Ghislain, joined to the answer given to lord Feversham, made it seem necessary to us, lest Flanders should be lost before the meeting of our parliament, which, besides many inconveniences as to the reputation of our conduct and prudence, would probably have raised a storm too violent for us to allay." This appeal also failed. Montagu was informed that Louis would never give up Valenciennes, Condé, or Tournay. But Louvois added, that "if Charles would procure a general truce for a year, and in that time manage the prince of Orange, so as not to insist upon those places, he should be paid as much as if those places were your own; and though such a sum of money as this would be hard to return, it should be put into wedges of gold, and so put into bales of silk, and sent over in a yacht. And as for my lord treasurer (whom they looked upon as a chief adviser in this affair), if I would do them the kindness here as to sound him, there is nothing they would not give him, to make his fortune. It should be given him in diamonds and pearls, that nobody could ever know it, and I myself should not be forgot if I would propose to him. I undertook to answer, that my lord treasurer is not to be gained for any interest, but what he thought to be his master's; and as for my proposing any such thing to your majesty, I durst not do it." +

Montagu, who had certainly at this time received money or liberal promises from the French court, was urgent with the king and treasurer in discouraging a breach with France. In one of these he hints a belief that the king only insisted upon Tournay, out of kindness to his nephew, the prince of Orange; and throws out a suggestion for marrying Charles's niece, the daughter of the duchess of Orleans, to the dauphin of France, although he was at that time engaged to a

* Lord John Russell, 297.

Montagu to the king, Dec. 29. 1677, p. 38.

Montagu to the king, Jan. 1.. 10., pp. 43-48.; and to Danby, Jan. 8. 0, 11., pp. 46. 50. 53. In that of Jan. 8., he thanks the treasurer for some personal kindness shewn to his father.

princess of Bavaria. "If you were as kind to your niece as they thought you were, you might easier get her a kingdom than you a town;" thus, "her children, who would be your nephews, would have Tournay and all France besides, and owe it to you.'

In a letter of the same date to lord Danby, Montagu gives, as one reason for the rejection of lord Feversham's terms, the reliance of Louis upon the indisposition of the parliament of England to the war: a strange mystification this, seeing that, in order to avoid war, the French king had recently purchased a prorogation. "Believing this here," he says, " and that the king cannot do what he would with the parliament, makes them play such tricks here with the king our master."

Another letter partly explains the mystery, and gives a further insight into the schemes of Louis for neutralising the English parliament. In this letter he announces the well-known journey of the younger Ruvigni into England:-" If his father's age would have permitted it, I believe they would have sent him, for they have chosen the son, who is to make use of lights his father will give him, and by the near relation he has to the lady Vaughan, who is his cousin-german, and the particular friendship which father and son have with Mr. William Russell, he is to be introduced into a great commerce with the malcontented members of Parliament, and insinuate what they shall think fit to cross your measures at court, if they shall prove disagreeable to them here, whilst M. Barillon goes on in his smooth civil way."§

I would call particular attention to Danby's reception of these communications. Sir William Temple was with him when that letter arrived in which the offers of personal enrichment were held out. My lord treasurer," he tells us, " read the letter to me; and I said,

* Jan. 10. 1678, p. 48, 9.

+ Jan. 11. 1677-8.

Rachel Wriothesley, married first to lord Vaughan, and afterwards to lord Russell. Her mother was a Ruvigni.

§ P. 53, 4.

Well, my lord, what do you say to the offer? He answered, that it was the same thing as if it should be made to the king to have Windsor put into the French hands, and so he should treat it; and we had nothing to do but to go on with the treaty with the confederates.* And he wrote in this spirit to Montagu, so far as he was himself concerned, though he was not permitted to disclaim at all events, on the part of his master, the receipt of money:

