WE may say, without ag­gravating the matter, that for a hundred years last past there have not been seen so Puissant and so Numerous Armies in a Campagne, as in this present Year; which seemed to give good hopes [Page 4] to the Allies, and promised them most happy success. But the equality of the Enemies Forces, and the Conduct of the French having balanced their courage, there has been a necessity of remitting part of the success to the Year ensuing. However, the Spanish Netherlands may boast of their fertility, in having been able to feed within their own bowels three hundred thousand Men, and a hundred thousand Horses, besides their own In­habitants, and that during this whole Campagne, tell such time as they are be­come in a condition of doing the like again, and of doing the Confederates the same service another Year.

Whilest the Field was thus covered with Forces of all sorts, we have seen the Channel adorn'd and covered too with a hundred and fifty great men of War, the most beautiful and most magnificent that ever appear'd upon the water: Particularly with the French Royal Sun, one of the wonders of the age, admired by all the World, both for the exquisiteness of her Carving, and the beauty of her Shape, having employ'd for almost twenty years [Page 5] the most skilful Ship-wrights of Europe, not to mention the number and the size of her Guns, the splendor of her Decora­tions, nor the delicacy of her Painting, which made her of immense value, and gained her the glorious Title of l'Unique sur l'Onde; i. e. the Non-such of the Sea; besides that her Master Lewis the Great seemed to have put her out to Sea to no other end, then to take possession of that vast Empire.

But that which seems yet more consi­derable in this Campagne, is that it has been Honoured with the presence of three Kings of France. One of which ended, before he had well begun it; the second rush't through it like a rapid Torrent, carrying along with it whatever it finds in it's way; the third taking sure marches, disappointed the design of the first, put a stop to the impetuosity of the second; and made good his own career, not fear­ing to look the Enemy in the face, when need requir'd. But let us unfold this Riddle.

We have seen this year three Kings in the Field, all styling themselves Kings of

France; William King of Great Britain in Flanders at the head of the Confederate Army: Lewis the French King in the Province of Namur, at the head of a hundred and thirty thousand French and Swisse: and the fugitive King James, at the head of fifteen or sixteen thousand men upon the Coasts of Normandy, ha­ving as a malignant Star, the Marshal of Belfonds for Director-General. But tho the last of the three made no farther Pro­gress, then to the Sea-coast, he has not­withstanding let all Europe see what it is he would be at; but the Bridge, over which he would have passed, being unfor­tunately broken, and the Providence of God blasting his great undertakings, we have seen them, after a great deal of pains taken in them, prove abortive, and his Army dispersed before it was well gathered together, without having done any thing but Exercising, in order to be the more fit for the same expedition the year ensu­ing. In the mean time the party, which the French had formed in England, known by the name of the Jacobites, have seen all their blessed Expectations dash't to [Page 7] peices in a moment, and have got nothing by the bargain but the having more and more discovered themselves. As King James opened the Campagne, we think it proper to give him the Precedence in these Memoires, and to begin with him first.

The Irish War having been ended last year by the Courage and Conduct of the Earl of Athlone, the French saw them­selves frustrated of the great hopes they had conceived of keeping up the Ball on that side, to keep King William busy with­in his own Dominions, and prevent his coming in Person into the Low-Countries, and thereby of giving the French an op­portunity to possess themselves of those places, which it was necessary for them to take in order to induce the Allies to consent to a Peace, which all men know Lewis the fourteenth thirsts impatiently after, and imploys his utmost endeavours to effect it both at Rome and in the North, by the mediation of the Kings of Sweden and Denmark.

Since King James abandon'd Ireland, nay and before the business of the Boyn, [Page 8] his neglecting the opportunity of rea­scending his Throne, or of putting an end to his Misfortune by a glorious Death, has made the Court of France look upon him with a heavy and disdainful Eye, be­cause they found he could be of no farther use to them. Upon his return to St. Ger­mains we may well imagin that Lewis the fourteenth would very gladly have got rid of him, if some punctilio of Honour had not been in the way, rather then as the Critical History Observes, a grewing Amour betwixt him and King James's Queen: but I can easily be so charitable as to ascribe his entertaining him, to the prospect and hopes he had of fomenting from time to time through his means some division in England. And it is notorious that King James, to fulfil his Expectation that Protects him, has endeavoured and does incessantly endeavour to keep up his party in England, deeply wounded as it is, to render himself serviceable to the Court of France, and that he may not be forced to repair to Rome, to fill up the place that's become vacant there by the Death of Queen Christina. This unfortunate Prince [Page 9] design'd a Voyage for England, with som [...] poor wretches that remain'd of the Irish Rapparees, and designed to be furnished over and above with some disciplin'd Troops, a General, Ships and Mony; to keep imploy'd those poor Irish, whom the distemper of the Country had already seized on, and who longed as earnestly after their Irish Potatoes as the Children of Israel did after the Onyons and Garlick of Egypt. Their murmurings were indeed frequently appeased, by the punishments inflicted upon some or other of their fel­lows. But that would not do the work; there was a necessity of employing them. And by joyning them and the Jacobite Party in England into a body, there was ground to hope for some considerable suc­cess, or at least that a Civil-war would have ensued in England, which would have enforced the King of great Brittain to stay on that side the water, and, which was the chief thing the French aim'd at, to recal his best Troops from Flanders for the preservation of his three Kingdomes at home. To this end the Jacobites labour'd all last Winter with the utmost [Page 10] application, to increase the number of their party; and the better to guild over the Pill, which they made them swallow; they promised to the Protestants in general without Exception, saving of two or three Persons, Liberty of Conscience, As ample and large as the Sleeve of an Augustin-Fryer; and that they who had given the King ill Counsel, whilest he was upon the Throne, should not be permitted to re­turn into England, but that in their stead others should be imploy'd who were ac­ceptable to the People. They promised to the Presbyterians in particular, that Honours and Employments should be open to all, without regard had to mens persons or Religions. They whisper'd the Epis­coparians that they should have the sole power in their hands, and that the King would re-establish Episcopacy in Scotland with beat of Drum. To the Fanatiques all was yielded that their own shallow brains, or their imagination could suggest: but for the zealous Roman Catholicks, the Queen's best beloved Friends, an earthly Paradise was to be open to them, an absolute Empire stood waiting for them. [Page 11] These fair and glittering promises, how vain and illusory soever they were, yet made some impression; especially upon such as having nothing of their own to loose, hoped to make their Fortune under a change of Government, or by plunder: Others in better circumstances, not having obtain'd all under the present Goverment that their Ambition prompted them to ex­pect, and that they conceiv'd to be their due, for having been amongst the first that submitted to it, fed themselves with these gaudy Expectations. In the mean time whilest several Jesuites in disguise, and the Jacobitish party in England went on with some success; King James and the Councel of France took so sure mea­sures, as they thought, that not only the two Kings were of opinion that they could not possibly miscarry; but even the Mi­nisters of France in the Courts of Den­mark and Sweden, upon the assurances they received from their Master, repre­sented the matter as already done; inso­much that they laid considerable wagers that King James would be restored to his Government in less then three Months [Page 12] time. But those honest Gentlemen had the regret of loosing both their money and their pains, and saw all their flattering hopes vanish into Air. I mention this circumstance only to show that the E­missaries of France made no secret of it, nor spoke it softly, but mentioned it as a Triumph al-ready obtain'd by Lewis they Great; and it is certain they had a design in publishing it in the Northern Courts.

Whilest matters were preparing on this side, the Reverend Fathers of the Society belabour'd the same matter at Rome, and we may say it to their Honour, that they are never Lazy, when their Interest is at stake. To this end they made use of all their Rhetorick to get some mony from Innocent the twelfth; who, as appears by his carriage, is a good honest man at bot­tom, but a very mean Politicion; and altogether unaquainted with the Affaires of the World, and who has nothing less in him then a dexterity in Temporal busi­ness; quite different ftom his Predecessors, who understanding the Interest of the Holy See better then he, and having a truer notion of the means of obtaining [Page 13] a solid and durable peace in Christendom, made no great account of King James his Embassies, and would give no Ear to any propositions made by the French E­missaries; but the good old Gentleman that now is, being not well informed of his own Interest, makes it appear, tho he be a Neapolitan, that he has but little regard to the Interest and prosperity of the House of Austria, insomuch that it is commonly said; if he understand his Pastoral Office no better then he does his Temporal Interest, woe be to the Sheep of his Flock. The Holy Father was so easie at the beginning of the Campagne, as to be caught into the snare, and espouse the Interest of King James his Restaura­tion: he opened in favour of him the Treasure and the Prayers of the Church, so that to appearance things began to go on the Jacobites side, according to their own hearts desire. The Pope had engaged his Pontifical word, that if the design proceeded well, he for his part would do all that could be expected from a good Father: that is to say, that he would disburse out of the Revenue of St. Peter [Page 14] towards the compleating it. The French King supplyed Ships, Troops and Lovis d'ores; so that nothing was wanting but to cross the Sea and make a step over the Channel; but to bring this great under­taking to perfection, it was necessary a­bove all things to dispose the People of England to receive King James. This the Jacobites laboured (as who doubts it?) with great application: and a little fire began to kindle, the sparks whereof flew about in divers parts of the Kingdome. The Roman Catholicks were not the only persons that engaged in the design: they had some of the Clergy themselves in their Interest and Party (Children of Darkness) who out of a pretended nicety of Con­science could not forsooth! take the same Oath to two Kings, both alive at the same time; men who veil'd under the deceit­ful Masque of Hypocrisie a treacherous mind, and treasonable practises; and made no scruple of Conscience to countenance and side under hand with a party of Rap­perees, accompanied with French Incen­diaries, who were endeavouring to force their entrance into England with a Torch [Page 15] in one hand and a Sword in the other, to put all the Kingdom into Fire and Blood. These Men are like those fickle uncertain People, who for the most part know not what they would have, or be at: I would advise them to follow the Example of a wise Pagan Philosopher, who made it his daily Prayer to the Gods, to do him good thô he desired it not of them, and not to do him harm, thô he desired it: But these are Men that walk upon a moveable Sand, that's never at rest, wandring Stars, driven with every Wind, or like impetuous waves of the Sea, which are in a continual motion, and break themselves upon the Rocks; thô I could wish for their own sakes that there were nothing worse in them, then fickle­ness and ignorance. There must be some­thing more in it, since Reason cannot re­claim them, and many of them would not care thô they saw their Countrymens Blood run down the Streets, provided their own head strong passions were but gratified.

Whilest King James his Emissaries were going to and fro in England, the French King was equipping a Squadron of sixteen great Ships of War, a great many Fire-Ships, [Page 16] and two Frigats for Bombing, at Thoulon, to keep the Design the more se­cret by reason of the distance of the Place, which the Count d'Estrees was commanded to Sail with into the Channel, and not to cruise in the Mediterranean upon the Spa­niards, as the French caused it to be bruited: quite contrary, they were designed to be a Convoy to the Transport Ships, which were to waft King James his Troops into England about the end of March or the beginning of April, and to Convoy them thither, under the protection of the French Fleet, which Vice-Admiral Tourville commanded in the Channel, to prevent the joyning of the Dutch and the English, and to Fight what ever should offer to obstruct the Pas­sage of the Count d'Estrees: But the Pro­vidence of God interposed for the safety of England in sundry respects; in putting a stop to the Count d'Estrees in the very pro­secuting of his Voiage; the same Provi­dence order'd the Winds and the Rocks to fight him; in which rencounter two of the largest of his Ships perished on the Coast of Africa, about Ceuta; the rest, though miserably shatter'd, eseaped and [Page 17] went to Portugal to refit: So that instead of being at Brest by the beginning of April, the Count arrived not there till the begin­ing of July, to be a Witness of the Defeat of the Fleet that the Marquess of Tourville commanded: The Count d'Estrees at his arrival, found contrary to his expectation, that all was gone to wrack in the Channel, and durst not come up himself, but was a bare Spectator as shall be said hereafter.

The two Royal. Allies, who could not foresee what would come to pass, had ti­me whilest the coming up of the Count d'Estrees was retarded, to finish all neces­sary preparations, and the Hollanders like­wise had. time to joyn the English. On the other side, the Embarking so many Men could be no longer kept secret, when it was upon the point of being put in execution; and therefore the Jacobites could no longer contain the excess of their joy; and scrupled not to make the Design publick: and addressed themselves chiefly to such as expressed some discontents un­der the present Goverment; exhorting them in the name of God, and of their Lawful King (so they called King James) [Page 18] to encourage his return to the Goverment; and to be ready in every County to meet in Arms, as soon as they should hear of his Landing, to oppose the Train-bands of the Counties, and such Forces as the King or the Queen of Great Britain would un­doubtedly send to put a stop to King James his march to London. For the furthering of this Design the zealous Jacobites, and other persons unknown, had for some time before bought the greatest part of the best Horses that could be found at all the Fairs in the Kingdom: and they had the cun­ing to set them up in Inn-keepers and Horse-coursers Stables, charging the Ma­sters when they paid for their Provender, to keep them till they were called for, which was to have been when King James had Landed: Whose arrival was to have been about Portsmouth or the Isle of Wight, because of the nearness of those parts to France: and as the Jacobites believed their Design could not fail of success, and knowing that the arrival of the Count d'Estrees was expected every moment, they were so hardy, or so imprudent, as to boast before hand; to gain the more over to their party. [Page 19] The Lords Lieutenants of the Counties, the Lieutenancy of the City of London not excepted, some Officers of the Army and of the Fleet, part of the Nobility and Clergy of both Kingdoms, were gain'd; and not to flatter our selves, it must be acknowledged that they had a fair game of it, and they had reason to think their party so well knit and link't together, that they needed not apprehend any danger of making their Design publick. This Mistery of Iniquity, which they laid open as has been said, was so far advanced that many Persons of Quality, either out of hope or fear, had begun to make their Peace with King James, who as a mark of his Clemency, had sent some their Par­dons. King James signed these Patents with pleasure, and without the least im­portunity; for he look'd upon his signing them, as the dawn of his restauration. Persons of that rank enforced his Party extremely, and were obliged in point of gratitude, as soon as ever they should hear of his landing to declare openly that ac­cording to the statute of King Henry the Seventh, they had served King William, [Page 20] who was actually possessed of the Gover­ment, being constrained so to do; but that the Crown belonged to King James of Right. With this Cloak they pretended to cover their persidiousness; and we may safely say, it was no fault of these Gentle­men that the Kingdom had not relapsed under the Yoke of Popery and the Slavery of Monks and Jesuites, to be once more put into a Combustion; for so the Eune­mies of the Goverment design'd to begin their pretended Restablishment. They did not hide themselves in foreign Coun­tries; and they said openly that England's Disease could not be healed, but taking away a great deal of Blood: That the bad Blood must be let out, least the Disease too inveterate already, should become in­curable: That they ought to begin with the Queen, if she could be seized, and car­ry her into France to be led in Triumph; But God, who smiles at the follies [...]f Men, and blasts their wicked Enterprises, deli­vered in an instant this Incomparable Prin­cesse, and together with Her the whole Kingdom, by a Victory obtain'd at Sea, which may be said without flattery to have [Page 21] been the greatest and most signal that ever [...]as; if we consider all the circumstances [...]hat attended it. Concerning the Prelu­ [...]um to this happy deliverance, I have [...]served already that the storm and the African Rocks fought against the Count [...] Estrees; he having lost two of his best [...]hips, and stay'd above three months later [...]en the time appointed for putting the [...]sign in Execution, to exercise to King [...]mes his Patience, who in the mean time [...]as Exercising his Teagues at Cherbourg; [...]o notwithstanding all the discipline that [...]he Poor King endeavoured to bring them [...]der, they could learn nothing but to [...]age the Country-people.

