lord I Have already transmitted to your Lordship the Contents of his Holiness's Letters to the French King about the Regale and Franchises but there seems now to be a Disposition in these two high stomach'd Princes to come to an accommodation and the Conjuncture of Time lies so to the Heart of this Court that I am apt to believe they will precipitate an Agreement however because their forwardness therein might be disguised as much as French Policy could effect they have by their Agents insinuated to our King That an Embassy to Rome from him about accommodating of the foresaid Differences must be very grateful to his Holiness who paid more deference to his Majesty and would further regard his Mediation than any Prince in Christendom and that tho' the French Court stood very stiff upon their Rights yet it was not to be doubted but as they had so high a Valuation for his Friendship at all Times and Occasions so he might be confident that in so critical a Juncture of Time they would not be so purblind as not to see wherein their true Interest consisted It was no sooner my Lord proposed to the King but accepted by him and my Lord Howard is already arrived in this Kingdom in his Way to Italy as the King's Embassador extraordinary on this Errand but notwithstanding this Court has so far prevailed by their Artifices in England to procure the Kings Mediation yet an Accident if it may be called so has lately happened at Rome which may perhaps blast all the blooming Hopes entertained from this mighty Negotiation For Monsieur Lavardin Embassador from
Dominions that were Romdâ—-Catholicks and especially Frenchmen would wound his Reâ—â—tation very deep and quite alienate the Nations Affections from him and be a confession of all the Rumors which had been seatter'd abroad of a private League made between him and France for oppressing both the Liberty and Religion of his Country And besides the King had Forces enough of his own and to spare for the resisting of all the Efforts of Holland That his Fleet alone was able to stop them and that let it be as it would his Land Army could not fail of being Conquerors over them being both much more numerous and withal better disciplin'd had entirely fixed him in the said Resolution I do not question but this Court will do the Earl all the Disservice they can for spoiling so brave an opportunity of their getting â—ooting with their Troops in England however he has served his Country and deserves well of it whatever his Fate may be I am My Lord Yours in all humble Observance Paris Nov. 2. 1688. N. S. LETTER XLIX Of Mr. Skelton's Negotiations in France with the Reasons of his being recoeli'd and committed Prisoner to the Tower of London My Lord I Cannot conceive but they are as much in the dark with you about Mr. Skelton's Imprisonment in the Tower upon his arrival in England as they are concern'd for it here I have already given your Lordship an account of some of his Negotiations both in Holland and at this Court and with your Honour's leave shall endeavour a little further to unriddle this Mystery of his Imprisonment When all the Arguments of this Court used by Monsieur Bonrepos to induce the King to admit of some French Troops into his Country under pretence of assisting him against the Prince of Orange were obviated by my Lord S 's Remonstrances and Assiduities you cannot conceive the concernedness that appeared here at the grand Disappointment Mr. Skelton was almost oppress'd with Enquirers into the reason of such a Procedure not knowing well then from what Quiver the Arrow was taken that shot down the Goliah of all their Hopes of once nestling in England who examin'd interrogated him and almost laid it to his charge that their Advice was not follow'd But having at length found it to be otherwise they resolved to put him upon another Expedient mention'd first by himself to serve his Master as they said tho' nothing is more certain than that it is their own Interest they design'd mainly thereby For one day after Monsieur de Croissy had prest him hard still to sollicite his Master to accept of the Troops and Ships offered him by France and that Mr. Skelton answer'd That it was in vain he having Orders to meddle no further in that matter and therefore durst not move in it He also added That yet he was of Opinion that if his most Christian Majesty would order his Ambassador to acquaint the States-general what share he took in the Affairs of the King his Master and to threaten to attack them in case they undertook any thing against him he did believe that would quickly put a stop to the intended Invasion and spoil the Measures the Prince of Orange had concerted thereupon without giving the English occasion to complain their King had called in Foreigners into their Country That this would be an effectual means to keep part of the King's Enemies on this side the Sea and they might have leisure enough to break off the Cabals which the other formed at home against him This Discourse made Monsieur de Croissy hasten to acquaint the King with it who liked it so well that he immediately dispatched away a Courier to Monsieur the Count d'Avaux his Ambassador at the Hague with Orders to declare to the United Provinces That they could not attack the King of England who was so intimate a Confederate with him but that he must be obliged to succour him with all the Assistance he could The States having paused a little for an Answer to this Memorial and presently upon it being encounter'd with another from the Marquess de Albeville the English Ambassador there they answered the latter They were long since convinced of the League between the two Kings That they had armed in Imitation of other Princes c. which being interpreted here that the States were resolved to go on with the Invasion It raised the Expectations of this Court that the tender of their Troops would be still accepted of by the King But the vigilance and sagacity of my Lord S disjointed also this Project and ended in the Recalling and Imprisonment of Mr. Skelton for moving in an Affair for which he had no Orders And this also my Lord has stopped Verace the Genevese whom I have formerly mentioned to your Lordship who is come to Paris from proceeding on his Journey for London as supposing it to no purpose to give such Informations as would not be regarded and he is now I hear about returning back to his own Country I hope things are well with your Lordship in these times of difficulty had it been otherwise I do suppose I should have heard it that I might have stopped my Intelligence and that all may continue to be well with you is the unfeigned Desire of My Lord Your Lordships most obedient Servant Paris Nov. 8. 1688. N. S. LETTER L. Of the Prince of Orange's landing in England and Success with King James's Speech to his Chief Officers My Lord THo' the French Arms this year have had mighty success on the Rhine yet the landing of the Prince of Orange in England without any opposition and the success he has met with since his arrival together with the desection of some Horse to him under my Lord Cornbury tho' they say here but a very small number has damped all their Rejoycings And indeed if we may judge of their Hearts by their Looks we may see plainly that they have given over not only their own Game on that side of the Water for lost but that they look upon that of the Kings so too almost beyond all hopes of recovery but yet that they may make some semblance of Zeal still for his Service their Creatures have advised him to call together his chief Officers and to tell them That he had given Orders for the calling together of a Free Parliament as soon as a more setled time would give him room to hope for such That he had resolved to provide for the Security of the Religion Liberties and Privileges of his Subjects as far as they themselves could desire or wish for Could there any more he expected from him he was ready to grant it but desired if after all this there was any one dissatisfied that they might declare it That he was ready to give unto such as thought not fit to tarry with him Pasports to go to the Prince of Orange and that he would freely pardon them their shameful Treason This Speech and the effects