"I have nothing to add as to the public, to what I writ you in my last of the 9th instant; but I am on my own account to acknowledge the justice you have done me to the ministers in that court, who judge others by themselves; and though I know I lose a great deal in reputation with them, to be thought one that will not make my own fortune upon any terms, yet I have the comfort of believing my credit so bad with them, that it can hardly be made worse; and I wish theirs was as little with others here, as it is with me. Upon that part of your letter to the king which speaks of money, he told me, he should be glad of their money, provided the confederates might have such a peace as would satisfy them; and if things shall at any time come to that pass, you need not fear but your advice of secrecy will be taken : and the management also will as certainly fall to your share, both for the reasons given by yourself to the king, and that I shall very unwillingly enter into a matter, which, first, I believe they will not perform; but if they should, may perhaps do the king more hurt than good." + "Your intelligence concerning M. Ruvigni," he says in his next letter, "has not been the least of your favours; and, hitherto, his son's steps have been very suitable to your informations; for yesterday he came to me with M. Barillon, and discoursed much of the confidence the king hath of the firmness of ours to him,―of the good opinion his master hath of me,-of his king's resolution to consent to any

* Temple's Memoirs, ii. 443.

+ Jan. 14. 1677-8, p. 54.

means.

thing that is not infamous to him for the satisfaction of our king, - how certainly our king may depend upon all assistance and supplies from his master, in case the friendship be preserved, and, in short, went so far as seem desirous to have me understand, although he would not directly say it, that his master might be brought to part with Valenciennes and Condé, but not with Tournay; and the main of their drift was, to engage me to prevail with the king, to prevail with the prince of Orange as to that town; and pressed the matter upon me as a thing wherein they thought I had an interest of my own with the prince of Orange, sufficient to persuade him to put an end to the war by that I answered (as is most true) that there is nothing I am so desirous of as the peace; but I thought things were gone so far, that it was only in his majesty's power [the king of France] to prevent the war, and that I would contribute to any possible expedient to that end, but that they must apply themselves to the king himself; and when it came to my part, I should be found to contradict nothing which might be agreed for preservation of the friendship betwixt the two kings." He then mentions their going to the king, who desired to have their proposals in writing. . . "As to the main points of peace and war, it will certainly depend upon the king of France his consenting to first propositions, our king being engaged to oppose any party that shall refuse them. Nor will the time for that consideration be much longer, since it will be impossible but the king must come to some declaration of his mind*, to the parliament when it meets." Now appears the effect of the princess Mary's marriage. "That which makes the hope of peace less probable is, that the duke grows

Lingard says (xiii. 29.), that "No arts of the prince could draw from his uncle an engagement to join his forces with those of the confederates in case of a refusal of the terms agreed upon and sent to Paris by Feversham;" and he refers to Danby's letter of Dec. 4. (p. 162.), which he considers as outweighing the contrary testimony of Temple.

But, in that letter, Danby says to the prince," The fault will now lie on your side the water, if you have not either the peace upon the terms proposed, or us engaged as deep in the war as yourselves."

every day less inclined to it, and has created a greater indifferency in the king than I could have imagined; which, being added to the French king's resolutions not to part with Tournay, does I confess make me despair of any accommodation. Nevertheless, I am assured, that one principal cause of this adjournment* for thirteen days, has been to see if any expedient for the peace could have been found in that time; and the effect of the adjournment has hitherto been, that nobody will now believe other than that the peace is already concluded between us and France. †

The strange position of a minister in those days appears in the fact, that not only he was not the author of so important a measure as the adjournment of parliament, but he only inferred, or collected from doubtful information, the motives of that procedure. If this were consistent with the then acknowledged practice of the government, the allegation, that his measures were dictated by the king his master, was not so invalid or unconstitutional a defence as we have habitually esteemed it.

Montagu, about the same time, gave further accounts of the objects of Ruvigni's mission:- "His chief errand is to let the king know, that the king of France did hope he was so firm to him, as not to be led away by the grand treasurer. He was an ambitious man, and, to keep himself with the people, would gratify their inclinations, by leading his master into an unreasonable war against France. That as for money, if he (king Charles) wanted that, he should have what he wanted from hence; his instructions are, if this does not take by the means of William Russell and other discontented people, to give a great deal of money, and cross all your measures at court." Montagu advises, that Ruvigni should be requested to retire, because the king knows he has a relation and commerce with people ill affected to the government." Ruvigni gave it to them as a

66

* From Jan. 15. to 28. Parl. Hist. 896.

Jan. 17. 1677-8, p. 56.