In fine, the Count d'Estrees, as he said [...]mself, came a minute too late to joyn [...]ourville, and was willing to let him have [...]ther the Honour of the Victory, or the [...]isgrace of running away. Tourville had [...]eat confidence in the courage of his [...]ench Mariners, upon the assurance that [...]ing James had given him that the Eng­ [...]h would not fight, but be spectators on­ [...]y; Tourville relying partly upon this as­ [...]rance and partly upon the Prayers of the [Page 22] Fathers de la Trappe, did not in the least distrust the obtaining a Victory, and went on Board upon King Ja [...]es's word, and with his blessing, as fierce [...] a Lyon or an Emperour. He made no scruple, as soon as he saw the Fleet of the Allies, to weigh Anchor, and make up to them; but un­fortunately he found there no Torrington, but Admiral Russell, to whose trust the English and Dutch Fleets had been com­mitted now a second time; and the Powder of the Allies was found to be more Effectual then the Prayers de la Trappe.

The Fleets of the Allies being happily joyned, without any Obstruction given by the Enemy, Admiral Russell set Sail from the Coast of England, or from St. Helen's Bay, upon the 23th. of May, but their happening a calme he could but reach the Isle of Wight that day; the day after he made for the Coost of France. Upon the twenty ninth at break of day one of the Scouts got sight of the French Fleet to the Windward; the Confederate Fleet being then at Anchor six Leagues from Cape Barfleur. Admiral Tourville having [Page 23] the Windward, as soon as he had notice of the Enemy, made what hast he could to get up with them. But the Wind slackning, the avantgard of the French, consisting of fifteen great Men of War, could not come up to the English till about eleven a Clock in the Morning; five of [...]he fifteen did their duty, but the other [...]en kept out of Canon-shot, either be­cause the calme was such as they could not come up, or for fear of falling in with [...]he main of the Enemies Fleet. And be­cause the Dutch, who were in the avant­gard of the Confederates could not all [...]ome up, that little Wind that was, being [...] their Teeth, the fight lasted between [...]hem that could Engage, about three [...]ours; and then the French made all the [...]ail they could to get away, and the Dutch [...]ad much adoe to turn their Ships to fol­ [...]ow them; whilest the calme lasted, the [...]wo main bodies of the Fleet labour'd to [...]he utmost to come up with the Enemy, [...]nd being happily got up with them, En­gaged resolutely for the space of four [...]ours; and then Vice-Admiral Tourville [...]lay's the same game that his avantgard [Page 24] had done before, and having the good fortune to meet with a mist to cover his retreat, got easily out of sight. In the afternoon the Confederate Squadron of the Blew, who could not Engage till then by reason of the calme, came up with the blew Squadron of the French, and be­twixt these two Squadrons the sharpest and most obstinate fight of all was maintain'd; and by the help partly of the night and partly of the mists the French Fleet made towards their own Coast as fast as they could. The next day about eight a Clock in the morning; the weather began to clear up, and the Admiral discovered the Enemies Fleet about two Leagues distance from him; for they durst not go further by reason of the mists, for fear of falling in the night time upon some Rock or Sand; But Admiral Russel perceiv'd their number was considerably lessen'd, which made him apprehend that a great many of their Ships might have sunk in the Night. But the French took care to conceal the cause of it as much as was possible, Ad­miral Tourville having forbidden the Of­ficers and Mariners to speak of it, upo [...] [Page 25] pain of Death. The Confederates told but-forty six Sail of them in all, and of them but five or six and thirty Ships in th [...] Line; but the calme, and the Tide, an [...] a little Mist hindred Admiral Russel's com­ing within Canon Shot of them. Things continued in this posture till eleven a Clock at Night, and then the French made what Sail they could to get away they weigh'd Anchor by Moon-light, and the Confederate Fleet foolowed all Night as fast as possibly they could: On the morrow the French resolving to outbrave the Rocks, ventur'd confusedly amongst those that lie betwixt the two Isles of Jersey and Guernsey, where no men of War ever durst pass before; and the pursuit was too hazardous: Of two evils they chose the least. There was some hopes in that, and at least a possibility of es­caping: whereas in staying till the Enemy could come up to them, there was none at all; for they must of necessity either have been taken, or must have surren­dred; there was no mean. They chose therefore rather to shelter themselves a­mong the Rocks; but all their precaution could not wholly protect them from the [Page 26] Guns and the Fire-Ships of the Confede­rate Fleet; which went in search of them upon the Coasts of Normandy, whither they had betaken themselves for their last refuge. The same day being the 31th. Admiral Russel discovering several Men of War upon a Bank near Cape Barfleur, detach't immediately Vice-Admiral De la Val with eight or nine Vessels and three Fire-Ships, who did their business for them the next day being the first of June: and the Vice-Admiral and his Squadron had the pleasure and satisfaction to warm them­selves at the Flames of that gaudy and magnificent Ship the Royal Sun, which carried a hundred and ten Guns, and was commanded by Vice-Admiral Tourville; they saw destroy'd in one day what the best Artisans had been twenty Years a working at, to make it for beauty and magnificence the Non-such of the Sea; two second Rates underwent the same fate at the same time. The one called the Admirable, mounted with a hundred and two pieces of Canon: the other called the Strong, which carried Eighty. Two Frigates of less bulk and three Transport Ships, which were part of the Fleet▪ [Page 27] perished in like manner, and were sacri­ficed in this Action, to the bravery of the Conquerors; but they did not stop there. Admiral Russel having notice, that twelve of the Enemies great Vessels were got into a Bay behind the Rocks of Aldernay, as into a place of safety, on the second or third day of the Month in the night, he burnt six of the twelve with all their Canon Ammunition and Provisions on Board: and the day after he destroy'd the remaining six. But the French had taken out of the latter six a great deal of their Canon, to lighten them, and hale them nearer the Shore: and the Prisoners that were taken by the English on Board the Royal Sun, acquainted them that during the first night of the Fight the French had lost four of their Men of War. So that the French King lost at one stroke nineteen of his biggest and best Ships: to wit, ten three deck'r Ships, and the rest from sixty to eighty Guns, besides Frigats and other Tenders and Transport Ships, to the number of seventy. But that which affects the French most, as it ought to do, is that they should have lost so many Ves­sells, Guns, and Men and so much Am­munition, [Page 28] and the Confederates not mett with the loss so much as of one single Ship; which we cannot sufficiently ad­mire, as a wonder of the age; without all question it was the hand of God, that gave this Victory and struck them with astonishment, who relyed upon an Arm of flesh, and depended for Victory upon their own courage and the number of their Ships. The greatest loss which the Allies sustained in this Action was that of Vice-Admiral Carter; who was the only person of note that was kill'd in the first days Fight. The rest of the French Fleet like a Covey of Partridges pursued by Huntsmen, made away as fast as they could, some to Brest, the greatest part to St. Maloes, and the rest whither they could. But they quitted the Soveraignty of the Sea, which they arrogated to themselves, though they were never in possession of it otherwise than in imagination. The French had three advantages whilest the Fight lasted, which saved part of their Fleet and protected the rest; without which there could hardly have been a Ship left to have carryed home the news of their disaster. One was the first days [Page 29] calme, which hindred one half of the Confederate Fleet ftom engaging: as all that were present agree; and as may easily be judged by the Ships themselves which were batter'd, and those that were absent, who have not received so much as a shot in their Hulk: and it was a great advantage to the French, who in the beginning of the Fight had a little breeze of wind, to have more Ships engaged than the Allies had.

A second advantage they had by the mists, by which the Enemy lost sight of them; and gave them an opportunity to get away, there being no following of them in the dark.

I will add a third, viz. that after the mists were dispersed, they had time to sortifie at St. Maloes. You see what good King James has got by the Prayers of the Fathers de la Trappe; who had so pos­sessed his imagination, that he verily be­lieved, as some told him who were with him upon a Hill, where he might see the Fight through a Prospective Glass, that the first Guns which the English discharged, were but the giving of the Signal; but the poor Prince presently found himself [Page 30] deceived; and that it was Admiral Russel he had to do withal, and that the Intrigues of his Jacobites had not succeeded: inso­much that when he went away, he sighed and said he was Cheated. Thus ended King James his Campagne upon the coast of Normandy; for the disaster befallen the French Fleet put a stop to his Voyage for England, which was designed. If this blow was very sensible to the Ja­cobites, it was no less so to the French Court; because, besides the loss of the best of their Ships, they were obliged to aban­don their Coasts to the mercy of the Enemy, and by consequence to see their Subjects depriv'd of the little Trade they had left. No wonder if Lewis the 14th. who naturally is very much addicted to his Interest, was in a maze at the hearing of such tidings as these, which could not but stop the mouths of his flatterers. Indeed upon the arrival of this news the French bravadoes were at a nonplus; never were so many Mutes seen in the Court of France, when it was known that King James was return'd to St. Germain, after having spent some Months at Cherbourg in doing just nothing at all.

If we consider this Enterprize of King James a little more narrowly, we shall find to have been founded upon three things; if any one of which had taken effect, he might have hoped for some good success; and so might the French King, who in promoting King James his Interest, car­nes on his own; for it is for his Inrerest indeed that the whole War is maintain'd One was to cross over into England before the Confederate Fleets were joyned, and to set fifteen or twenty thousand Men a­shore there. The second was to seize the Queen of England, if it were possible, by the party that was formed for him there; or at least, to raise a Civil War within the Kingdom, to oblige King William to with­draw the best of his Troops out of Flan­ders, and to quit his Foreign Affairs, to make all sure at home. The third and last was to Assassinate King William. Let us make some Reflections upon these three Enterprises.

The first was not only feisible, but had certainly taken effect, if the arrival of the Count d'Estrees had been retarded as it was; and it is thought the Forces might easily have been Landed before the [Page 32] Confederate Fleets could joyn, fince Vice-Admiral Tourville might prevent their joyning, whilest in the mean time the Count d'Estrees conducted the Transport Ships to Torbay, The Army being once Landed, the good will of the Roman-Catholicks and of other Male-contents, was not to be questioned (as in all States there are some discontented Spirits, be the Government never so mild and just) but that they would immediately have declar'd for King James, or for his Forces; for it may be a Question whether he would have had the Courage to have gone in Person, his Nose having bled when he was in possession of the Government, and at the Head of an Army of forty thousand Men. There is no Doubt to be made, but if King James his Forces had once Landed, there would have ensu'd a disturbance in the Nation; but we may well Question, whe­ther they that had Landed, would have gotten back again so easily as they came thither; for there were then in England about twenty thousand men in Arms, in disciplin'd Troops, besides the Train-Bands. On the other hand it is certain that it's the Interest of the People in gen­eral [Page 33] to maintain the present Government, because of the ease they enjoy under it; and they cannot but know that a Re­revolution would bring along with it the total ruin of their Families, their Estates and their Trade. Besides, that a people, who live at ease, and cannot but dread a Civil-War, would willingly have exposed themselves to prevent it, even some Roman Catholicks no [...] excepted, who live at ease and have good settlements in the King­dom, and enjoy the Liberty of their Con­sciences, which the present Government Tolerates; though I must except out of this form some troublesome Spirits and some poor wretches, who having nothing of their own to lose, might perhaps hope to mend their Condition by a change of Goverment, or to make their Fortunes by Plunder. But if King James relie upon such as these for his Restauration, his hopes have but a very slender Foundation. That Divine Providence, that has placed the present King and Queen upon the Throne, is sufficiently able to continue them there, as it has done hitherto, in spite of a Faction which their Enemies endea­vour to foment within the Nation; This [Page 34] Providence has but of late confounded the Enterprises of the Male-Contents, and brought their most secret Plottings, and their Treachery to Light. And as God, the Soveraign Lord of the Universe, does not use to do his Work by halves, he will continue their Majesties upon the Throne, whereon his own right hand has placed them. It is certain that King James would not have had the same regard to his Daughter upon such an occasion, as the King her Husband has had to him. All the World knows how that Virtuous Prin­cess earnestly recommended to the King then Prince of Orange, when he was about to set Sail for England, to take care of the life and person of the King her Father: and indeed what care was not taken that no personal harm should come to King James? When the Prince was come to London, though that unfortunate King was twice in his power, yet we know with what caution he changed the Gards at White-Hall, by King James his own con­sent, who was there in Person; and how he caused him to be asked, whether he would stay in England, or go into France; and he chusing the latter, the Prince sent [Page 35] his own Guards to accompany him, and conduct him safely to the Vessel that was prepar'd to carry him over: and both King James and Dada the Pope's Nuncio, when they arriv'd in France, could not forbear acknowledging that they were beholden to the Prince of Orange for their lives. Yet we are assuredly informed, that King James, his design was, if he had got over, to have made away with the Queen, if he could not have taken her Prisoner; and the bigotted Jacobites would have thought it an acceptable Sacrifice to Al­mighty God, and a great piece of service done their King, to have wash'd their Trayterous hands in her innocent Blood, or at least in that of the King her Husband; upon whose Assassination the French and the Jacobites grounded their greatest hopes of success, and which indeed was their last refuge. The Proceedings against Dumont and Grandval are too well known to leave the least doubt of what I have asserted; and the confession of the latter at the hour of death (without the least torture or force upon him) has taught us that they were animated and put on by the Marquess de Barbesieux in the name of the French King, [Page 36] and by the Earl of Melford on the behalf of King James, to Assassinate the King of England, William the third, whom God preserve: and that the Marquess de Barbesieux found the project in the desk of his Father the Marquess de Louvois deceased; who dying suddenly, had not time to commit the memory of so detesta­ble and Divellish a design to the Flames, (perhaps it pleased God to hurry that wretch out of the World all on a sudden, that all men might know what spirit the Court of France is of, and by what me­thods they carry on their designs,) and that this new Minister, like the offspring of a Viper, encouraged Grandval to the undertaking, by giving him assurance under his hand of a reward, which the miscreant declar'd that he had left at Paris in the custody of one of his Friends, with an express charge not to part with it to any but himself. It's in vain for the French to alledge for their Justification, that Grandval was made to say any thing, in hopes of saving his Life; It's the shame of so black an Action, and so ungenerous an undertaking, that has put them upon inventing this subterfuge; which will by [Page 37] no means conceal their infamy in after Ages. Nor can any man that is disin­teressed, deny that the last confession of that Criminal, is the real Truth: for as profligate and desperate as any man may be supposed to be, at his death he cannot but acknowledge that there is a God, be­fore whom he is going to appear and give an account of his Actions, for upon that mo [...]ent depends Eternity: and therefore the depositions of men upon their Death­beds have always been received as evidence before the most severe Tribunals, and the Greatest Justiciers; and their confessions taken as undoubted proof. And his Judges having been persons indifferent, and Ge­nerals of different Countries, there can be nothing alledged for his Innocence; be­sides that none of those whom Grandval and Dumont accused in their Depositions, have so much as gone about to Justifie themselves to this very day, and to clear themselves from the guilt of so vile and detestable an enterprize; qui tacet con­sentit, silence gives consent. Let men take an estimate by this single instance, of the Religion and the Temper of Lewis the 14th. and of his Ministers; who find­ing [Page 38] themselves not able to compass their Designes by the Honourable course of War, make use of Incendiaries, Poisoners and Assassinates to take away the lives of Princes, who are the Anointed of God. It's most certain, that if Dumont or Grand­val could have struck this horrid blow (which God forbid) the French King or the Marquess de Barbesieux by his order, would have caused them to be made away privately, to conceal their own part in so base an Action. We may therefore safely conclude that Lewis the 14th. has a very bad cause, since he makes use of fraud and treachery to support it. This Prince has made War degenerate into cruelty, to force his Neighbours to apply themselves to him for Peace, that he might have the Vanity, once more of boasting that he has given Peace to Christe [...]dome, and thereby have a colour to retain what he has unjustly got possession of since the Peace of the Pyrenees, and that of Nimeguen, and the breach of the twenty years Truce, which he himself earnestly sought for, that he might continue in possession of those places which he had got by force since those two Trea­ties. I can have so much charity for him [Page 39] as to believe that he would have maintain'd the Truce some Years longer, if the Em­perour's successes had not given him some Umbrage to the contrary; insomuch that we see he has chose rather to break his Faith than to see the power of the Turk abated.

The Victory of the Christians did no doubt give him a very great uneasyness, because he was always under an apprehen­sion, that if the House of Austria should once regain the power she lost, and recover her former Estate, she would require the restitution of what France withholds from her, which would very much blemish the glory of Lewis the 14th. who pretends to no other Law but that of his own will, which with him supplies all defects of Right, and makes it his business to obtain the Government of Nations upon what Terms soever, whether justly or by me [...] force, 'twas all one to him, provided he gain'd the Power into his hands. Not that the Kings of France have had this Inclination only from this present time; for we have known very well, that this has been an inveterate Evil, for what was it that Maria de Medicis, the second Wife [Page 40] of Henry the fourth, did not attempt to get the Government into her power? If we may give any credit to an Arch-Bishop of France upon this matter, she Sacrificed the life of the King her Husband, as soon as ever the Regency was thought fit to be conferred upon her. She had concerted his death with the instigators of Ravilliac, and at last accomplished it. Others attri­bute it to her Jealousie, but we will speak a plain Truth, and say, it proceeded rather from her Ambition to Reign. What have we not discovered of Catharine de Medicis in other days; (and which has been conceal­ed till of late) she was the Mother of three Kings, Francis the 2d. Charles the 9th. and Henry the 3d. and would have been of a 4.th. if the Duke of Alencon her 4th. Son had not dyed young; after the death of Francis, this Princess was declared, af­ter many strong Sollicitations, Regent du­ring the Minority of King Charles her 2d. Son; but she quickly felt the weight of a Burthen she had so passionately longed for, by the Civil Wars she had to maintain, being upon the very point of finding her self constrained to give up the Kingdom to the Prince of Condé, seeing her self [Page 41] pressed and overwhelmed with affairs be­yond the strength of her sex to bear. History tells us, that she shut her self up in her Closet for some days, without suf­fering so much as any of her Domestick Confidents to come to her; but afterwards she permitted Monsieur de Même, her Groom of the Stole to be brought to her, whom she looked upon as one of her most faithful Subjects, and the most affectionate and devoted to her Service, and one in whom she had always placed an Extraor­dinary Confidence, which was indeed grounded on the steadiness he had always shewn for her Service upon several emer­gent Occasions, The Queen put into his hands a Steel strong Box soddred up all round, and locked, with which she strictly charged him, saying, that being uncertain what would become of her, and what the success of the Civil War would be, she thought it convenient to put somewhat in it which was of very great Consideration, and which she intrusted to his Care, and comitted to his Custody the Pretious Depositum she had in this World, and at the same time caused him to take an Oath not to open it, nor ever to give it to [Page 42] any one unless by an Express order under her own hand, which he promised and engaged to upon Oath, and he did observe it likewise very Religiously: but the Queen dying, before she redemanded the Box, and after her the Sieur de Même, that Box remained a long time in the House of his Heirs, but at last his Son had a great Curiosity to open it, in hopes of finding there an Extraordinary Treasure, or at least some Jewels of very great value. The Box was thereupon opened, and the inquisitor extreamly surprised, to find, in flead of a rich booty, a piece of Copper, in the form of one of those Bucklers which the antient Romans consecrated to their false Divinity, upon which a Queen was engra­ven, representing Catharine de Medicis on her knees, in the posture of a person at her Devotion, making an offering to the Devil, who was there represented on a Throne Exalted, in the most frightful and hideous, posture that can be imagined; the Queen having on her side these three Sons, Char­les, Henry, and the Duke of Alenzon, with this Motto in French, Soit pourveu que je Règne, viz. Provided I may Reign: And this Buckler is still to be seen at this day in the [Page 43] Family of the Messieur [...] de Même, whereof the Count d'Avaux, who is sufficiently known in Holland, makes a considerable Branch: I will leave to my Reader the li­berty of making upon this truth what Re­flections he shall think fit. A Mother offers up her three Sons (whereof two have been Kings of France) to the Divel, provided She might Reign. I shall pass over this Dia­bolical Sacrifice, to the Treachery of Na­mur, which hath been the subject of the best part of the Campaign of Lewis the XIV.

A Man need not fear being-thought a Witch to guess at the Reason why the French King rather attacked Namur than any other Place. Those who have been informed of the Baron de Bersey, who was born a Subject of the King of Spain, who had honoured him with the Office of General of War, of first Ingeneer in the Low Countries, and of that of his Lieute­nant in the Town, may say, that by the means of all these honours with which (if I may be allowed to say so) the Catho­lick King had loaden him, though he was very unworthy of them, as experience has sufficiently since shewn us, he had acquired a perfect knowledge of what we call now [Page 44] le Fort & le Foible, that is, the stronger and weaker side of the Place. Besides that, he was an intimate friend to the Prince of Barbancon, who was the Governour of it, and who consequently had concealed no­thing from him; whereby he knew the num­ber, the quantity and quality of Ammuni­tion, and the Provisions of the Citadel. France, which never neglects any thing, but is always upon the Scout, by the means of her Spyes and Emissaries, covering her self very artfully under the Fox's skin, when ever she designs to effect any notable enterprise, having learnt that this Baron was disatisfied at the Court of Madrid, caused his pulse to be felt privately, by some French Men of his Relations, and finding him wa­vering, they offered him in France, the Office of Marechal de Camp, a Regiment, a good Pension, the possession of all the Estate he hath in the Dutchy of Burgundy, of which he had been dispossessed since the War, and at last the Government of Na­mur, if he facilitated the taking of it, and to make him the more easily be caught in the Toyle laid for him, they promised him a great deal more than ever they designed to perform; as is commonly done to Trai­tors, [Page 45] who, as I may say, are like Scaffolds which are erected for the building of a House, but as soon as ever that is built, they pull them down again, and oftentimes burn them. I am apt to think that not much un­like to this were the offers made to the Baron de Bersey: He had a mind corrupted long before, and a little more shock was enough to throw him down, and make him their own; wherefore he never scrupled giving his parole; there was no more to do now, but to execute it, and for that it was re­quisite for him to go into the service of his new Master, to inform him of all things with his own mouth, which was a very easy thing for him to do, by reason of the pro­ximity and neighbourhood of Dinant. The first service therefore that he resolved to do to the French King, and which was not in his bargain, was, a particular Trea­chery that he designed to add to that which he was going to commit against his Sove­raign, in delivering up to the French Col­lonel Coehorne, so well known to the World by the glorious Resistance he made after­wards at William's Fort, which has made him justly to deserve the Office of Major General in the State's Armies. Collonel Coe­horne [Page 46] having therefore undertaken the For­tifications of that Fort, caused the works to be made there with all imaginable diligence; but the Baron de Bersey very well foreseeing, that if once those works were finished, it would be an invincible obstacle to the Exe­cution of his promise, thought either to put a stop to those works, or at least to the main design of them, by putting the General Ingeneer into the hands of the Enemy; and it must be confessed that the Plot was very well laid, and that Monsieur de Coehorne could not deny it, had not his good Fortune preserved him, by taking a particular Care of his person, which since time and experience have shewn: for ha­ving caused some hedges to be thrown down round about the Town, which hin­dred them from seeing the Enemy, and it the time when the Baron de Bersey had appointed ten or twelve French Horse to carry him away, and thereby to cover th [...] shame of his Desertion; One afternoo [...] Bersey desired Monsieur de Coehorne to wall abroad, and see if the Works were wel [...] done, according to Orders; he pressed hi [...] hereupon very earnestly; and in truth [...] seems that Monsieur de Coehorne, who ha [...] [Page 47] commanded or advised those Hedges to be cut down, was to have gone there; yet (as I have said already) his good Fortune kept him within, and he was not in a humour or disposition that day to go and walk; this Refusal of his, tho [...]ngainst his Natural Inclination (being a Man very complaisant) was yet very much a propos. As to the Baron de Bersey, who had spent al that day to bring about his Treachery, he could not get out of the Town that evening, but the next day very early he caused the Gates of Namur to be opened sooner than ordinary; and as if he had been impatient to change sides, he thought he had heard a Voice from Heaven (or rather from Hell) which sounded in his Eares to him, do quickly what thou hast to do: The passion he was in caused him to exercise his Cane upon the poor Porter, because he did not open the Gates so soon as he would have had him. But being fallied out of the Town with his Valet, he found at the Place assigned an Officer with some French Horse to conduct him to Dinant. A Spanish Captain, who had lain that night out of the Town, and would have got in again at the opening of the Gate, being got towards the Town, perceived some French Horse, and indeavoured to hide himself in the Bushes and Briers that were not far off, but yet [...]ear enough to see the Baron de Bersey come up. As soon as ever the Commander of that party [...]erceived his new Conquest, he came strait up to [...]im, saying, Good Morrow, Monsieur de Bersey, we [...]ave expected you ever since yesterday: After some Compliments past on both sides, he was conducted to Dinant, and the better to cover his perfidiousness, [...]he desired to be carried to the Fort of the Scarpe. [Page 48] The Spaniards thinking that he was attempting some considerable service for them sollicited for his Release, by a Letter, offering Ransom to him; but the French refusing it, alledged that he was born a Bur­gundian, and so by consequence at present he was a Subject to the King of France, and that the Letter did not concern him. The Baron de Bersey finding that his Treachery was but too well known, and that it flood him in no further stead to conceal it, threw off the mask, and openly declared himself as soon as ever the French King had formed the Design of Be­sieging Namur, during which time the Baron was resolved to be a constant attender on his new Master, to inform him of the best places for the Attack, wh [...]re it was strong, and where weak; and he knew how to do it so well, that the Prince de Barb [...]ncon surrendered the Town with in five days after the Siege was begun, without any Assault attempted by the Enemy, and even before the Ditch was filled up. Those who defended the Place were extreamly sur­prized to hear on a sudden the Chamade beaten, and to see the French at the Gates before ever that Prince, who was the Governour of it, had taken the least care to co [...]vey the Ammunition and Provisions into the Citadel, tho the Town was abundantly furnished with both. It may be said, that he abandoned them to the French, after which was seen what those brave Men could do in the defence of a House which is at the bottom of the Mountain, and which in De­rision is called the Divel's House, because it is built in a place, to which the Spaniards gave the Name of the Divel's Mountain, from the great winds which are commonly there in a very violent man­ner.

This House had for all its defence but one Pallisade, and about two hundred and thir­ty Men commanded by the valiant Colonel de Roquefouille. In the heighth of the Attacque it was at last taken, they having their Swords in their Hands, but not till after eight days Defence, and many Assaults, and till after the Death of that brave Commander: those who survived him, to the number of about twenty Men both Officers and Souldiers, resolving not to ac­cept of any Terms, retreated still, defend­ing themselves even to the Valley between the Castle and William's Fort. The Ene­my met with no better Success from this Fort where Colonel Coehorne commanded, who defended his Work for some days. There had been two Breaches made, and several Assaults given: but one day Colo­nel Coehorne defending in Person one of those Breaches, and the Spaniards the other, their Commander having been killed on the spot, with a great many others, all of a sudden they were astonished to hear these latter beat the Chamade, and to see the French upon the Breach; but there was then no remedy for it, they were forced to [Page 50] give way to the Precipitation of those, who (without ever consulting their Allies that were in the Fort) were very glad to be delivered from the Fatigue. But my design is not to enter into the Particularities of this Busi­ness, I shall leave to those who were present to give that exact Relation, as no doubt some have done already to his Majesty of Great Britain, and his Electoral Highness of Bavaria.

As soon as ever the French King had made himself Master of this Fort, which gave him a great deal of Trouble by the Bravery of those who defended it, and the Time it cost him to get it, made the Baron de Bersey receive several Rebukes and Morti­fications from the Impatience of his new Master, who in all probability would have sent him to the Bastile, if the Siege had held but a few days longer: As soon, I say, as they became Masters of William's Fort, the French had then nothing else to take but the Castle, which mightily raised their almost dwindled hopes by the bad Weather they met there, the want of Forage and Corn, and the long Resistance of Colonel Coehorne. But the Fort being taken by [Page 51] a Capitulation ill enough observed, it was with the Prince de Barbançon they had to deal with, who stirred not out of the Castle, but was forced to hide himself under Ground, by reason of the continual Bombs and firing of the Enemy. But he had read in History that it was part of the Duty of a General, or Commander, to preserve himself in a Post, such as that was, more than in a Battel; the Preservation of a Commander being of greatest Importance: and to shew that it was not, as is common­ly reported, the Fire of the Enemy that he apprehended, when they came to tell him that Succour was seen to come a far off, he made no difficulty at all to come out in his Morning Gown, as if he had been resolved to brave the French; but our Governour perceiving no such thing, he presently retired to his former Post. At the end of eight days the Breach being made, the Garison being no longer provi­ded with Victuals, and withal having had for several days together nothing to sub­sist on but mouldy Bread and stinking Water, the Spaniards very readily went over the Golden Bridg, expecting the good [Page 52] Terms which the French offered them. The Prince de Barbancon caused the Cha­made to be beat, and that important Place was at last surrendred to the French King. The Governour committed three great Faults during that Siege, which he could not deny.

The first was, when the Town was yielded up, not to have ordered all the Provisions to be carried into the Castle, that were left in the Town to be a Booty to the Enemy, and wherewith he might have better sed his poor Souldiers during the rest of the Siege of the Castle, and thereby to incourage them the more.

The second Fault was, That he very ill imployed the small Remains of Provision he had with him, for he did but wretchedly feed the Officers and Souldiers that were to defend it, so that most of them fell sick with Hunger and Misery: and tho they were very instant in their Remonstrances to him, because they were assured there was little or nothing left for them in the Castle; yet they could get no other Satisfaction from him than this Answer, You ought to have brought Provisions along with you, since [Page 53] you know very well that the Spaniards have only enough for themselves. But yet if we might believe the French who entred into it, they found there abundance of Meal, Butter, Bacon, Cheese, and other Provisions. But perhaps some may say, this is the Discourse of Enemies, to which we ought not always to give Credit; and I grant it: but yet this way of discoursing is a proof of Fact, authorized too by the Relation of the Officers themselves, and of the Garison that came out of it.

The third Fault that the Prince de Bar­bancon was guilty of, was, In that he did not come out from those Vaults where he hid himself, to encourage the Souldiers that defended the Place; and it may be said of him, without Injury, that his Prudence at that time prevailed over his Courage, and that he entirely committed the Care of the Defence and Preservation of that im­portant Place to the Officers within, and especially to Major General Wynbergue, who commanded the Holland and Auxiliary Troops, and who did, without Contradicti­on, all that a great General and a brave Souldier could do, not having spared his [Page 54] own Person in divers Rencounters; but not being Master of the Magazines, he could not cause Manna to come down from Hea­ven, nor bring Water out of the Rock to maintain the Garison: and he himself had no better Table than the Officers, who all unanimously testified that they were very well satisfied with the Generosi­ty and Liberality of Monsieur the Count de Thian.

The French have said, that if in the other World there was a Tribunal erected for the God Mars to judg of what passed in this War, the Basha who commanded at Great Waradin would rise up in Judgment against the Prince de Barbançon, in that whilst the former was presenting himself on the Breach all covered over with the Blood trickling from his Wounds, the Prince de Barbançon was perhaps either playing at Chess or Cards under Ground; but every one must give an account of his Actions either in this World, or in the other.

There is no doubt, but that if all things had gone on as they should have done, and that the Place had been defended by an experienced Governour, who would [Page 55] have taken care of the Provisions, in order­ing all things necessary to be brought into the Castle; I say, there is no doubt but Namur would have been the Spaniards to this day, since it might, without ever be­ing succoured, have held still out for three Weeks and more at three several Actions. In a Siege, it is a Maxim, That he who gains Time, most commonly gains the Point, by reason of the many Accidents which may happen, as we have experienced in the Seige of Namur, by the great Rains which fell immediately after the Surrender, which reduced the French Cavalry to a most wretch­ed condition; for the Horse for the most part were broken-winded, because they were forced to go and setch Forage above forty Miles from the Camp, which oftentimes put the French King into a great Disquiet, and made him very impatient. The Baron de Bersey had his turn too of passing his time but very uneasily, as we have already said.

But at last his Tutelar Demon was fa­vourable to him, and Namur, the Subject of his Treachery, became a Prey to the French, without a possibility of being re­lieved, [Page 56] notwithstanding all the Care and Application that the King of England and the Duke of Bavaria took to prevent it. After the taking of it, it was still a hard matter to break all the Measures of the French King, who had an Army of above an hundred and thirty thousand Men ready to ravage the rest of the Low-Countries, if they had not made head against him, as I shall shew you in the following Discourse. The Slaves of the Grandeur of Lewis the XIVth have this saying often in their Mouths, That their Monarch never comes before a Place but he takes it; and they have reason for it, because he never comes to it before he is sure that it will be surrendred by Treachery, and by virtue of his Intelligences within; and therefore it may more properly be said, that he comes there to take Possestion, and to see if the Place be worth his Money. Machi­avel says, Le cose che si acquiestanno con l'oro, non si sanno defendere col' ferro. But the reasoning of that great Politician is not always true; for it fails now, because we may say, that the French do buy Places, (which he calls acquiring by Gold) but defend them afterwards with Iron. The [Page 57] Spaniards ought rather to take care that they be not left to be taken by the French, either by Louis d'or's, or Surprise; for they can very hardly ever get them out of their hands when once they are become Masters of them. We live not now in the times of Charles the Fifth, and Francis the First. Since whom the Kings of Spain very much rely upon the Governours of their Towns and Garisons; and unfortunately for the Allies, since Philip the Second's time, we only see the Kings of Spain his Successors like Relicks through a Glass: So that we may affirm without any hesitation, that two Accidents do at this day save the Spanish Ne­therlands; the first is, the Advancement of King William to the Throne of Great Bri­tain; and the other, the Accession of his Electoral Highness to the Government of the Netherlands; and yet notwithstanding they have not been able to save Namur. 'Tis true, we cannot deny it; but let us consider the Consequences that might hap­pen, and which would have happened in­disputably, if the Elevation of these two great Princes had not come timely to their Succour; and you will agree with me in [Page 58] what I have already alledged. As to Na­mur, I do affirm it was impossible to relieve it; if you will argue with Persons who know the Situation of the Place, and who have been in the Confederate Army, they will all unanimously tell you, that the King and the Elector did all that was possi­ble for them to do to attack the Duke of Luxemburg, if the Ground would have permitted them, notwithstanding the Ine­quality of their Forces: For tho the Con­federate Army was much inferiour to the Enemy in number, that was not it that made the Difficulty, but the Ground. The Duke of Luxemburg was incamped in a place where there was between the two Armies a River over-flowed, and Morasses; we were to pass this River, and afterwards to fall into Battalia, with our Feet in Wa­ter in sight of the French, the Cannon and Cavalry being in no condition to relieve them. Those who went through Curiosity, after the Retreat of the Armies, to observe the Place and the River Mehaine, which was over-flown at that time by the great Rains that were there for a good part of the Summer, and which consequently ren­dred [Page 59] the Morass impassable; those, I say, relate that it was impossible to go over to the French, without exposing themselves to a most evident Danger of being routed; and therefore it was to be considered, whe­ther a Battel so lost would not only have put Namur some days sooner into the French Hands, but have shewn too that all the Spa­nish Netherlands were within Ame's Ace of being lost. Wherefore it were better, upon such an occasion, to comfort one's self with the D. of Barbançon's Men, who when their Arms were broke, thanked God that their Heads were not so too, and therefore hazarded the Town, which it was hoped might have held out longer, as indeed it might have done; and that was more Pru­dence than to hazard all the Country. Before it was besieged, we know what Pains the King of England took to get to­gether the several Bodies of each Nation that were to compose the Army, which was a great Machine, having many Wheels, not very easy to be set a going; whereas the French Army consisted almost entirely of one and the same Nation; or if there are any Strangers, the Commanders at least are [Page 60] all French, which gives them great Ad­vantages, both of being first in the Field, when once Resolutions are taken, and of possessing▪ themselves of the most advanta­gious Posts to effect their Designs. They had also this to boast of, that the moistness▪ of the Ground was favourable to them this▪ last Campagne: and all those who are per­fectly acquainted with the Situation of the Country, will avow, that it is impossible to come to a Battel in the Netherlands, unless both the Generals have a mind to it. We have seen by Experience what Pains and Care the Duke of Luxemburgh has taken to avoid it, and that not without reason; for upon the loss of a Battel, depended not only the raising of the Siege of Namur, but the Entrance into some Province of France▪ That Court knew it well enough, and that was the reason they took so much care to recommend to the Duke of Luxemburgh to [...]ncamp in Places where he could not be attacqued, because they were sufficiently acquainted with what the King of England could do, and what Mettle he was of, it being natural to that Prince to despise Dan­ger, and to push on; for as soon as ever he [Page 61] was come to Mehaint, he caused, with all the Diligence and Application imaginable, Bridges to be built in the Night, to cross the River next Morning, and to attack the Duke of Luxemburgh in the Morasses, if a very extraordinary Rain had not fell, and if all the Generals had not unanimously disswa­ded him from it; besides the Impossibility that there was of forming themselves into a Line of Battel in a place that was so full of Water: But the French could not deny, but that during the Campagne the King of England had not only spared them, but oftentimes had made them gallop ten or a dozen Miles a day, and had made their Foot take Marches accordingly, and that he had several times offered them Battel, facing them with the Flank of his Army, and giving them many Advantages to enduce them to bite at the Bait; but the Duke of Luxemburgh still excused himself upon his Orders. France pretends to do her business by gaining time, and avoid­ing a Battel, for so she runs no hazard, but hopes to weary out the Allies; and still flat­ters her self, that the Winter, which most commonly is favourable to her Designs, will [Page 62] produce some new thing or other for her Advantage. Thus she endeavours to make her Advantage of a time, when Mens Minds are a little more calm and sedate, and conse­qently more in a temper to hearken to Pro­positions; whereas during the heat of the Campagne, and at the head of Armies which inspire thoughts of War and hopes of Victory, rather than any inclinations to Peace, she sees very well there is nothing to be done, more active Thoughts being then in their Heads, than to suffer them to listen to the low Means she would propose for an Accommodation. That was the reason why the Court of France so dexterously, as we say, spun out the time, and endeavoured by all ways imaginable to pass away the Summer­without fighting; to which end the Rains served them most wonderfully, the Autumn having this Year begun in Summer: and since France hath the advantage to have in her keeping the Relicks of many Saints, to make it rain when she pleases, who knows how far she may have made use of those Trinkets this Year to keep the Duke of Luxemburgh from being attacqued? The Allies ought by way of Reprisals to have [Page 63] their Reliques too, to cause a Drought, provided no Dissention amongst the Saints ensued upon it. But notwithstanding the Wetness of the Season, the French have had a taste, at the Battel of Steenkerk, of the Courage of the Confederate's Infantry. The King of England, after several attempts to come to a close Battel, not finding an opportunity to grapple with the Duke of Luxemburgh in an open Campagne-Ground, resolved nevertheless, before he retired, to make him sensible of the Confederates Powder; and the King having found by frequent experience, that the Fox would not come out of his Hole, endeavoured to attack him in his Retrenchments of Hedges and Woods wherewith he was covered, tho he could not secure himself thereby from being assaulted unawares, and finding his Tranquillity molested, which he thought himself assured of by the Advantages of the Ground. But this may be said to his Praise, that never was any General more astonished than he was, when some came to tell him in great haste, that they saw advancing a very great Party of the Enemy, and which indeed was a Detatchment out of every [Page 64] Regiment of Foot, accompanied with some thousands of Pioneers, who appeared at break of Day; but the Ground was so filled with Hedges and Briery Bushes, that the Pioneers were forced to make a way for them to pass, which rendred the Action more brave and glorious. Wherefore the Duke of Luxem­burgh, knowing his Post so well, could not believe it, either upon the first or second Advertisement that he received from the Sieur de Trassi, who commanded the Ad­vance-Guard. A third Messenger was ne­cessary, as may be observed by the Letter he writ to the King his Master, which has since been published. When I was reading the third Billet written by the Sieur de Trassi, who commanded a Post advanced on the top of Tubise, and expected a fourth, I saw from a little rising Ground the Enemies-Troops; upon which I sent to advertise the Marquess de Boufflers with a most pressing Order to come and join me with all speed, &c. The Marquess de Boufflers lost no time, but came in to the hottest part of the Action: But the Duke of Luxemburgh forgets this Circumstance, that besides the Expresses of the Sieur de Trass [...], he likewise received. [Page 65] Infornation of the marching of the Con­lederates by the famous Millevois, who was both a Masician and a Traitor in the Court of Bavaria, having before been stroling in Holland under the French King's Pay, and who at last (one of his Letters having been intercepted) received the Punishment he deserved; for he was hang'd on a Tree at the head of the Camp. This Rogue had cunningly conveyed to the Duke of Luxemburgh the Plan of the Attacks which were to be made, exactly drawn at the bottom of his Letter, having found out a way to copy it from the Project that his Electoral Highness had lest of it on his Table; and it was upon this Advice that the Duke of Luxemburgh sent Orders to the Marquess de Boufflers to advance in all haste.

It is not to be wondred that the French General was so surpriz'd, since he knew very well how advantagiously he was posted, and had often visited all the Avenues to his Camp; and one day said, There is none but an Alexander or a Cesar dares attack me in this plac [...].

If we do but well observe his Letter, we shall find that he thinks he can hardly e­nough commend the Advantage of his Post at Steenkerk. He assures his Master (with­out doubt to excuse his having been at­tacked) that he had cut down the Hedges on the Right-hand and on the left, and was forced to make Ways to enable him to keep a Communication with the Flanks, but that he could not do so in the Front: Be­sides, that there was a great Morass on the Left-hand, which every day grew deeper and deeper by the continual Rains; and on the Right a Wood, which he had lined with the best of his Foot and Dragoons; and be­hind him he had a River which inclosed him, so that it was impossible to surprize him. And upon this true and lively Picture of the French Camp, one might very well say, that scarce any Fortress was more secured and better guarded than this Post; and that really there ought to be another Alexander the Great, or another Cesar to attack it; and it was a William the Great who per­formed an Alexander's part, and marched all Night up to the French without either beat of Drum, or sounding to Horse. He [Page 67] caused the Right Wing of the French to be attacked by the Prince of Wirtemberg, who acquitted himself with that Bravery and Courage which is usual to him upon all occasions; and we may likewise say, that the Danes in this Action, as indeed every­where else where they have been employed, did all that could be expected from good Souldiers, as well as the Dragoons, who fell desperately into the Woods to un-nest the French who had got up into the Trees; but his Highness the Prince de Nassau no sooner appeared at the Head of the left Wing of the main Body, (leading himself his Foot just up to the Enemy, and exposing him­self more than any common Souldier) but the French forsook the Wood, which served them as a Retreat, leaving behind them some Pieces of Cannon; but Night coming on, and Lieutenant General Mackay, who com­manded the English, being laid in the Bed of Honour, at the very moment that Bouf­flers's Troops arrived, the King most wise­ly judging that it was not Prudence to let part of his Army lie all Night in the Woods and Briars confusedly with the Enemy, caused a Retreat to be sounded, which was [Page 68] made with so much Order, and so slow a March, that some Battalions spent two hours time in going a quarter of a League, and the French had not the Courage to follow them. So that we may well say, the Attack and the Retreat were equally glorious; but the Horse that drew the Ar­tillery being almost all cut off, and the Train broken, we were forced to leave the French some Pieces of Cannon, not being able to carry them off. The greatest Honour that the Duke of Luxemburgh had in the Battel of Steenkerk, was, that he had fought with part of an Army commanded by one of the greatest Kings in the World, who shewed himself every where, and took less care of himself than the meanest of his Souldiers, altho the Safety of Europe, as well as the Honour of his Party, depended on his sa­cred Person. Moreover, it may be said that on this occasion the English, in imitation of their King, have shewen, by the Blood they have so chearfully spilt, what Affection and Fidelity they have to his Service, and by this glorious Action (for one good while at least) have both by Sea and Land un­deceived the French, who thought they [Page 69] should have found in them some Remains of the old Leaven of the Jacobites: and it may be said, that if the Confederates Right-Wing had been able to have done as much as the Left did, the French would have stood in need of all their Bridges which they had thrown over the River before­hand; but the darkness of the Night coming on, very seasonably to their Succour, gave them the opportunity of drawing out of the Field of Battel eight or nine thousand Men dead or wounded, among whom were some Princes, & some Lords distinguished by their Birth and Merit; a great number of Colonels, and other Officers, who all together paid the same Debt to Nature, and were piled one upon another like Stacks of Corn. To be convinced of the truth of this, I hope the Reader will pardon me, if I send him back once more to the Duke of Luxemburgh's letter; the Evidence of the contrary Party is always an undeniable Proof; and he confesses that he fled from his Enemy, and did all that was possible for him to do to avoid coming to Blows: but let us hear what he says himself in the beginning of his Letter to the King.

I am confident there is not one Period in this Fragment I have shewn you, which gives not the French a very sensible Blow, and which does not at the same time raise the Glory of the King of England, and the Gallantry of his Foot, which is certainly the Scourge of his Enemies, and which hath made the French to sing De pro­fundis in all the Actions and Combats wherein we have engaged them. No doubt but the Woollen-Drapers of Paris, who are always very ingenious for their own Profit, would tax themselves with all their Hearts to make a handsome Present to the [Page 71] Duke of Luxemburgh, provided that that Great Mareschal would promise to give them every Year the Advantage of such a Battel as that of Steenkerk.

I will not here touch upon what passed on the side of the Ʋpper-Rhine, but shall leave the Care of that to the Germans, and advise them to take the Pains themselves to assist the Pen which is to write that Histo­ry; for without all peradventure it will in­form us of a great many fine things. But I know the French have had time to walk at their ease all over the Country, and their Parties have carried away what ever they had a mind to, putting all under Con­tribution, and leaving behind them, accor­ding to their usual Custom, the Marks of their Cruelty and Desolation by their Burn­ings wheresoever they come. We know also that the Prince, Administrator of Wirtemberg was surprised, or else abandon­ed, so that he was obliged to surrender himself; that the small Effort which the Germans made on their side, opened a very fair way for France to bring the Power of her Army where-ever pleased, as we have manifestly experienced by the taking of [Page 72] Namur. The Low-Countries are like to be from henceforward her common Road, and the Campagnes will be without question honoured with the Presence of Lewis the XIVth, who desires no better Sport than to see the Germans trifle away their time upon the Rhine, whilst he hath need of all his Forces in Flanders, where the Presence of King William engages him to make use of his utmost Efforts. In the mean while there are some in the World, that instead of imitating this great Prince, suffer them­selves to be lull'd asleep by the charming Songs of French Sirens; 'Tis a Philistine Dalilah, that dandles in her Lap all those who put any Confidence in her, and at last puts out their Eyes with the Powder of Gold; but it is only in order to make them (Sampson-like) to grind in the Mill. There is cause enough and too much to affirm this; there is not an Enemy to France who does not sufficiently know it, and who does not say the same thing; yet notwithstanding all this, How much Coldness and Indifferency do we not see among some of the Confederates, (to say no worse) who choose rather to have their [Page 73] Neighbours ruined, and even their own People, than to make the least Effort, or do any thing but what falls just to their share, to oppose the great Efforts of France? How­ever one of these two things these luke­warm and fearful Princes must choose, either to help to ruine France, or else expect that France should ruine them; for there is no midst to take; of necessity one of these two must come to pass: If Europe has a mind to put her self into any settled state of Ease and Tranquillity, we must, I say, of ne­cessity come to this, to make one last Effort. Ha! would to God these Princes would but act outwardly, as they are perswaded in­wardly in their Consciences! But, cried out one of these Gentlemen in the late Wars, seeing so great a number of Hungarian Ducats upon the Table, which a French Minister offered him to betray his Party, How can Flesh and Blood resist so many armed Men at a time? Tho Slavery under a Golden Chain may be more pleasing than that under a Chain of Iron; yet the Galley-Slaves of a Ship Royal are no less Slaves for having Coats of Damask on, than the Slaves of other Gallies: it is the same thing [Page 74] at long-run, whether the Enemy gets into our Houses by Gold, or by the Sword; by the Door, or in at the Window; he is al­ways our Master when once he is in. But let us once for good and all undeceive these French Ministers, who are very subtile and crafty, and scarce ever lose any thing: they often sow, but it is to reap the more, and to make a much better Harvest. Ah! How expert are they in making their Accompts? and how do they inrich themselves for all the Pains they take, by making the Inhabi­tants of every Town they buy, to pay the Price four times over? And we may safely say, that Men never understood their Liber­ty better, than when they have lost it; and especially when a Prince finds himself reduced to become a Dependant upon the Court of France, and is forced (of which I have been an Eye-witness) to go often in vain to Monsieur Colbert's, to receive his Pension, or to Monsieur Louvois, to obtain some Employment. One of these Ministers was the Son of a poor wretched Merchant of Reyns, and the other of a Proctor; yet blind Fortune having raised, and loaded them with her Favours, we have seen them [Page 75] in this Reign the Arbiters of the Fate of several great Lords, who have been forced to come and wait every Morning at their Gates, and petitioning them. These two great Men have spent a good part of their Lives in contriving how and which way to bring down the Dukes of Savoy, and to level them with the Princes of Monaco, or however with the Dukes of Lorrain. Would you desire a more convincing and certain Proof of this than the late Marriage which France made between his Royal Highness and the Infanta of Portugal? I meddle not with the Quality of either of the Parties; because, besides that there is no great Inequality as to that, it's nothing to the purpose: but it is very probable that by this Marriage France had an Eye to get the Duke of Savoy out of his own Territories, the more easily to get Possession of them him­self, as soon as ever his Royal Highness should have been established in Portugal, and to prevent his coming back again by the Garisons that the French King would have put in all Places of Piedmont and Sa­voy; and tho perhaps the Duke might re­turn, he should have been there no other [Page 76] than as the Prince of Monaco, in Morgué guarded by the French. But God, who hath preserved his Royal Highness for some better purpose, hath so throughly enlight­ned the Minds of his faithful Coun­sellors, that they presently seeing to the bottom of the Designs of France, disco­vered to him the Plots she had laid, and the Mischiefs into which his Highness was like to fall, if he had not been disswaded forthwith from the Resolution he had taken, and which would have been so fatal a Blow, that it would have gone near to have cost him the loss or ruine of all his Country. In short, his Royal Highness being prevailed upon by his good Counsellors, concluded it was his best way to stay at home, pre­ferring the Glory of being absolute Master over his own People, to that of going a­mong Strangers to take upon him a Post of Submission and Dependance; and his Stay at Turin being more agreeable to his true Interest, than his sojourning at Lisbon. His Highness upon this occasion acquired more Glory by despising all the Advantages which France would have put him in hopes of, than if he had complied. The great De­sign [Page 77] that the Court of France had upon Piedmont and the Millaneses, having been now disappointed by the Refusal of his Marriage; and the Estates of Italy, having been formerly the (la Morotte) chiefest Aim of the Kings of France, unto Henry IVth's time; and since which King's time France having quitted it because of the small Pro­gress she made there, she thought it better to turn her Arms towards the Low-Countries, which she did; and Lewis the XIIIth as well as his Son, the XIVth of that Name, have since made it the Seat of War, and the Theatre of all their Enterprizes. The Duke of Savoy having wisely observed the Design of Lewis the XIVth upon his Coun­try, no sooner got himself into a condition of acting, but he gave him some Marks of his Resentment, and of his Courage in the desire he had to see himself once delivered from the heavy Yoke wherewith the French Ministry had oppressed him during his Mi­nority; and this was the occasion of his first coming into the Confederacy, and joining his Interests to those of the House of Au­stria, as being the most advantagious side for that Prince, who by his Declaration against [Page 78] France has lately so signalized his Zeal for the common Interest, and declared his Re­solution to labour indefatigably with the Allies to abate the Power of the sworn Enemy of the Liberty of Europe; and we may say, that this Prince is at this day the only one who as yet hath had the Glory of eating the Bread of France, by the Ir­ruption he made into Dauphiné, and making himself Master of Guillestre, Gap and Ambrun; and as young a Warrier as he is, he hath had the Honour to give Checkmate to that old Fox Catinat, who it seems in this proved but a Goose. For being posted upon the rising Ground of St. Brigide to cover Pignerol, he thought the Duke of Savoy would not have march­ed towards the Frontiers of France, but to draw him off from his Post, and afterwards to invest Pignerol, by the Troops he had left behind to observe Catinat's Motion; nor could he forbear saying, that the Duke of Savoy was too young to put upon him by his false March: but he was mightily surprized when he found his March in good earnest, and had the News brought him of the Duke's being got into Dauphiné, and [Page 79] taken Guillestre, and several other Frontier Places. The Design was to have gone as far as Grenoble, had it not been for the Sick­ness of his Royal Highness, and the Re­pugnance of the Spaniards, who still look'd behind them, as Lot's Wife did heretofore, or as it is said of Eurydice the Wife of Orpheus, fearing lest the French should be Masters of the Milaneses, or that coming to an Engagement up too high in the Moun­tains, they should not be able to get from thence that Winter, by reason of the great Snows which very often stop up the Ways; so that we may say, France was extreamly obliged to the General of the Spaniards.

Two things there were which hindred the coming in of the discontented People to join the Duke of Savoy in his Marches.

The first was, the ill Carriage and Disorder of the Germans; as soon as ever they sat foot in Dauphine, that by way of Reprisal they might revenge them­selves for the Burnings and Cruelties which the French made and committed over Ger­many; and they seemed so incensed at it, that no Consideration whatsoever could restrain them; which carried the Alarm [Page 80] even to the Gates of Lions, so that the Inhabitants, instead of tarrying for them, all fled, and chose rather to leave their Houses and Goods, than see themselves exposed to the Mercy of the Germans. This way of Procedure passed with them (as all the World knows) as one of the Effects of War; for they little troubled their Heads with examining whether it agreed with the Policy of the Confederates, (which was to procure an Insurrection) provided they might reek their Revenge, and be well entertained, as they are every where else where they are Masters, but especially in an Enemy's Country.

The second thing that kept the People from coming in to him, was, the small Force that was left the Duke of Schonberg to sustain those that would have taken up Arms, and joined with him; for being known to all the Inhabitants of that Province, they entirely relied on him, and on his word. But of the two thousand five hundred Men which that Prince brought with him into Dauphiné, he in a short time saw himself reduced to five hundred, the rest being dispersed into divers Posts, or else into [Page 81] Garisons. It was therefore impossible for him with but a handful of Men (not­withstanding all his earnest pressing for more) not only to go forward, but even to sustain with his Forces those who had a desire of coming in to him, and who would have easily found out ways to his Royal Highness, to have enabled him to maintain himself in the Province where he then was. Some thought that those, who were the Guides of that Prince's Conscience, and some Ecclesiasticks that attended his Person, were the Hinderers of the Succour which the Duke of Schonberg demanded, seeing him at the Head of a small Troop of Protestant Souldiers, the Alarm was strait given in the Refectory, because they were afraid that their Number once increasing, they should by force of Arms make bold to come into their Kitchins, and there seize on all their Victuals. If one were to con­fult those Priests, I am sure they would rather have Europe made a Slave to the French King, than see it delivered by a Protestant Prince; for they are cruelly a­fraid that he would destroy all their Boilers and Porridg-Pots, which keep up their jolly [Page 82] Countenances, and make them sing so merrily, Or a pro nobis. Their greatest Po­liticks reach no farther than their Kitchin; provided their Pots boil, and their Spits turn, they care for no more. And therefore we must conclude, that so long as the Roman Catholick Princes in general will have Priests to guide and biass their Consciences, they will do no good at all. The major part of them look on the French King as the Restorer of Religion, and the Support of the See of Rome; but I would desire them to look back to the Decree of the Assem­bly of the Clergy of France, held at Paris in the Year 1682. which is a Bone for the Vatican to pick, and which most certainly ought to arm Rome, and all the Roman Catholick Princes with a holy Indignation against France, and not allow her any Quiet, till she had made a new Confession of Faith as to the Authority of the Pope, since now France hath but one step more to make, to withdraw her self from the Pope's Obedience. It highly concerns Rome to rouze up her self, to take care of her Rights; and the Pope at this day would do much better (with submission [Page 83] to him) in following the glorious Steps of his Predecessors, and no ways complying with flattering France, till she has given substantial authentick Marks of her Sub­mission to the Holy See.

Matters standing thus in Dauphiné, and his Royal Highness having no fortified Place to winter in; and besides, his own Indispo­sition not suffering him to act there in Person, as he had done till the taking of Ambrum; and add to all this, being in great danger of having all Passages stop'd up by the Snows, he thought he was under a neces­sity, of putting off his farther Prosecution to the next Year, and to repass the Mountains, after he had shewn France that she was not impregnable, but that whenever the Allies saw good, they could carry their Arms into her very Bowels, and make the same De­solation there, as she had done in Germany; and that the Duke of Savoy, whom she was lest apprehensive of, yet hath been the first that has opened the Door, and beaten the way, by putting one part of Dauphiné under Contribution, and will go thither again as soon as ever he shall be well seconded, and will consult only his own Genius, knowing [Page 84] his own Interest best, and the necessity he is under to humble France, to live in quiet in his own Country, and never again to run himself on the brink of that Precipice from which he happily escaped but a very little while ago.

'Tis not to be questioned, how fair a Face soever, and how good a Dissimulation France sets on the matter, whilst the Duke of Savoy was ravaging Dauphiné and Pro­vence, but that all that time she extreamly scared the Consequences of it, and felt even at her Heart secret Disquiets and Alarms, which yet she endeavoured to conceal, as much as ever was possible, through a Fine­ness of Politicks, because she saw a very strong Army that would find her Employ­ment enough in Brabant, and at the Head of it a Monarch that stands his Ground, and scorns to give way, and who then was ha­rassing the French without intermission, seeking all occasions imaginable to come to a Battel, whilst the French, as I have said already, was using all the pitiful Tricks they could devise to shun it.

Besides, at Sea France beheld an Enemy's Fleet victorious, that had with her ten or [Page 85] twelve thousand fighting Men ready to disembark on the first Orders. I believe for my part, no Prince, tho never so fearless and undaunted, great­ly alarmed at it, not knowing where the Storm would break; we may say, that all the Coasts of Normandy, Picardy and Britany trembled at it; those Provinces could not believe themselves safe till they saw them landed in Flanders, and that Furnes and Dixmuide were become a Prey to the English, to keep Dunkirk close block'd up, and to try how it will hold out the next Spring; tho at first the French declared they had not lost those two Places but by their own leaving them, not looking on them as very necessary for the preserving of Dunkirk; but now they are of another opinion, and say, that the loss of those two Places is very inconvenient to them; for they cannot deny, but that by them one may come into their Country, and at the same time may keep the Governour of Dunkirk from extending his Contributions so far as he did before. I must confess at present they do not countervail Mons and Namur, but they may be of great use to us here­after, [Page 86] by furnishing us with Means of raising very good Contributions from the conquer'd Country, from lower Picardy and Artois; and it is so true, that the Court of France extreamly regretted the loss of those two Places, that she is resolved not to let the Winter pass without some Attempts to re­take them. Wherefore we may reckon Fur­nes and Dixmuide two Conquests, which may be of Service to us hereafter, and which at present breaks the Designs of France upon Newport and Ostend, by covering those two Sea-port Towns from all the In­sults of their Enemies; for France has been this good while caressing of them, and would have attacqued them, had she been but Soveraign of the Sea: but that failed her this Summer, and she was forced to resign up that Empire to the English and Dutch by the Loss she sustained at Barfleur. Thus we see at length how the King of England hath gloriously ended his Cam­pagne, having several times braved his Ene­mies, harassed them by his continual Mar­ches, and attacked them in their Retrench­ments, seeking only an opportunity of putting an end to the War by a general [Page 87] Battel, and so procure to Europe a solid and durable Peace. And it is upon this that at present we shall make some Re­flections before we put a close to these Me­moires.

I still must retain that old indisputable Maxim, received among all Politicians, that either France must be ruined, or else she will ruine her Enemies; that she must her self be humbled before she will be ob­liged to sollicite a Peace, and restore to the Princes of Europe what she has unjustly ravished from them since the Peace of the Pirenees. This without all perad­venture ought to be the main end of the Confederates, and the Result of all the Princes now in Confederacy, and at War against her. But some will say, that France is not brought so low yet, nay, that she is very far from it. I do not know whether she is so far from it as some may imagine or no; there is more Presumption than Likelihood in that, if we shall consider all the Tricks and Contrivances which the Ministers of that Crown make use of to raise Money, overwhelming the poor Poeple with Subsidies, and besides the great Mi­sery [Page 88] which generally rages everywhere, a Dearth must ruine them. But tho by the means of the Imposers and Collectors of these Male-tolts, in squeezing out the last drop of the Peoples Blood, the King should find wherewithal to continue the War for some Years longer; Men become in the mean time very scarce, he being able only to recruit in his own Kingdom; and often­times all the new Levies, wherewith that Monarch would dazle the Eyes of his Enemies, are far greater on the Muster-Roll than are in Reality. They may take young Fellows away by force to serve them out of their Countries, but they do not keep a Souldier long that is listed against his Will. It is ill hunting with Dogs that run rascal, and must be beaten on to their Game. And we see this plain enough by their Marches and Counter-marches, as well as by the frequent Detatchments they make out of all their Garisons when ever they are forced to form an Army that is any thing considerable. This appears likewise in the small Bodies left in Italy, Catalonia and Germany; when they march into Flanders, the Flower, the best and most numerous [Page 89] of their Troops; I say, it is easy to see by their whole Managery, that France hath not that great number of Souldiers she boasts of, nor even that is necessary for her to have, to make good the Posts she has to maintain on all sides. And what still con­firms my belief that she wants both Money and Men, is, that she could not hinder the Duke of Savoy with but a handful of Men, as I have said already, from entring his Kingdom, taking Towns there, raising from them good Contributions, and pat­ting them all to their Wits end almost, even to the Gates of Paris. But not to flatter our selves without reason, let us sup­pose that France should yet have Men and Money enough to keep on the War for some Years, yet she is not a bottomless Gulph▪ unexhaustible; nor is she invincible. We have seen by the happy Success our Fleets have had at Sea, by the taking of Ambrune, and other places, by their abandoning Furnes and Dixmuide, by the divers Ren­counters that have been in Flanders, where we may say, without exaggerating the mat­ter, that the French have lost double the number of their bravest Men, both Officers [Page 90] and Souldiers; and to this shall we reckon for nothing their continual running away from King William? Since the Battel of St. Dennis they have often had experience of his Valour, and know very well his In­trepidity upon all occasions, tho he were to run against the Mouth of the Cannon, never sparing his sacred Person. A Battel is what this puissant Prince demands of them, and what he longs to come to, as we see by Experience, which makes us believe that the French are not so fierce, nor formidable as they would fain perswade us they are; and we need only give them an unanimous Attack to bring them down. But so long as, according to the Proverb, one Party draws one way, and the other another, and the King of England must singly oppose all the Forces of France, we are likely to make no farther Progress than what we have done already; and we shall alway be every Year beginning again: and instead of co­ming nearer to a Peace, we shall be going further from it, unless we resolve to let the French King once more make his Brags, that he hath given Peace to Europe, but it is such a Peace as he had a Mind to, such a [Page 91] Peace as he could break again whenever he pleased, as he did that of the Pirenees, of Nimeguen, and last of all of Treves. It would be such a Peace that would always make for the Advantage of France, which never makes Peace but only the better to surprize her Enemies, nor which ever keeps her word any longer than it is for her In­terest. We must therefore fight in good earnest until the Confederates have brought down the Enemy, if ever we would have a good and a solid Peace. To this end we ought to compel Lewis XIV. to come to us, and himself to sollicite for it, by bring­ging that upon the Stage in one Year, which has not hitherto been done in three, especi­ally in fitting out two considerable Fleets, that so one may be able to cope with that of France, whilst the other shall be assisting the Descent that must of necessity be made, if we mean ever to touch King Lewis in his most sensible part: and that that Fleet should be in a condition afterwards to go into the Mediterranean, where she may give a notable shock to France by inter­rupting her Commerce to the Levant, and especially to Turkey, which is to the only [Page 92] Place she has left, and the wealthiest; be­cause the French Merchants send thither only ready Money, and bring from thence the richest Merchandizes, as Brocard Silks, and all sorts of Drugs of the highest Price. If once they could deprive France of this Commerce, by the taking of several of her Ships thus laden, they would impoverish all Provence, and most of the great Mer­chants at Lyons would feel the loss for a good while.

I have said we must have a Descent: I find it so necessary, that instead of one we ought to make two, or at least shew our selves in two several places to make one good one; for as long as the Confederates shall make War like Grey-hounds, that is to say, only in running after the French, it will signify nothing, and they will find themselves no further advanced at the end of the Cam­pagne than at the beginning, because it is hard to set upon them in the Low-Countries, if their General will not fight; the Coun­try being all over full of Rivers, Woods and Mountains, it is impossible to force them to fight against their Wills: The Ex­perience of the two last Campagnes has [Page 93] already made us but too sensible of it; and it will unquestionably be the same with all the rest that follow, if we do not manage the War in a new Method, and take other Measures. As to fortified Places, without flattering our selves, the French will be always in a better condition to take them than the Allies; and the reason is plain, for their Frontier Places are well fortified, their Magazines well stored; but as for the Spa­niards, without any Reproach to them, they wanted every thing, they were for the most part in but very bad Circumstances, or at least they have been so during the Go­vernment of the Marquess de Gastanaga, and his Predecessors. As for the Maga­zines furnished after the Spanish way, as we have seen it at Namur, and several other places not fit to be mentioned here, I pray God grant they may be the last that are ill provided. But after all, tho the Allies should attack one or two Places, and should like­wise take them, I doubt not but France would be extreamly pleased to see her Ene­mies busied in fighting against Walls for a whole Campagne together. Nay, when she takes them, she knows they are such [Page 94] Places as she must be forced to restore at last by a Peace; besides that she offers them already. At every turn she will say as she has already, when she lost Mayence, Bon, Rhinberge and Keyserwaert, that she lost nothing of her own. Wherefore it is to spend Time and Pains to no purpose, to think of skirmishing the French at a di­stance, and of attacking them by stealth as they did at Steenkerk, because that neither concludes nor decides any thing; and it is still to shift off the matter to a longer day, and then to begin again. But if we would enter into the Heart of France by a vigorous Descent well sustained by new Troops, we should make not only great Progress on that side, but we should also in­cite the Envy of the Duke of Savoy to fall on again at the Expence of the common Enemy: that Prince already knows the way, and it is no longer now an impossibility for him to do it, by what he shew'd us this last Campagne; and as for the Sea, we need only to fight those who shall oppose the Descent, to go up even to the Gates of Paris. We must confider (not to be sur­prized) that we must stand the first Fire of [Page 95] the French, who without doubt will make some Opposition; but if they are once beaten, we shall then see a general Convul­sion and Overthrow, a forsaking the Out­skirts and Frontiers of their Kingdom to run to the Succour of the Heart and Vitals of the Nation. We have already seen that the French could not stand when the King of England passed the Boyne in Ireland, tho his Foot marched up to the middle in Wa­ter to attack the Enemy that lay on the other side the River very well intrenched: But they left the Field of Battel, and re­signed a Kingdom to the victorious Arms of Willam the Great, and became as Steps to him to ascend the Throne of Honour, as well as that of three Kingdoms. I do not foresee in a Descent the hundredth part of that Danger or Pains that some do fancy; the Sea is in a manner fordable, and with a Fleet one may go over as it were dry­shod, all the Coast of France is open, and it is impostible for Lewis the XIVth, and much less for King James with his Jacobite-Troops, to be able to prevent it. We need only to go thither to conquer: those brave Men that are come back from subduing [Page 96] Ireland covered over with glorious Laurels; I say, we need only set these Men ashoar to make them find their way into the Heart of the Kingdom, and to make France sen­sible, as they have already done in Ireland, that they can bring her to Submission. How many other gallant Men are there that only wait for a Signal to embark them­selves, and who say as Cesar, just as he was going to pass the Rubicon, Jacta est alea: let us then march, there is Glory to be ac­quired; seeing we have to do with some People that think themselves invincible, but who yet in the mean while are nothing less so, when once they are vigorously attacked, having all along refused fighting when we have offered them Battel. We may there­fore very well say, to the Honour of the King of England, that having found out the true way to conquer them, he deserves an intire Victory over them. France having some time since abandoned Italy, and (as we have said already) turned her Arms towards the Low-Countries, has happily thought also that it was on that side we would attack her vigorously, to drive her from those Places she had forcibly got into her [Page 97] Possession some time ago: wherefore wisely fore-seeing what she feels at this day, to wit, that the Court of England would not always be so favourable to her as she had been under the Reigns of the two preceding Kings, but that that Crown coming once to join its Forces to those of the seventeen Provinces, might be able to withstand and defeat the Design of the French Ministry, who for the two last Reigns by Force be­came Masters, first of the ten Spanish Pro­vinces, and that way opened a Door to pass either into the seven other united Provinces, or else into the hether parts of Germany; so likewise we see the French have neglected nothing to strengthen them in all their Conquests, and to make the Places im­pregnable so far forth as the Situation of the Ground would permit, and by way of Anticipation to add the Diocess of Cologne to it, by conferring that Archbishoprick upon the Bishop of Strasburgh, a Person wholly in the Interest of France, but who miss'd it at that time. If we consider these conquered Places in the condition they now are, we shall find it loss of time to imploy so brave an Army in attempting to [Page 98] subdue them one after another; and as I have already said, the King of France would desire no better sport than to see the Confederates set down before a Town: but, as we ought never to gratify an Enemy, let us leave him to defend his Possessions in the Low-Countries, and make one vigorous Essay to force him to let go his hold, and oblige him to abandon them as he did all those Places which the French had gained from the Ʋnited Provinces in the last War of 1672. Let us only with one good Ar­my prevent his taking any more for the future, and with another let us enter into his Kingdom by a Descent, where the Eng­lish will find nothing but Towns unpro­vided, and who are in continual expecta­tion of seeing the Enemy at their Gates. They will never wait the coming up of the Cannon, but betake themselves to their Heels, as we have already seen in Dauphiné; all Gap deserted and left their Cellars full of Wine; half Grenoble fled from their Houses and Effects, (the President of the Parliament died of fear) and the Inten­dants were forced to make use of all their Authority to keep the rest of the People [Page 99] from flying too; with such a Pannick Fear at Heart was France struck. The Inhabi­tants have seen more Collectors of Taxes than Enemies, and the evil Treatment they have met with from the former, makes many of them long for the coming of the other, to be revenged of those who oft­times leave behind them nothing but the bare Walls. If the Confederates were but once throughly convinced of this Truth, certainly they would leave nothing unat­tempted to enter on all sides into the Bowels of their Capital Enemy. But there is a certain Fatality, that Domestick Demon, which we call one's own private Interest, that does even at this day keep several of the Soveraigns and Princes in League with us, from belabouring heartily the Weal and Safety of Europe. Some run out at Heels, expending more than the Revenues of their Territories, and than their Demesnes and Rents amount to: because every one natu­rally is jealous of his Grandure, and of that degree of Honour he pretends to possess in the World, (the Marquess making the Fi­gure of a Count, the Count that of a Duke, the Duke that of a Prince, and this [Page 100] last that of a petty King;) they find they are engaged, to continue this high State, to be at vast Expences, and therefore frequently put out their Hands to take the forbidden Fruit. The Louis d'Or's of France are charming to the Eyes; their Lustre dazles, but they conceal a mortal Venom which poisons those that take them in this calami­tous time of War, for they obstruct the best-intentioned Designs in the World. I do not charge this upon all that have en­tred into our Confederacy, God forbid I should have such a thought; I know very well that there are some Princes who would gladly do more than they do, but the Cir­cumstance of their Affairs cannot permit it, as for instance, Spain. But perhaps some will say, Why cannot Spain (which is so great and puissant, having so many fair and vast States, as that its Monarch boasts he can see the Sun both rising and setting within his own Dominions) do more than she does? And why cannot she (I do not say make new Conquests, but) at least take care of her own Countries? She hath still the same Indies, and the same Revenues as she had in the Reign of Philip II. and [Page 101] Charles V. who made almost all Nations tremble. I must confess, the Spaniards have still the same Indies, and the same Re­venues; but they have not the same Kings, because they are too good, and the same Revenues do not now come into their Coffers; or what does come there, serves only to pay off their Arrears due feveral Years ago. 'Tis indeed a very great Un­happiness for Christendom, that a Young Prince, so good and so well affected to the present Interest of Europe, as is this King of Spain, cannot put in Execution those glorious Designs he has of abating the Power of France, his sworn Enemy. But is there no help for this Infirmity? Must Spain become a Prey to the Kings of France, if these other good Confederates do not astist her? I answer, there is a Remedy for all these Diseases besides Death, as the Pro­verb is: For the King of Spain needs only resolve upon it, (and imitate the King of Sweden, who has been so fortunate as to find out the way of re-uniting to that Crown all that has been taken from it) and especially to call all those to account who have managed the Treasury since the [Page 102] Death of Philip the Second, whose Fami­lies are become very rich and powerful at the Expence of his Catholick Majesty. The Clemency of the King, and his admirable sweetness of Temper should not be so ex­tensive as to ruin himself, by suffering so many Blood-suckers, who have appropriated to themselves the most effectual and solid part of his Demesne and Revenues, to com­pleat his Destruction by throwing him into that Weakness in which we see him at present. 'Tis the only way to make him formidable, and to make Examples for those who have now the Management of Affairs. If the Council of his Catholick Majesty does not take this course, which is the only one to put him into a condition to bring down France with the help of his Allies, it is to be feared that he will fall under those Calamities the present War threatens him with, I mean, the loss of one part of his Country. I compare Spain, in the Estate to which it is now reduced, to a Man that is dangerously sick, and who refuses to take the only Medicine in the World that can cure him, because it is a little bitter to his Palate. This being the [Page 103] case, if the Catholick King will not labour to procure his own Preservation, and to get out of this fatal Weakness into which he is fallen, there is nothing to do more, but to pray to God, that he would charita­bly continue the good Intentions of his Allies towards him, and to preserve the Person of his Electoral Highness the Duke of Bavaria for the good of the Low-Countries.

As for the Emperor, he hath two for­midable Enemies on his hands equally to be dreaded, equally powerful and dangerous, in League together, eager to swallow up the Empire if it be possible, proceeding by the same methods of Cruelty: We have seen them both pretty near Vienna, with Chains in one hand, and Fire in the other, to burn and destroy where-ever they come, reducing People to Slavery without Pity or Compassion. We saw in the Year 1683, the Turks before Vienna, and the French Masters in the Diocess of Cologne, which was the direct way to Vienna, where these two dear Allies were to meet and embrace, and to make their Bonfires on the Tomb and Ruin of the Empire, and of all Christendom. But Providence diverted that [Page 104] fatal Blow (and that Enterview which was to have been so deplorable to Europe) by raising the Siege of Vienna. The Emperor therefore at this day having two such power­ful Enemies upon him, and seeing it is next to impossible for him to be able to conquer both at once; it is requisite that he should get rid of one of them by a Peace or Truce for some Years at least, without amusing himself with vain Pretensions; and that he lose an Arm, as we say, to save the Head. His Imperial Majesty ought to fix his Choice on him whom he shall judg least formidable, and from whom there may be hopes of his gaining most advantage. According to this Scheme he can cast his Eyes on the Ottoman Port only, (now that she is re­tired beyond the Desarts) and must oblige her to quit both the Upper and Lower Hun­gary, as well as Transilvania: and indeed having of right no other Pretensions upon the Turks than to recover the Charges of the War, all the Difficulty may easily be overcome by an Equivalent, and so many fair Conquests may make a very just Com­pensation; and this is the more feasible, be­cause the Port it self desires it. It's mani­fest, [Page 105] that if the Imperial Council considers narrowly these two Enemies, the Condition they are in, their Strength and their Max­ims; I say, it is evident, that the Imperial Court will never decline an Accommoda­tion with the Turks, that so she may be able effectually to imploy all her Forces a­gainst France, which is more to be feared than the Ottoman Port, who does very religiously observe her Treaties, tho she broke first this last Truce: But France had a far greater share in it than the Turk; if she had not been the first Boutefeu and In­cendiary, that Truce would have been still kept inviolable as all former ones have been. Besides, the Ottoman Port is not to repent of that now, she has repented sufficiently al­ready, and has expiated her fault by the loss of a great Country; 'tis certain she will do so no more: but for the future the Turks will become wise at their own Cost, since they do acknowledge that they have drawn down the Divine Vengeance upon them­selves for having broken that Truce before the time expired, and thereby violated their Faith. But France is not so scrupulous, for she never observes either Peace or Truce, [Page 106] never minds confessing her Sins, since she be­lieves the Pleasure of her Monarch sufficient to efface such Crimes as these: he needs but declare his Will, and any thing becomes just, wherein he rivals the Deity; nor does he scruple the Blasphemy, as we have seen by the Satisfaction he took in the Thesis dedicated to him, and publickly maintained in the Jesuits Colledg, which bore in its Frontispiece this most execrable Blasphemy, To the Divinity of Lewis the Great, Nu­mini Ludovici Magni. But God will take his time and method to revenge the Con­tempt of his Name, for he doth not give his Glory to Idols; and if he be slow and long-suffering, it is but to let them fill up the measure of their Iniquities. But we will resume the Thread of our Reflections.

I said that the Turks are less dangerous to the Empire than the French, whether we consider their Condition, their Strength, or their Maxims: If we look on the Condi­tion to which the Turks are now reduced, we shall find their Treasury drained, their best Troops in the Dust, their Throne tottering, by the continual Factions that are raised on the behalf of their old or their new [Page 107] Sultan; their Armies always beaten when­ever they engage with the Imperial Forces, many Provinces lost without any hopes of recovering them: and what yet more damps the Courage of these Infidels, is, that they are fully perswaded of the Injustice of their Cause, that their ill Luck proceeds from their breach of Faith; and this is it which makes them the less formidable: whereas France is still, to outward appea­rance, in a flourishing condition, finding every day new ways of filling her Coffers by the Ruin of her People over whom she hath absolute Command; not as yet having lost any of her Dominions, but rather stretched her Frontiers towards Germany, the Low-Countries and Savoy, farther into her Enemy's Countries, and by excessive Contributions which she draws from them, repairing what Strength she loses; which makes her more active and diligent in her Enterprizes than the Allies on the side of Germany and the Low-Countries. We may also say, that France is still more entire, and always is laying Designs of aggran­dizing her self upon all occasions. By this it is easy to observe, that the condition of [Page 108] France is quite different, and much more to be feared than that of the Turks, and therefore consequently ought to be reduced to that of her Allies, to force her to restore what she has gotten since the Peate of the Pirenees. If we will make a Parallel be­tween the Power or Force of the Ottoman Empire and that of France, we shall find there is no comparison, but a far greater Disproportion; since the Sultan who has but one single War to maintain, which is that in Hungary, where he must carry the strength of his Arms, can scarce make the Campagnes, and bring into the Field an Army of Men gathered out of new Troops, but little skilled in War, to the number of forty or fifty thousand fighting Men; but whose Courage is so inconsiderable, that they dare not face their Enemies, having been always beaten whenever they fought: whereas France hath not a War to maintain against a single Power, but against several; and yet for all that we see she provides Troops enough to oppose them with every where; and if she gains no Battels, she takes care to lose none, and to keep her Enemies from doing her hurt, or falling on [Page 109] her. 'Tis true, she makes her Victory to consist in gaining Time, but that is on the side of Flanders; because the loss of a Battel would reduce her to the condition of her Ally Mustapha. She hath no such Ap­prehensions on the Rhine, so long as his Imperial Majesty shall have two Wars to maintain, and his best Generals, and his old Troops imployed in Hungary. But on the contrary we see the French play Rex in the Palatinate, and those places, that there they burn and pillage the poor People, who for the most part are reduced to Beg­gary, and forced to leave their Country, their Goods and their Houses, for want of Ability to pay the Contributions exacted from them by the French up almost to the Gates of Francfort. And the Germans are so far from being able to take any Place from them, that they will go near to be taken themselves the next Campagne, if the Emperor do not timely succour them: for not to flatter our selves, most certain­ly they are more formidable than the Turks. The French besides have other Maxims, and as they are more subtile and refined, so they are by that means much more [Page 110] wicked, justifying that saying, Corruptio optimorum est pessima, the Corruption of the best things is much the worse Corruption. Nero said heretofore, Every thing is per­mitted me, seeing that I reign; and Lewis the XIVth says at this day, that he hath no other Rule to steer his Course by, but his own unbounded Will and Pleasure, his pernicious Maxims, to grow great at his Neighbours Cost, and breach of his Faith in Treaties; which justifies the reasoning of a great Man; who maintained, that Lewis the XIVth had a Soul more Self­interested than Great, because he set all Wheels on going, and left nothing unat­tempted, to make himself the Universal Monarch of Europe. There is not a Trea­ty which he hath not violated against his solemn Oath: Treachery is his Fortress, Assassinations and Poisonings are Crimes which that Court have not prohibited, witness Granval, Millevois, the Valet de Chambre who poisoned the Duke of Lor­rain, and the French Cook, who very lately, at the Instigation of the Ambassa­dor of France, poisoned Mr. Harbord at Belgrade, because he had pushed on the [Page 111] Peace between the two Empires more vigorously than France would have had him. One might write a Volume of those who have miserably been cut off, for having acted contrary to the Interests and Greatness of France. There's not a Court, a City, a State, a Council, a Con­gress, or Regiment, wherein the French have not their Spies and Emissaries continually labouring to corrupt their Officers or Do­mesticks, plying even the very Drummers if they think they can be any ways ser­viceable, to inform them what their Co­lonels are designing. In short, we may say that the French Ministry have taken the Jesuits Maxim, that is, not to let any thing pass without their being ac­quainted with it, and drawing Advan­tages from it: and you see commonly there are certain People running up and down in the World, on pretence they have been banished France upon the ac­count of Duelling; and the better to play their part, many of them change their Religion, and stick to that Change as long as they find their account in it. Others put no disguise on the matter, but [Page 112] come and go impudently without any Pass-port, and still push on till they think they have merited some Reward, and then return to the Court of France to give an account of their Negotiation. These Maxims the Turks do not use, nay, they would blush to hear them propoun­ded to them; in general, they hate Trea­chery, and durst not repose any Confidence in those who come and surrender them­selves, unless they will consent to be cir­cumcised. From whence I conclude, that France is much more to be feared than the Ottoman Port, for her Maxims are much more dangerous, and consequently it is more safe for the Empire to make a Peace with those Infidels than these Christians, whereby they may be better enabled to recover what these latter have forcibly ravished from them. And unless they do so, let us not expect more from the next Campagne than what we got the last, which began with Marches, and ended in Counter-marches. I accuse no body of Treachery; but one may sure be permitted to say, and to believe too, that those serve their Masters very ill, who [Page 113] let the Enemy do what they please with a handful of Men. If the Duke of Lor­rain were still living, Lewis the XIVth would have had somewhat to do upon the Rhine, and have been obliged the last Year to have had there an Army three times as big as what he then thought sufficient. But Madam La Brinvilliers Art of poisoning has pretty well secured them against such a necestity, by the violent Death of that great Prince; and they would have served the King of England after the same manner, for both did e­qually embarass the Court of France. But I may advise the Imperial Council thus much; That if the Emperor do not make a Truce at least this Winter with the Ottoman Port, the Imperial [...]sts will find Work enough on their hands the next Campagne upon the Upper Rhine; Reason and Policy obliges them to it, if the Court of France resolves to go on in opposing the Re-union of the two Em­pires: as it highly concerns her in Interest, so the only means she can make use of to amuze the Ottoman Port, is by making a powerful Diversion in Germany, to draw [Page 114] the Imperial Forces to those Parts: the King of France wlll easily be perswaded to go thither in Person, and to be only on the Defensive in Flanders, that so his best Troops may be imployed on the Rhine, because he hath sufficiently known this Campagne what the Germans are capable of doing, and what he may ex­pect on that side, since the Mareschal de Lorge, who is no very great General, yet did there what he would all the last Sum­mer, with only some ten or twelve thou­sand Men: Wherefore the Germans may expect to see a very great Army of French on the Rhine this next Campagne, which will attack their Fortresses, before ever they begin to stir, or come out of their Winter-quarters, only to give the Turk an opportunity of recovering his Losses. We may be assured that this is so, since that the Grand Visier hath sufficiently acquain­ted the French Ambassador, that his Master hath not been satisfied with what the King his Ally had done by drawing his Forces into Flanders, which could be of no ad­vantage to the Ottoman Port: and I can­not foresee how the Emperor can ward off [Page 115] this Blow but by a Truce, in bounding his Conquests by the Bridge of Esseck. I find it a great Misfortune to the Confede­rates, that the Emperialists have done nothing this last Campagne, which fur­nishes the French Emissaries at the Port with Arguments to perswade the Grand Visier to reject all manner of Proposals tending to a Truce: and there is no need of being a great Rhetorician to perswade them, since Men are easily flattered into what they desire; wherefore it is much better letting the Turks have a remote Town, than to suffer the French to take a Province in the Heart of the Empire, for want of bringing thither necessary Succour; she will undoubtedly do it, if the Imperial Council do not prevent it this Winter, which is most commonly the time that the Court of France plays her Game, and sows her Louis d'Or's, that she may reap the better Harvest the fol­lowing Campagne. She often makes makes great advantage of a barren and ungrate­ful Soil, neglects nothing which she judges capable of procuring her the least advan­tage; and therefore it might be wished [Page 116] that the House of Austria would do its utmost during the Reign of the King of England, to abate the Power of her mor­tal Enemy. This Monarch being inclined (as we have seen upon several occasions) to support that House with all his Might; quite contrary to his Predecessors, whom France so firmly engaged to her Interest by the help of his Gold, which had brought all Europe under most imminent danger; but thanks be to God, that pe­rillous time is over, and Divine Provi­dence hath given to the Crown of Eng­land a Successor that cannot be corrup­ted, and who is acquainted with the true Interest of Europe, as we [...]l as his own, not being of the number of lazy Monarchs, but who is present in every place where Necessity of Affairs requires it. The Eng­lish, as well as all the other Princes of Eu­rope, may reckon the Day of his Coro­nation as the beginning of a happy Epocha for Christendom. And upon this Subject I cannot forbear relating here one Stanza of four Verses from the Centu­ries of Nostredamus, written above an Age ago, in Honour of the King, where­in [Page 117] he seems to point as it were with his Finger at his Coronation, and the Happi­ness which his Subjects shall enjoy under him: But hear what he says of him that shall be

There are none ignorant that the King of Great Britain, William the Third, was born some Weeks after the Death of the late Prince William, his Father of glori­ous Memory, for whom all the Court went into deep Mourning; the Chamber where the Princess Royal (his Majesty's Mother) was brought to Bed, was at that time hung with black Cloth, and had no other Light than what some Tapers gave it, which Nostredamus here calls the Shades of Night. Besides we [Page 118] may say, without Flattery, that we see revived in this Monarch the Valour and the Prudence of the ancient Romans, those Heroes of Antiquity, whose Ashes were preserved in their Urns. It belongs then to our Hero to bring back the Golden Age, to re-settle Princes in their Ancient Rights and Demesnes, and private Persons in the quiet and peaceable enjoyment of their Goods and Possessions, to live at ease with them, and to eat their Bread with Chearfulness, every one sitting under the Shadow of his own Fig-Tree; and in a word, to restore Halcyon Days to Europe, after so long a Tempest of Wars, and being not long since upon the very brink of a Precipice, and just ready to fall into a most deplorable Slavery, to be divided between the Sultan of the Turks and that of the French; for both of them understanding one another very well, had prepared their Chains accordingly. Thus when we consider without Pre­possession, the Obligation, which (I do not say that the House of Austria only, but) all the People of Europe, who are lovers of Liberty, have to the happy Re­volution [Page 119] that hath lately happened in England, by the great and generous Re­solution which his Majesty took, when only Prince of Orange, of passing the Seas in a severe Season, and in the depth of Winter, with a very small Force: I cannot look upon that Enterprize, so full of marvellous Accidents, but as the Dawn of our Deliverance; and methinks we have the greatest Interest to follow the good Auspices of this Great Prince; and it is so extraordinary a Happiness for all the Powers of Europe, that they ought to engrave it on Steel, that it may serve as a Memorial to Posterity; and so much the rather, that we do often admire even the Actions of a Barbarian, and of an ancient Heathen, erect Statues to them, compose Odes, and make the Theatres ring in their Praises, whilst we refuse paying our Veneration to the Heroes of our dearest Country. There is to be ob­served so much of Prudence and Conduct in all that this Prince hath done, that we may boldly, without being deceived, consult him in this troublesome time, with as much Confidence as the Romans con­sulted [Page 120] their Sybils in the most impor­tant Affairs. And yet we see at this day some Men take Pleasure in offering up Incense to the God Mammon, preferring that Image of Slavery engraven on the Louis d'Or's, above precious Liberty; they affect indeed to carry the Badg of it on their Foreheads: but we may truly say of those People, that they have the Sla­very of Galley-Slaves in their Hearts; and we may safely put into this Rank all those who labour (whether bare-facedly or secretly, 'tis all one) to promote the Grandeur of Lewis the XIVth. We may, without doing them any wrong, tell them thus much, that they are preparing their own Chains, tho they dream of no such thing, in their Endeavours to set him upon the Throne of Universal Monarchy; for which the French Emissaries have so liberally sown their Pistols, and of which they were no Niggards here in England, during the two last Reigns, because that Court was very powerful: They have not been forgetful neither of some Courts in Germany, where France sent subtile and cunning Ministers, that knew most [Page 121] dexterously how to attack both Princes and Princesses on their blind side, by presenting Louis d'or's to those who lo­ved Money, and young and celebrated Beauties to those who were charmed with that Sex: witness Portsmouth in England, whose Study was only how to incline the Mind of her Spark to the French In­terest, and to get out of him the most secret and important Intelligences, to communicate them to the French Am­bassador, who was then here resident, as we know very well by too sad an Ex­perience, for the Happiness of Europe, particularly by the Sale of Dunkirk, the taking of the Town of Luxemburgh, which was of fatal Consequence to the Low-Countries, and to Germany. Where­fore the Confederate Princes ought to have an Eye continually on the Emissa­ries of that Crown, and of some cer­tain Monks who thrust themselves into all Catholick Houses, and without a Pass-Port run up and down into all their Courts with an Ecclesiastical Assurance. These are the dangerous Pests who corrupt all that hearken to them; who have Fore­heads [Page 122] of Brass, accosting every one with a smiling Countenance, and yet have nothing that is civil in them besides their Conversation: for like Scorpions they still carry a most dangerous Poison in their Tails, intruding into all the Secrets of private Families. 'Tis evident, this is one of the greatest ways France hath to support her self, and to carry on her Intrigues; I say this of being informed of every thing that passes in her Enemies Courts, sparing no Costs for it: it is almost astonishing to think how careless the Allies are in this matter, which might easily be prevented, if they would but take a little pains about it. They should first begin to drive out of their Dominions the Jesuits, Monks and Priests; I mean, those of them that are French; and keep none to say Mass, but those of their own Nation, born in their Coun­tries, with express Orders to the Supe­riours upon a severe Penalty: and as soon as any Stranger should come, immedi­ately to give notice of it, and to acquaint the Magistrate, that he may take such course therein as the Prince should di­rect [Page 123] him. And seeing Interest common­ly reigns very much among Church-men, we need not doubt but those who are already settled in Cities and Towns, will mightily rejoice to see those Birds of Prey (who come to pick their daily Bread out of their Mouths) driven away. Where­fore they would never fail discovering them, when once they had such Orders given them. As to French Officers, and other private Persons that come to settle in their Countries, the matter of Religion only excepted, the Magistrates should like­wise be informed of them upon their first Arrival; and the fame Prohibition should be sent to all the Inn-keepers, not to lodg any Stranger, without the Permission of the Magistrate, or Commissaries appointed to examine them; and especially to suspect those who come over upon pretence of a Duel. Moreover, it is fit that the Sove­raign be privately informed how some People live, that have nothing visibly to live upon; by this means great matters might come to light which now are kept concealed, for want of being nar­rowly look'd into. I add besides, that [Page 124] upon one discovery of any such Roguery as could be made, to prevent their further itch or desire of returning thither again, they ought to be severely punished: and a strict Watch should be had over those who hold the least Correspondence with France, unless it be about Family-Matters, or Commerce so long as it is permitted. As for those that send Contraband Goods thither, there ought to be neither Con­sideration nor Pardon for such. But there are some still more dangerous than any of these yet mentioned, and they are such who disguise themselves under a specious Character borrow'd from some Prince or Common-wealth, and who under-hand are very serviceable to the common Ene­my: It behoves the Allies to look nar­rowly after such; and the sooner they do it, the better.

There are many that despair of our ever being able to humble France, because Affairs have not succeeded so well as they could have wished since this War began; their natural Impatience throws them into the Abyss of Despair: commonly the things [Page 125] they are ignorant of, do not permit them to make a solid Judgment of the future; there is a Time and Fate ordained for all things, the Event whereof we ought to wait for from the Hand of Divine Pro­vidence, and yet in the mean while to act by Means which God hath put into our own Hands; and methinks it should be a piece of Impiety to believe, that the Divine Providence should have raised up K. William so miraculously on the English Throne, and made him the peaceable Possessor of three Kingdoms (the only Prince that France has need to fear) by the Abdica­tion of the late King James, who was entirely devoted to France, as being the most powerful and affectionate Friend that the most Christian King had in Christendom, to support his Designs. More­over, when I consider the Union of so many Princes as are in the Confederacy to make a vigorous War against France, and join to it the voluntary Contributions of the People; that all this, I say, put together should terminate only in increa­sing Lewis the XIVth his Honour and Grandeur, I can scarce believe it: and [Page 126] there is but little likelihood that this Provi­dence should be at the Expence of so many Miracles for so poor and mean a Subject. If we shall throughly consider the Reign and Life of that Monarch, who (as I said long ago, and will now repeat it) hath more of Ambition than true Great­ness of Mind, since he never extended his Dominion, but at the Expence of his Neighbours, and of that Faith which ought always to be sacred among Kings. To witness this, I call the People of the Low-Countries, and the deplorable Ruins of the Towns of the Palatinate, as well as all the Treaties that that Prince has made during his Reign; there is not one of them but what he hath broken, and violated as soon as ever he was in a con­dition, and found a favourable opportu­nity to incroach on the Territories of his Neighbours. Add still hereto the Infracti­on of the Privileges and Edicts which he had so solemnly sworn and promised to his Subjects, whose Goods and Chil­dren he has cruelly ravished from them. What should procure such Happiness to the King of France? Can it be the Ho­liness [Page 127] of Lewis the XIVth's Life? No, that cannot be, witness the Ashes of the Mar­quess de Montespan, and those of Madam de Fontange, as well as the Carcass of wretched Granval, who are the faithful Vouchers for what we have now said, and what our Eyes have seen. Can it be the Persecution of the Hugonots? This has no probability in it; for by the violent Maxims which the King of France has made use of, he has dishonoured the Catholick Church, and made it to stink in the Nostrils of all People, because the true Church never persecutes any one. Pope Innocent the XIth, of pious Memo­ry, shed Tears of Blood at it, and was pierced at the very Heart, because he wisely foresaw that the King made more Hypocrites than Catholicks, as the Event shews; the Holy Father having been a good Prophet in this matter. But then, can it be the bare Title of Most Christi­an, which the King of France bears, that shall procure him this Blessing of Heaven? There is less probability in this than in all the other. The Alliances made with the Turks and Barbarians to hinder the [Page 128] Progress of the Christian Arms, inspire us to believe, that such a one falsly bears the Title of Most Christian, when he hath nothing but the Shadow of it in­stead of the true Character. Prosperity is not always a Sign or Pledg of Ver­due. witness Mahometanism and Paganism. The ancient Romans made themselves Masters of the greatest part of the World, and they were only Heathens; and there­fore on what side soever we turn our Eyes, we see nothing in Lewis the XIVth hither­to, that could incline the Divine Provi­dence to assemble so many Princes, to en­ter them into an unanimous League to­gether, only to place their Enemy on the Throne of the Universe, as he has flattered himself for some time, but now begins to be undeceived, since the Advance­ment of the King of Great Britain, William the Third. Therefore we have nothing now to do but vigorously to pursue the way already made plain, to ob­tain the Prize, and to humble France. And methinks I cannot end this Discourse better than with the Exhortation which De­mosthenes heretofore made to the Athe­mans [Page 129] (when they were engaged in a War with Philip of Macedon) Not to suffer any Presents to corrupt them, but to push on the War with more Courage, Vigor and Resolution than they had done formerly: and there is no doubt but God Almighty will bless the just Arms of the Confederates against the treacherous Designs of the grand Usurper of Eu­rope.